news-server.socal.rr.com wrote:
> My recipe for hard cider is this:
> 5 -6 gallons of apple cider
> 5 pounds of brown sugar
> a little bit of honey
> champagne yeast.
>
> It fermeted for about 2 weeks, and has been clearing nicely for about
> another 2 weeks, but it's still sour. I'd like to sweeten it up. I was
> thinking of adding apple juice (maybe a gallon) - but I don't want the yeast
> to eat the sugars in it - so I was thinking of getting some w/ preservatives
> in it. Will this cause the yeast not to eat it? I also want to make it
> sparkling. I was going to add priming sugar before bottling. Will the
> yeast eat the priming sugar w/ preserved apple juice in there?
>
> -Lars
>
>

With the champagne yeast and all that honey and sugar, you are going to
have a difficult time producing a sparkling cider. To be able to get a
sparkling cider with any sweetness there needs to be enough
unfermentable sugars in there so that when the yeast eats all the
fermentable ones, there is still some sweetness left. Then when the
yeast eats the priming sugar, carbonation is formed.


The problem with champagne yeast is that it will eat sugars other yeasts
can't. Thus, the dryness. If there are enough preservatives in the
additional apple juice to keep the yeast from eating the sugars in the
juice, it will also stop the yeast from eating the priming sugar. The
preservatives will be diluted too much to prevent the yeast from
fermenting the additional juice. It may slow it down a little, but not
in a predictable enough manner to be able to safely bottle it.

You best bet would be to go with a still cider. Kill the yeast with
some sodium or potassium met, then sweeten to taste. If you still want
to have it carbonated, then force carbonate it in a keg and use a
counterpressure bottle filler to bottle it.

If you don't want to kill the yeast with chemicals, you are left with
the choice of feeding it more sugar until the alcohol level (in excess
of 15%) kills the yeast and then add sugar to the sweetness level you want.

Next time, for a sparkling cider, use an ale yeast like Wyeast 1007 or
Nottingham. Either one will stop with a reasonable level of sweetness
left and will allow you to prime for carbonation. You will need to
allow a couple extra weeks for these yeasts to settle out.

Wayne
Bugeater Brewing Company