# Sweetening Apple Cider With Lactose



## Rod

I make apple cider using the OZ tops method

I would like to sweeten the cider with lactose , which would not ferment

How much lactose would I add per litre 

I know , how long is a piece of string 

but would like to have a starting point 

I wonder what the equivalent amount of lactose to a teaspoon of sugar


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## taztiger

Don't know much about the OZ tops method but when i make a normal 23l batch i use 250g Lactose and 750g sugar to make a medium sweet.
cheers


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## The Giant

When making my cider I use 500g of lactose to 21 litres of Apple Juice.

Chicks dig it  hahah

Its not crazy sweet but more importantly it ensure its not a dry cider.

I would recommend ditching the oz tops to and buy some proper cider yeast. Could make a big difference. You can just sprinkle the yeast in the bottle if you want, done this in the past with pretty good results.


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## Dave70

The Giant said:


> When making my cider I use 500g of lactose to 21 litres of Apple Juice.
> 
> Chicks dig it  hahah
> 
> Its not crazy sweet but more importantly it ensure its not a dry cider.
> 
> I would recommend ditching the oz tops to and buy some proper cider yeast. Could make a big difference. You can just sprinkle the yeast in the bottle if you want, done this in the past with pretty good results.



My wife's a chick and digs sweet cider.

Are we talking something like Strongbow (ish) sweet? Do you use a plain old US-05? Does the lactose make it come out hazy?


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## komodo

I havent found lactose makes it any more hazy - mind you I've never made a crystal clear cider (though I do have one thats adged nearly 18 months that I'm keen to see how clear it is soon) 
I add 250grams to about 30L of cider using S04 and thats plenty sweet for me.


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## Rod

Looks like 250 grams per 23 litres is a good point to start

actually 250 grams is how much I add to stout to get a milk (lactose) stout

I use OZ tops because I can make small amounts

http://www.oztops.com.au/


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## drsmurto

I did a few calculations in a thread on AHB a while ago that i can't seem to find.

It used as part of the calculation a comparison between the relative sweetness of lactose to sucrose. 

About 10 times less sweet from memory. So if you use 1 tsp of sugar in your tea/coffee you'd need 10 tsp to get the same sweetness using lactose.


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## sluggerdog

How did you go with this? Did you work out a good amount of lactose into the oztops bottles that suits your tastes? I have just made one with 15grams per litre. It's just gone into the fridge now.

Thanks


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## sponge

Slightly different, but when making my ginger beer I use ~200g per 20L which gives it a nice sweetness but isnt sickly sweet.

I'd probably try about the same amount for apple cider as they both probably would work out to be about as dry/sweet as each other without the lactose.



Sponge


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