Back sweetening Cider with Apple Juice, how much in keg?

[Aus_Rider_22]

Hi everyone.

I have done a couple batches of cider for the GF and while they have been well received, I am going to try a slightly different method.

My first batch was done as normal and after fermenting completely out it was far too dry for my tastes. The girl liked it (she prefers drier ciders) but it was not enjoyable for me and I don't want a keg taken up for a cider that takes a couple months to empty.

My second attempt was better, I crash chilled the cider when it reached 1.018. It was tastier but still not as much as I had wanted. I was expecting a few rough edges from halting the yeast before it finished and cleaned up after itself but to my surprise it was very drinkable.

Now I am going to try letting it ferment out completely, then add an amount of unfermented apple juice to the keg at kegging time.

My question is, was % or amounts have people tried and been happy with? I was thinking 17L of cider and 2L of apple juice. Would this be around the mark?

Thanks for your time and help!

 

[earle]

These amounts are exactly what I do. Ferment completely out 18L of juice, leave 1l behind with the trub to transfer 17l to the keg and sweeten with 2l of a good quality juice like Nudi. I add the juice to the keg first to minimise any splashing/oxidation of the fermented cider that might be caused by adding the juice second.

You can also backsweeten with good quality cordial if you want to get something like the Recorkolic's (not really cider or my preference though) by adding say 750ml bottle of lime and 750ml bottle of raspberry cordial. Reduce the amounts to get something flavoured but not sickly sweet.

 

[Aus_Rider_22]

These amounts are exactly what I do. Ferment completely out 18L of juice, leave 1l behind with the trub to transfer 17l to the keg and sweeten with 2l of a good quality juice like Nudi. I add the juice to the keg first to minimise any splashing/oxidation of the fermented cider that might be caused by adding the juice second.

You can also backsweeten with good quality cordial if you want to get something like the Recorkolic's (not really cider or my preference though) by adding say 750ml bottle of lime and 750ml bottle of raspberry cordial. Reduce the amounts to get something flavoured but not sickly sweet.

Thanks for the advice @earle

I shall go ahead with that then! For this batch I will stick with apple juice. I have found the Mangrove Jacks cider pouches are very Recorderlig-ish and use them if a mixed or sepcific fruit cider is requested. Cheers mate!

 

[Danscraftbeer]

Or the 750ml Bickford's Apple Cordial as the back sweetener.
I don't make much Cider but I now want the brew to finish without modifying afterwards with back sweetening. So I boil say 500ml of the Apple juice with added Maltodextrine that is unfermentable sugar. So instead of your Cider final gravity being ~ 1.000. It finishes around 1.010. My last one finished at 1.014. Its my best yet.

 

[GalBrew]

I fill a 19l keg up to 17l with my dry cider and then dump in 2L of Granny Smith preshafruit juice. I also calculate the ABV of the cider to equal 5% once the 2l of juice has been added.

 

[Danscraftbeer]

I should have added I pressure ferment and the brew finishes naturally carbonated. That's why I like the unfermentable sugars left at the end of ferment because you cant add any sugars afterwards to carbonated Cider or you have eruption and a lot of mess.

 

[Dave70]

Or the 750ml Bickford's Apple Cordial as the back sweetener.
I don't make much Cider but I now want the brew to finish without modifying afterwards with back sweetening. So I boil say 500ml of the Apple juice with added Maltodextrine that is unfermentable sugar. So instead of your Cider final gravity being ~ 1.000. It finishes around 1.010. My last one finished at 1.014. Its my best yet.

I really dont make much cider, but Bickfords cloudy in a keg of dry old ALDI cider makes for some very cheap, very presentable refreshment.

 

[LiquidGold]

I should have added I pressure ferment and the brew finishes naturally carbonated. That's why I like the unfermentable sugars left at the end of ferment because you cant add any sugars afterwards to carbonated Cider or you have eruption and a lot of mess.

I made the mistake of trying to backsweeten a keg of overcarbonated (kept fermenting in keg) ginger beer with some sugar syrup and ended up losing at least 5 litres in a volcanic eruption. A sad day indeed although at the time I wasn't sure if it was the carbonation difference or temperature, so its good to reaffirm that carbonation was the issue.

 

[fungrel]

You could always use my method:

Try fermenting apple juice concentrate (Melrose is great) to 13.5% (2L concentrate to 8L Nudie juice with something like EC-1118) then kill off the yeast with sorbate/k-meta.

In this example you would add 12L juice to 6L of the fermented concentrate.

Then at packaging add tannic acid and citric/tartaric to taste to a 250ml mixed sample then scale up using and accurate digital scale (that has 2 decimal places to weigh the ingredients) and add to the keg. Add fresh juice at a ratio of 2:1 to get to an ABV of 4.5%.

The longer you let it age, the better it gets. 6 months was the sweet spot for my kegs, but you can drink it straight away. It's just a lot sharper of a flavour when it is young.