Sweetening Cider
 

I asked this on rec.crafts.brewing but nobody wanted to give it a shot.
After thinking on it, maybe this forum is a better home for this:

Last Oct. when cider was prolific, I bought 4 gal of pasturized cider,
pitched cider yeast, added pectic enzyme and let it ferment - OG about.

About 3 weeks ago I racked into 2ndary and the gravity was 1.000 - it
tasted good but very dry. Now, I want to get it out of 2ndary and
sweeten it. I've been reading that about 1.015 is considered medium
sweet. I'll also make it sparkling by kegging and counter pressure
filling to bottles so I have no need for further fermentation.

My Idea:


Buy frozen apple juice that has preservatives in it. Add a quantity of
this to my fermented cider until my SG is 1.015. Keg, pressurize to 2.5

volumes, after a time, counterpressure fill my bottles with sparkling
medium sweet cider.


My Question:


Will the preservatives in the apple juice I add be sufficient to
prevent my cider from further fermentation?


Any comments appreciated.

Sweetening Cider
 

JoeyB wrote:
> ...
> My Question:
>
> Will the preservatives in the apple juice I add be sufficient to
> prevent my cider from further fermentation?

I don't think anyone can say whether or not fermentation will restart.
There are simply too many variables. I'd be very surprised if the
concentration of preservatives in the concentrated juice would be
sufficient to stop a renewed fermentation, once it's thinned out in the
cider.

Your best bet would be to rack your cider and add one crushed campden
tablet for every gallon of cider. Also add sorbate; I rarely use the
prescribed amount because I think it adds a strange taste to the
beverage, but a small addition would be a good idea. Finally, top up
with concentrated juice with or without preservatives.

Give it at least 6 weeks before bottling.

Greg G.

Sweetening Cider
 

Agree with greg but I would say it is likely that fermentation will restart.
Use Sorbate and K-Meta to prevent it.

Ray

"JoeyB" > wrote in message
oups.com...
>I asked this on rec.crafts.brewing but nobody wanted to give it a shot.
> After thinking on it, maybe this forum is a better home for this:
>
> Last Oct. when cider was prolific, I bought 4 gal of pasturized cider,
> pitched cider yeast, added pectic enzyme and let it ferment - OG about.
>
> About 3 weeks ago I racked into 2ndary and the gravity was 1.000 - it
> tasted good but very dry. Now, I want to get it out of 2ndary and
> sweeten it. I've been reading that about 1.015 is considered medium
> sweet. I'll also make it sparkling by kegging and counter pressure
> filling to bottles so I have no need for further fermentation.
>
> My Idea:
>
>
> Buy frozen apple juice that has preservatives in it. Add a quantity of
> this to my fermented cider until my SG is 1.015. Keg, pressurize to 2.5
>
> volumes, after a time, counterpressure fill my bottles with sparkling
> medium sweet cider.
>
>
> My Question:
>
>
> Will the preservatives in the apple juice I add be sufficient to
> prevent my cider from further fermentation?
>
>
> Any comments appreciated.
>

Sweetening Cider
 

JoeyB wrote:
> I asked this on rec.crafts.brewing but nobody wanted to give it a shot.
> After thinking on it, maybe this forum is a better home for this:
>
> Last Oct. when cider was prolific, I bought 4 gal of pasturized cider,
> pitched cider yeast, added pectic enzyme and let it ferment - OG about.
>
> About 3 weeks ago I racked into 2ndary and the gravity was 1.000 - it
> tasted good but very dry. Now, I want to get it out of 2ndary and
> sweeten it. I've been reading that about 1.015 is considered medium
> sweet. I'll also make it sparkling by kegging and counter pressure
> filling to bottles so I have no need for further fermentation.
>
> My Idea:
>
>
> Buy frozen apple juice that has preservatives in it. Add a quantity of
> this to my fermented cider until my SG is 1.015. Keg, pressurize to 2.5
>
> volumes, after a time, counterpressure fill my bottles with sparkling
> medium sweet cider.
>
>
> My Question:
>
>
> Will the preservatives in the apple juice I add be sufficient to
> prevent my cider from further fermentation?
>
>
> Any comments appreciated.
>
I doubt it. You will firstly have a dilution issue. Secondly pottasium
sorbate, a common yeast inhibitor only inhibits yeast growth, it does
not kill yeast which may be present from pervious fermentation.

I suggest you need to filter it in someway down to about 0.45um. There
are a number of ways for the home winemaker to do this. Pads, and also
cartridge type systems. I would want the final 0.45um filtration to be
straight into a sterilised keg. The best way to sterilise a beer keg is
put some water into it, say 1/4 full, put it on the stove and then boil
for 20 minutes.

When you bottle, make sure that the lines are all clean, as well as the
bottle. I have heard of someone doing what you describe, and I think
that it did work for him, but this was 15 years ago, and my recollection
may not be correct.

James.

Sweetening Cider
 

Thanks all. I knew I had come to the right place. All us 'beer guys'
aren't used to dealing with the likes of secondary fermentations.

Sweetening Cider
 

>
> Will the preservatives in the apple juice I add be sufficient to
> prevent my cider from further fermentation?
>
> Any comments appreciated.

I am a beer brewer who has started some winemaking over the past couple
of years.

I have made a few batches of cider from a beer making perspective and
it was always hit or miss to retain any sweetness. Essentially, I
added sugar or honey to hit a higher OG that would result in some
residual sweetness when the yeast pooped out.

When I started winemaking, the ferment to dry, stabilize and sweeten
methind has worked very well for both sweetening meads and ciders.

I went through a process to determine how much fresh cider to add to
the fermented, stabilized (Pot meta and Sorbate) cider.

I bottled a batch of 5 gallons of fermented cider and had 1 gallon of
fresh cider. I bottled 12 beer bottles and two wine bottles of dry
cider (Dry), then added some fresh cider (48 oz) and stirred to make
sweetness level one (appx 10 percent). Twelve more beer bottles and 2
wine bottles later, I added another slug (28 oz) or fresh cider to make
sweetness level 2 (18 percent).

I ended up with four levels of sweetness (dry, 10%, 18% and 31%) in
bottles and am able to judge how they taste as they age.

My wife prefers the level 2 cider and I prefer the level one, so if I
were to do it again, i would probably settle on about 15% by volume of
fresh cider added to the dry stuff.

Of course, bottling it all dry and then adding fresh cider (or apple
juice) when drinking accomplishes the same thing.

Rob