Hey y'all. I made a pretty strong cider. I used 3 gallons of Ryan's pasteurized honeycrisp cider. 5grams of safcider ab-1 rehydrated and approximately 3lbs of dextros. Original hydrometer reading was suggesting a 11.2% abv. Sp. Gravity 1.08 After 2 weeks of fermenting at 67 degrees Fahrenheit I was at 1 bubble in the airlock every 62 seconds. Before transferring into secondary fermenter my next hydrometer reading was 1.000 all the sugar was eaten up. So I want to balance the cider out and sweeten a bit and lower the alcohol percentage. What is a good way. Should I use more juice to backsweeten or what?. 11.2% is too damn strong.
Strong cider need to lighten up.
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James Benoit
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Personally, I like a strong cider, and 11.2% is an average strength for a wine (so maybe you should call it apfelwein).
You could add juice to backsweeten, but the residual yeast (and there always is some) will ferment whatever sugar you add, and you'll be back to 1.000 (or even lower).
You could dilute it with juice when you serve it (so no time for the yeast to ferment the sugar), or use artificial sweeteners (which I find palatable, but my wife does not).
You could add juice to backsweeten, but the residual yeast (and there always is some) will ferment whatever sugar you add, and you'll be back to 1.000 (or even lower).
You could dilute it with juice when you serve it (so no time for the yeast to ferment the sugar), or use artificial sweeteners (which I find palatable, but my wife does not).
If you back-sweeten you need to kill the yeast first. Been awhile since I have back-sweetened something so don’t recall the dosage so do a quick search.
but sweeten with juice at serving time gives you the most options and variety
but sweeten with juice at serving time gives you the most options and variety
I looked into adding juice to lower the alcohol content sweeten and increase my yield then bottling and pateurizing...I wouldn'tmind a little sparkle. Heard it can be dangerous though. 180 degrees Fahrenheit water submerged above the fill line for about 10 minutes. Any thoughts on this?
Hans O. Lowe
Well-Known Member
I'm looking into pasteurizing cider to back sweeten as well. I bought a sous vide stick to do the job, but the cider isn't ready yet. I'm seeing temps as low as 140 for 20 minutes to kill the yeasties. 11% is probably high enough to discourage other microbial growth after that, isn't it?
If you want sparkle you could do the 20oz pop bottle trick to get your carb right, then pasteurize. Probably safer to use pressure-rated bottles for that.
If you want sparkle you could do the 20oz pop bottle trick to get your carb right, then pasteurize. Probably safer to use pressure-rated bottles for that.
Hans O. Lowe
Well-Known Member
I don't know about those. They're fine under normal circumstances, but heating to 140 is another animal IMHO.
Here's another thought. If you live in an area where it gets below freezing, then freeze it, collect the drippings and voila you have made applejack. I just did that yesterday with a 3 gallon batch of cider that I fermented out to 16% (added fajc to the fresh cider to up the OG). Collected 1 gallon yesterday, so it could possibly be as high as 48% (16x3) although it doesn't taste like it.
