How to sweeten and carbonate my cider

Carbonate any way you like.

I sweeten in the glass. We always have apple juice in the fridge and so it is easy for everyone to have cider exactly the way they like it. Some like it dry, others mix varying amounts of apple juice into it in the glass.

cheers,

-Alan

Fruit wines must be brilliantly clear and completely stable before bottling. Wine bottled without sufficient

SO2 will be short lived, so the free sulfur dioxide content should be raised to 30 or 40 milligrams per liter a

few days before bottling time. One crushed Campden tablet for each gallon of wine is the correct amount.

If sugar is added to sweeten the wine, potassium sorbate should also be added. The added sugar will start

to ferment without the sorbate, and fermentation after bottling will generally produce a cloudy sediment and

spoil the wine. Directions supplied with the sorbate should always be followed, and sorbate additions

should always be measured carefully.

This may be the ans your looking for.

I took a taste the other day, it is dry and has a good apple aroma, with some tannin in the mouth.

It seems to be what I want, but it fermented dry.

What are my options to sweeten and carbonate the cider in bottles.

I was thinking some with no sweetening and high carbonation (like champagne) And some that were sweet and slight carbonation like English cider.

Can I use something like Splenda to sweeten, and corn sugar or LME for carbonation?

Any suggestions.

This fall I pressed my own apples. I ended up with 10 gallons of cider aging in some stainless tanks.

I took a taste the other day, it is dry and has a good apple aroma, with some tannin in the mouth.

It seems to be what I want, but it fermented dry.

What are my options to sweeten and carbonate the cider in bottles.

I was thinking some with no sweetening and high carbonation (like champagne) And some that were sweet and slight carbonation like English cider.

Can I use something like Splenda to sweeten, and corn sugar or LME for carbonation?

Any suggestions.

After mine has fermented out and clarified (I use raw cider and a varying amount of honey), I re rack and pitch 1 campden tab per gallon. I keg it age mine until the following autumn (typically crack it open the same day I prepare the next years batch). I sweeten mine with the same cider that I used in the primary ferment - freezing 1/2 gallon is more than enough for a

5 gal batch. Sometimes I also add some ascorbic acid for tartness if I feel it needs it.

I use a mead yeast so it ferments out to around 10% before I reblend the following autumn.

stk

I was looking for a cider in the 5-6% range. I didn't add sugar or water.

I did 5 gallons with ale yeast and 5 gallons with champagne yeast. I plan on blending these.

Any suggestions on a non-fermenting sweetner?

I am not looking for extreem sweet. Just to balance out the dryness.

Do either of these ferment?

I would have to add a n>I'm thinking that malto-dextrin or lactose may work.

I think it was already mentioned, but Splenda is the best I've found thus far. Warren Place

I find that all the artificial sweeteners leave a nasty taste. I prefer Xylitol. As far as I can tell, it tastes exactly like normal sugar. It seems to be becoming cheaper, and more readily avaiable to the end-user. I found at least one place selling it on-line for US$7.50/lb. (Here in Australia it costs about AU$40/kg or US$13.50/lb)

I believe it is not digestible by Saccharomyces cerevisiae (brewing yeast) without genetic modification*, so you should be safe to use it, but it might be well to test this in a safe environment, e.g. a keg with a pressure-relief valve, or PET bottles.

Rodd

*A google search for "xylitol saccharomyces" turns up a bunch of scientific articles which back this up, in particular talking about genetically modifying S. cervisiae to digest the xylose and xylitol found in corn husks for more efficient industrial ethanol production.

I made a cider this year and when I bottled (capped in beer bottles) it I used splenda to sweeten it. It has been in the bottles for about a month. I opened on 2 weeks after I bottled it. tasted green and fowl. I opened a bottle 3 weeks later, much better flavor getting sweeter. I open another a week later with very much improvement. Im not going to open anymore for a few more months. Ill keep everyone updated on the splenda.

How much splenda did you use?

"tasted green and fowl"...don't put chickens in it next time...:)

-------->Denny

Has Splenda made it to AU? If it has, try it. While I agree many sugar substitutes are nasty, this one does taste like sugar (though it doesn't contribute the same viscocity). Warren Place

I read the other post that said you used 1 cup Splenda for 2 gal cider. Wow, that is really sweet. If anybody reads this thread and just wants to soften a dry cider, try 1 cup Splenda per 5 gal cider. If you're like me, you're cider will last a year or so before you drink it all. If you haven't had a lot of it in the past, you may find that you like cider much drier by the end of that year. I used some of a previous year's batch to sweeten a small batch of cider for this year. Warren Place

It's certainly here, and I can tolerate it in certain foods. Jams (jellies) with it are not too bad, and anything with a little salt seems to do fine (e.g. oatmeal), but cakes, sweets, chocolate etc. all end up with a nasty bitter/chemical aftertaste -- at least to my taste buds.

Rodd