Sugar: to add or not to add

[mcbethenstein]

Hi all, I'm new here on the forum and a fairly new homebrewer. My question is about how much sugar to add to backsweeten a cider. I'm hoping to achieve a strongbow like sweetness/flavor. The factors so far: started this cider early January. Heated 5 gal of raw farm pressed cider with 2 lbs. of local honey. (to pasteurize) chilled to 70 to pitch yeast (Lavin D47). Left in primary fermenter for 1 month, racked to secondary and has been sitting there 5-6 weeks. I bought some apple flavor, but am uncertain I want to use it since it tastes so fake. The whole batch has fermented to dryness, as my last gravity check yielded a reading of 1.000. Right now the abv is around 7%. I will be bottling and planned on using the 5 oz. Pack of priming sugar to carbonate. I want to sweeten it a bit, but am unsure what to do. I don't have the fridge space to cold crash a whole batch if there are gushers, and I am not sure what lactose will do to the body of the cider if I use that to sweeten. I am also unsure of the amount I would need to put in if i do use lactose. Suggestions? The first taste of my cider was very hot and astringent, it has started to mellow now though. I've seen mention of apple juice concentrate, would that work in place of the priming sugar? And how much would I need? I'm assuming I would still need to add a non-fermentable sugar since the white wine yeast can tolerate a higher abv.

 

[dinnerstick]

priming with juice works great. i make fresh juice in a juicer, let it clear, take a gravity reading, and the calculations are pretty simple to determine how much = a normal amount of priming sugar. but you are right you will still need a non-fermentable sugar if you want it sweet; can't help you there. there is a lot of information on juice priming on this thread
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f32/priming-apple-juice-30797/

 

[Pappers_]

You've come upon the vexing issue for those who want to make cider that is 1) semi-dry, 2) sparkling and 3) bottle conditioned. Its a conundrum to get all three.

You won't be able to backsweeten with sugar or juice or any other fermentable - the yeast will just eat it up.

You can backsweeten with lactose, but it won't be very satisfying. Lactose isn't very sweet, it adds more mouthfeel then sweetness.

You could try to back sweeten with Splenda, which is non-fermentable.

If you backsweeten with something fermentable like sugar or juice, you would need to stop the fermentation after the bottles are carbonated, either by chilling the bottles or pastuerizing them, but while the bottles are still safe from blowing up.

 

[mcbethenstein]

On makinghardcider.com they suggest xylitol to sweeten. It's a naturally occurring sugar alcohol. Anyone have experience with this?

 

[mcbethenstein]

On makinghardcider.com they suggest xylitol to sweeten. It's a naturally occurring sugar alcohol. Anyone have experience with this?

 

[Pappers_]

On makinghardcider.com . . .

I've never seen that site before - it is outstanding for the beginning cider maker! Its very attractive, easy to use, and seems to strike a good balance of information and ease for beginners.

From the site:

About the author:
My name is Jessica Shabatura and I am hobby brewer of wine, port and cider. I have a degree in horticulture and a great love of chemistry, thanks to my father who is a Food Scientist. I created this site as a project for a grad school class I am taking in Educational Technology Media. I do hope you enjoyed it. Thanks so much and happy cidering! If you found this site useful, would like to be linked as a resource here, or have kind suggestions, you may email me at [email protected]

 

[mcbethenstein]

I did a lot of searching, and that site really is the best that I've found. My process was a little different, (5 gal batch with fresh cider, honey and no other adjuncts) so I wanted some other opinions. At this point I think I'm gonna use the xylitol and use the apple juice concentrate to prime. My cider was a little light on the apple presence, so I hope these two factors will help.

 

[ClaraT]

Thanks Pappers and mcbethenstein for the kudos! This is Jessica author of makinghardcider.com, and I am thrilled you guys are digging the site. We really have had fantastic response (over 5k visits a month now) and I am so honored by your review Pappers on singinboybrewing.com!

I have been using Xylitol (and it's cousin Erythritol-- both sugar alcohols) for years in my brew to add sweetness without restarting fermentation. The science is very simple-find something that yeast can't digest, but that tastes sweet to humans. I like to stay away from the funny chemical stuff (nutra-sweet, splenda) because the natural stuff is fairly inexpensive and, well heck, it is made from corn and other natural veggies which makes me feel better about drinking it! Stevia tastes bitter to me, but there are some new products that had supposedly addressed the bitter issue. Stevia is made from the leaf of the stevia herb, so it does not get more natural than that! Hope to review this soon.

I am always on the look out for simple and predictable carb techniques, and sugar alcohols really help me achieve the taste I am after without the bottle bomb effect. Next batch of brew I am going to try "Ideal" brand xylotol that they now carry at Walmart and Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B003DVMYUW/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20 Also can't wait to try out the 'post pasteurization' technique on Papper's blog. Sticky is here https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f32/easy-stove-top-pasteurizing-pics-193295/

 

[mcbethenstein]

So I ended up adding 1 cup of xylitol to sweeten and 1 can thawed frozen concentrate to carbonate my 5 gal batch. At one week after bottling it was still pretty hot, at 2 1/2 weeks after bottling (3 1/2 months after brewing) it is tasting really good. It still will benefit from time to mellow more and let the apple come through, but I'm really happy with the results. Thanks for all the help everyone!