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Back sweetening Cider


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#1 darkmagneto

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Posted 08 January 2015 - 08:11 AM

I have a batch of Cider currently fermenting with Red Star Premier Cuvee yeast. I was planning on letting it ferment all the way dry, then stabilizing it with Potassium Sorbate, then back sweetening and kegging.

 

My question is how much to back sweeten and what to sweeten with? Should I just use some Apple Juice concentrate? So regular juice? Any sweeteners?

 

Any suggestions on what you guys have used in the past is welcome. Haven't really done much Cider making so I'm pretty new at this stuff.

 

Cheers!

Mark



#2 ChefLamont

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Posted 14 January 2015 - 07:56 PM

I have not done it myself, but I have heard of people using lactose to back-sweeten if you are just trying to knock a little edge off.  If you are doing more than that you dont want to use that.  If you do, you dont have to worry about killing off the yeast as much.

 

Other than that, I would use regular juice similar to what you started with.



#3 Darterboy

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Posted 27 January 2015 - 07:34 AM

I like to use apple juice concentrate to back sweeten. Some folks use "wine conditioner", which is a simple syrup made from invert sugar I think. I have used a white-sugar-based simple syrup as well. Depending on how acidic and tannic your finished cider is, It can take a good bit of back-sweetening to make it drinkable IMO. Here's what I do:

 

Take a FG reading. Pour a sample and start adding your sweetener to it, tasting constantly until you get it exactly where you want it. If you overshoot, add more cider. Once you're there, take a gravity reading of the sweetened cider. It's then a simple matter to calculate how much sweetener to add to the whole batch to achieve that gravity.



#4 MyaCullen

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Posted 31 January 2015 - 07:38 PM

I am with Darterboy, Like the apple juice concentrate




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