Naturally carbonated and sweet cider through yeast selection?

[BrewbieVet3]

Have been brewing cider for several years now, and have pretty much come to the conclusion that I can’t make a naturally sweet, naturally carbonated cider without keeving (which I have not tried). In a last-ditch attempt to achieve this, has anyone tried a yeast that doesn’t ferment to dryness? Alternatively, has anyone discovered a way to naturally sweet/carbonated cider without keeving?

 

[gunhaus]

Look up 5 day sweet country cider - I made it once with happy results and my brother makes it about once a month and has for years. Sweet and bubbly. Not real clear. But sweet and bubbly

 

[Maylar]

Not really possible without heat pasteurizing, which is covered in the sticky here.

You want sweetness and carbonation without bottle bombs. There's no yeast that will do that. The safe way (simple, reliable) is to ferment dry, sweeten with non-fermentable sugar like Xylitol, and bottle prime. I did that many times before I started kegging.

 

[bernardsmith]

Look up 5 day sweet country cider - I made it once with happy results and my brother makes it about once a month and has for years. Sweet and bubbly. Not real clear. But sweet and bubbly

"Five day Sweet Cider" is really more like a high gravity kvas. Just apple juice, the addition of about 1/4 lb of brown sugar per gallon and some cinnamon. You ferment the juice for a few days to get a low alcohol cider and drink what you've made before it creates bottle bombs. Presumably this works best if you store this cider at near freezing or you drink the cider as soon as it is ready. The recipe I found suggests that it is drunk while the gravity is around 1.040: Apple juice might have a gravity of about 1.050 and adding another 4 oz of sugar will increase that to about 1.060, so we are talking about a drink of about 2.5 % ABV.

 

[gunhaus]

My brother takes it down to about 1.030, that is the level of sweetness he prefers. Then he bottles and lets it carb to the point he is happy with, then pasteurizes. No bottle bombs. Last i knew he had switched from regular brown sugar to turbinado. I drank one last night that he bottled about two weeks ago. Pretty tasty, sweet, and fizzy. As for ABV, he shoots for 5-6% with his numbers. He tries to sweeten to the 1.070 range give or take a tad, by going to 1.030 or so your in the 5 -5.5 range as a rule

 

[bernardsmith]

Interesting. Looks like you could make a cider for a party with only a week's notice, but it would seem a mite risky to offer this as a gift to anyone unless you were bottling in plastic and they knew they had to swill it back the same day.
What yeast does your brother tend to use?

 

[brew_darrymore]

Not really possible without heat pasteurizing, which is covered in the sticky here.

You want sweetness and carbonation without bottle bombs. There's no yeast that will do that. The safe way (simple, reliable) is to ferment dry, sweeten with non-fermentable sugar like Xylitol, and bottle prime. I did that many times before I started kegging.

This is exactly what I do as well. Once fully fermented, I add xylitol and then keg. You could also add xylitol and priming sugar if you want to naturally carbonate.

 

[gunhaus]

Normally I believe US-04, But I know for a fact last nights batch was EC-1118. He was in a hurry, and wanted to see how quickly this yeast would get him to target gravity. Plus he wanted to see how well the pasteurization killed the fermentation on such a strong yeast. I was there when he checked his test bottle and decided it was time to call it good. He pasteurized the batch and most of them are in crates in his pantry and have been for two weeks or so. He tosses a few at a time in the fridge to stay cold. Pasteurizing seems do the trick on stopping the bubble making and prevents bottle bombs. There are a number of folks on here who have used this technique successfully. I know he has been making this for at least five or six years and has not blown a bottle yet!

 

[MarkKF]

My brother takes it down to about 1.030, that is the level of sweetness he prefers. Then he bottles and lets it carb to the point he is happy with, then pasteurizes. No bottle bombs. Last i knew he had switched from regular brown sugar to turbinado. I drank one last night that he bottled about two weeks ago. Pretty tasty, sweet, and fizzy. As for ABV, he shoots for 5-6% with his numbers. He tries to sweeten to the 1.070 range give or take a tad, by going to 1.030 or so your in the 5 -5.5 range as a rule

Certainly doable but it’s gonna be hazy of have a bunch of lees in the bottle. And you better be home and ready to pasteurize when it hits the spot. Cuz it can go from 1.030 to 1.010 pretty fast!

 

[gunhaus]

correct

 

[gunhaus]

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/forum/threads/5-day-sweet-country-cider.265986/
This post has more info than i can probably provide on the topic.