sweetening with honey

[Maylar]

Anybody use honey to sweeten cider? I've always used FAJC but I have a lot of honey (ahem.. mead maker) and I'm thinking of trying that for a gallon. I have orange blossom and star thistle honey to pick from.

 

[GeneDaniels1963]

you mean post fermentation?

 

[Maylar]

you mean post fermentation?

Yeah. I normally stabilize and sweeten to about 1.007 or so.

 

[Blacksmith1]

Use whichever is less expensive in case you don't like it. Shouldn't take.much for a gallon.

 

[AzOr]

Yes occasionally. When I do, I’ll often add a pinch of malic acid.
Or sometimes I’ll split the sugars w honey and fajc.

 

[MarkKF]

I’ve had a hard time adding honey to anything room temp. It always seems to separate later.

 

[MiBeerMan]

I have 18lbs of star thistle from a local apiary here and it's going into a cyser later next week. Going to add cinnamon and vanilla bean (secondary) to it. I read that star thistle has kinda of cinnamon aftertaste to it. I haven't tried it yet though

 

[madscientist451]

I've used honey for sweetening cider and its ok, but I don't really like the raw honey flavor in my cider. Everyone has different taste, so maybe it will work for you.

 

[Maylar]

I've used honey for sweetening cider and its ok, but I don't really like the raw honey flavor in my cider. Everyone has different taste, so maybe it will work for you.

Maybe it depends on how sweet you go with it. There's a local winery/orchard here that makes a Golden Delicious cider sweetened with honey and they took a gold medal at GLINTCAP with it.

 

[AzOr]

Typically I will backsweeten w honey if I previously added honey to primary (I know, I know it’s called a cyser).
I still refer to it as a cider if the sg is less than .080 or so and I carbonate it.
I will follow my taste buds. Depending on the juice, I’ll sometimes add malic acid if I backsweeten w honey.

 

[ten80]

I just backsweetened a cider and one cyser using honey. For the cyser, I racked with sodium metabisulfite and potassium sorbate twice, then racked onto 1.5 lbs of honey and let the cider sit for three weeks till the honey dissolved. No re-fermentation occurred, so I added SuperKlear, then racked to a keg. The finished cyser is really tasty with light honey notes and a relatively high finish of 1.017, but I have friends with a serious sweet tooth.

I don't bother mixing in the honey, I just let the cider sit on it at about 50F till it dissolves. It works surprisingly well.

 

[Shark Bait]

I just backsweetened a cider and one cyser using honey. For the cyser, I racked with sodium metabisulfite and potassium sorbate twice, then racked onto 1.5 lbs of honey and let the cider sit for three weeks till the honey dissolved. No re-fermentation occurred, so I added SuperKlear, then racked to a keg. The finished cyser is really tasty with light honey notes and a relatively high finish of 1.017, but I have friends with a serious sweet tooth.

I don't bother mixing in the honey, I just let the cider sit on it at about 50F till it dissolves. It works surprisingly well.

That sounds delicious. How big of a batch was it for 1.5lbs of honey?