Little help with determining sweetness

[Kris]

I made my 1st batch of cider and its damn good. Sat in the carboy for 6 weeks and bottled it last night. I drank a few glasses and i do enjoy the taste but i think its a little on the sweet side. Im brand new at this and do not understand some of the terms so if someone caould bring it down to a lvl i could understand much appreciated. What determines the sweetness and dry ness. I dont like it to sweet or to dry.

i used

5 gallons tree top a juice - no pres
Wyeast 3068 Weihenstephan Weizen Yeast
1lb white
1lb brown

i decided to mix the sugar.....well because i felt like it and lov to experiment.

 

[homebrewer_99]

The attenuation of the yeast determines how much residual sugar (sweetness) is left in the brew.

For simplicity I'll use 1.050, or just us 50 as your OG. with an attenuation of 75% your anticipated FG should be 12.5. That's 50 divided by 4 = 12.5.

The lower the number is toward 1.000 (or 0 (zero)) the drier the brew will end up...the higher the sweeter.

The only problem there is you have to do the math so you know your brew is done fermenting and you don't bottle early just because it tastes good...it may not be done fermenting aresulting in bottle grenades in your future.

If your brew is within the attentuation range (64-72%, 68-75%, etc) then you're good.

 

[snow77]

I just bottled a cider with an SG of 1059 and FG at 0994, which is an apparent attenuation of 110.8% and real attenuation of 89.8%. Fermented for 20 days and ended up 8.5% alcohol. What were your gravity readings?

I used Nottingham Ale yeast from a brown ale I made. Its on the drier side (with about 10% of the sugar left) but still has a hint apple flavor. Should taste even better when it carbs, if not I can always back sweeten.

Recipe was:

6 Gallons Apple Juice
1/4 cup white sugar
1.5lb brown sugar