Sweeten and bottle carbonation

[Aggie10]

I must be missing something. Why can't you sweeten a cider that has finished fermentation with Erythritol or Xylitol, AND then add priming sugar and bottle as per bottling beer?

 

[bernardsmith]

You can but don't those chemicals produce detectable off flavors? If you don't mind chemically flavored cider then no problem

 

[JimRausch]

You're not missing anything. You can sweeten with nonfermentable sugar-alcohols and then bottle prime. Some people just prefer not to. I've used 1/2 cup of xylitol per 2.5-3G of fruited wheat ales which need a little sweetness to bring back the fruit flavor. No one (not even judges) have noticed any off-flavor from the xylitol.

 

[Maylar]

back when I was bottle carbonating I used 3 tbsp xylitol per gallon with great results.

 

[Aggie10]

Thanks for the information.

I've read so much conflicting info including statements like you can have a dry carbonated cider, a sweet flat cider, but not both unless you keg. I didn't understand what was magical about cider and yeast vs beer and yeast re bottling.

I've got my beer process nailed down but this is first cider...I had to wade through a lot of repeated gospel and misinformation on my beer brewing journey, perhaps it is similar with cider.

 

[Maylar]

Thanks for the information.

I've read so much conflicting info including statements like you can have a dry carbonated cider, a sweet flat cider, but not both unless you keg. I didn't understand what was magical about cider and yeast vs beer and yeast re bottling.

I've got my beer process nailed down but this is first cider...I had to wade through a lot of repeated gospel and misinformation on my beer brewing journey, perhaps it is similar with cider.

The difference is that beer has non-fermentable sugars that leave some sweetness behind, and cider doesn't. With a typical cider it'll end at FG below 1.000 which is "dry" and tart from the malic acid. You can carbonate with priming sugar but it'll still be dry. Any sugar you add will be fermented out. You can get around that by stabilizing with sulfite/sorbate but then you can't bottle carb.

So.. a keg is the answer. Or Xylitol. Or stove top pasteurizing. Cider ain't beer.

 

[bucketnative]

I've read so much conflicting info including statements like you can have a dry carbonated cider, a sweet flat cider, but not both unless you keg. I didn't understand what was magical about cider and yeast vs beer and yeast re bottling.

I think the opinions that you cite are stated with the assumption that we are only discussing the uses of "natural" sweeteners, such as table sugar, apple juice, honey, or the like. These are all simple sugars that are readily fermented to completion by the yeast.

In the keg, you can add simple sugars to sweeten, and keep it cold to slow the secondary fermentation, thus maintaining some of the added sweetness before it is converted to alcohol and CO2.

In the bottle, that can result in bottle bombs, because the sugars needed for sweetness are converted to alcohol and CO2. Bottling cider sweetened with "natural", simple sugars requires a pasteurization step to inactivate yeast once the desired carbonation level is achieved. See the Sticky post on pasteurization in this forum.

You're right in that there is nothing magical about cider yeast. The differences lie in the must (cider) and wort (beer). The wort contains unfermentable complex sugars that will add sweetness to finished beer, even when carbonated by adding simple sugar to the beer.

You notice the use of "natural" above. People think of xylitol as a "chemical", but it is found naturally in many fruits, in small quantities. The "chemical" label comes from the fact that the stuff you get in the store is produced via industrial chemical processes. This is generally accepted as your best option among the "artificial" sweeteners, and many people use it.

 

[MarkKF]

You can but don't those chemicals produce detectable off flavors? If you don't mind chemically flavored cider then no problem

Xylitol is a naturally occurring non fermentable sugar. I don’t think it has a chemical or off flavor. But it might just taste different to you. Cane sugar tastes different than fructose to me. Your mileage may vary.