[Fatman]

I'm making hard cider with my beer equipment for the first time (we'd like to have it on tap) - in the past we've let unpasteurized gallons sit in the fridge for a few weeks every year, with often excellent results.

I picked up 2 gallons of Trader Joe's cider (pasteurized, but no chemicals), and threw in a packet of US-04. After 2 weeks the gravity went from 1.050 to 1.002. The gravity sample tastes good, but less sweet than we're used to, so I'd like to backsweeten. I was thinking that I could cold crash, stir in some gelatin, store cold for a week or so and then decant/rack into a keg and add sugar to the keg to sweeten.

The cider will probably be gone in under two months (if that) so I'm not worried about long-term aging/storage, and since I'm not bottling, I'm not worried about bottle bombs.

If I cold crash and rack with gelatin, will this process get rid of enough yeast so that the cider will stay sweet for two months?
What type of sugar should I use?

Thanks in advance!

[Wayne B]

Without stabilizing or sub-micron filtering the cider there's no guarantee that it won't start fermenting again. Gelatin, or any other fining, can't be counted on to pull out all the viable yeast cells in there.

But you can stabilize pretty easily with some metabisulfite and potassium sorbate, and then you can backsweeten without any fear of re-triggering a fermentation (as long as you measure the sulfite and sorbate quantities carefully, that is!).

[Fatman]

What kind of sweetener should I use? Honey? Dextrose? Table Sugar? (I can't stand any of the artificial sweeteners)

How high should I go to get sweet cider? 1.015? 1.020?

[beerbaron]

I like to just add about 2 oz of honey to a half full growler and then top off with cider. Some of the honey does not disolve but it does backsweeten a growler nicely and you avoid preservatives.

[Wayne B]

Beerbaron makes a good point. If you aren't after aging it, simple backsweetening just before you drink it will be fine. I also like to backsweeten with honey, but then I'm a meadmaker -- so no surprise there!

Generally, anything at or above 1.020 is definitely considered sweet. 1.015 is kind of the crossover point between semisweet and sweet. But your taste should be the ultimate guide to the level of sweetness that you ultimately want. Experiment a bit with different amounts of honey (or whatever you choose) in several samples of the cider, and figure out what level of sweetness tastes best to you.

This post has been edited by Wayne B: 20 January 2010 - 03:23 PM

[Fatman]

I cold crashed with gelatin, decanted and dumped in 2 cans of apple juice concentrate into 2 gallons, carbed up and viola!
At 38 degrees, in a keg, I'm not real worried about further fermentation - though I don't think it will last very long anyways.

It's what my inexperienced palate would describe as semi-sweet. It won't win any awards, but its better than Woodchuck. Next time, I'll probably try with the wild yeast on the apple skins and keep a better eye on it so I won't have to backsweeten.

I now have cider on tap, in my house!