How Do I Make My Cider Sweeter?

[The Giant]

Howdy All

Did a rough small batch of cider for a bit of a test and was pleseantly suprised.

Bought 2 x 3 litre just juice apple and pear juice
Add yeast nutrient
7g coopers standard kit yeast from a cerveza coopers can of goo
Split these and put even amounts in each 3 litre bottle of juice and let sit in the bar fridge at 15 for 2 weeks.

OG reading was 1040
and FG reading was 1000

Cracked the first one last night and was quite happy. Nice cider, not to over carbed (has only been 2 weeks though).

Was certainly better than ur strongbow and 5 seeds but not up there with the bulmers or magners.

My biggest gripe is if anything its a bit dry, the sweetness fo the juice is certainly all but gone. I would like to make a bigger batch out of juice again, was thinking maybe a apple and rasberry juice this time, or the same apple and pear.

My question is how can I make my cider sweeter without increasing alcohol content? The above recipe worked out to be around 5.5% after bottling. I thought of using a different yeast, but from what i read cider yeasts will give a dry flavour as well?

Thanks

 

[manticle]

Different yeasts will help.

1. Upping the pear juice will help - personal experience supports this

2. Using lactose or another unfermentable sugar will help - personal experience supports this but don't expect sweet - just less dry

3. Bottle pasteurising will supposedly help - I have not tried this so cannot recommend for or against

4. Retarding yeast growth with potassium sorbate and campden (sodium or potassium metabisulphite) in conjunction with multiple racking will supposedly help - again not something I've done.

5. Keeving will supposedly help. Again not something I've done and something you'd generally do with unpasteurised juice so either juice you extracted yourself or juice you bought from an apple farm.

6. Getting used to dry cider will help. Yes I have tried this.

7. Adding sparkling or still apple juice to each glass will help - not tried.

8. Kegging will help - not tried

 

[ginsoakedstranger]

6. Getting used to dry cider will help. Yes I have tried this.

haha....that was my trick, works a charm

 

[Banshee]

Add an artificial sweetner such as nutrasweet. You don't want to add any sugar as it will go through secondary fermentation. It is done with Kriek beers unless it is the real deal like Boon (read the labels). This would be the easiest solution I think.

 

[stef]

I'm sitting here with my first cider that i just cracked open. I added 500g lactose (disolved in 1l of boiling water then cooled) before bottling (in only a 13l batch). Used 500g cos i heard that it wasnt as sweet as sugar (to the taste). Anyway, mines worked out pretty well. Bit of a girl drink, but if you're after a bit of sweetness, i'd say thats the way to go.

 

[manticle]

Why is cider a girl drink?

 

[stef]

Why is cider a girl drink?

No- not cider- just my one. I love cider. Just saying mine is pretty sweet and almost tastes like an alco pop

 

[manticle]

I regularly use 500g in a 20-23 l batch and it just stops short of being bone dry.

Glad you're not trying to unseat the masculinity of cider though.

7 million perfume wearing, truffle eating, siesta loving, ribbon waving, moustachioed french peasants might take you to task.

 

[DU99]

i like cider..best tried True South

 

[InCider]

Different yeasts will help.

4. Retarding yeast growth with potassium sorbate and campden (sodium or potassium metabisulphite) in conjunction with multiple racking will supposedly help - again not something I've done.

I crash chill sometimes when I feel it's about right. If you take a sample you can get exactly what you want.

6. Getting used to dry cider will help. Yes I have tried this.

Oh yeah.. what Manticle said about the yeasts... wine is dry, champagne is VERY DRY. Cider yeast relatively is quite sweet. Make it with champagne yeast if you have friends that come around and drink everything in the house. That'll stop them. I am considering making and Ciderbock with one of my champagne ciders. Small batch of a couple of litres only.

InCider.

 

[The Giant]

Thanks people, I had read elsewhere about the lactose

Sux for the lactose intolerant people, but I think that is only my mother in law hahaha

Might give it a crack with a cider yeast and see how we go

 

[big78sam]

I regularly use 500g in a 20-23 l batch and it just stops short of being bone dry.

Glad you're not trying to unseat the masculinity of cider though.

7 million perfume wearing, truffle eating, siesta loving, ribbon waving, moustachioed french peasants might take you to task.

And millions of Aussies might take you to task if you suggested homebrew was beter than VB

 

[JonnyAnchovy]

... french peasants...

Aren't moroccans the only French peasants now? I wonder if they drink cider....

 

[KudaPucat]

Ensuring that your FG is higher will help.
When making mead, (all I've done) we use a different technique.

We have good control of OG.
Know your yeast, and it's ability to handle alcohol

pick a OG high enough that the yeast will die from alcohol poisoning before it uses all the sugar, ie FG > 0.980 Then let it ferment out.

With apple juice from the store (read: watered down) your OG will be low. If you get fresh juice, you can water it down to the OG you want.
You could alternatively add more sugar - from any source. White sugar would be best to play with (and cheapest) although raw would work fine too.

Then you select your yeast based on how alcoholic you want your cidre to be. With a good champagne yeast, you could get it as high as 18%!! and still be sweet.

If you can't find a yeast with a low enough alcohol tolerance for your liking, then you need to kill your yeast before it's finished to keep it sweet and have residual sugar.
Look at pasteurisation, cold crashing and sterilising, and some of the other options mentioned above.

I don't like adding anything I can't get from the supermarket, and even then I like everything I use to come from my yard, which is why I choose the above method.

Mind: If you use a 'residual sugar' technique, you will find that carbonation becomes a little bit of an artform, as adding sugar when you bottle will do nothing.
For easy carbonation, add those weird sugars extracted from milk and other places...



FYI your cidre will be about 5.3 % ABV
Finding a yeast with a tolerance less than this may be a challenge.
So if you want to keep this alcohol level, or less, you'll have to kill your yeast I think
I would recommend something a bit lower though.

Edit: I just did a quick search
Some ale yeast will peter out between 5 & 8%
most wine yeasts are >12%
But you were using a beer yeast anyhow. The coopers yeast you used I can't find data on, but appears form other forums to be >7.5% I doubt it'd be >11% so, somewhere in the middle.

 

[Airgead]

You can also try starving the yeast of nutrients. This will affects its ability to divide so the cell count will be low and it won't attenuate properly. That's the principle behind keeving. Under oxygenation helps as well.

Cheers
Dave

 

[The Giant]

Thanks all

Just as I though I was starting to get my head around this home brewing business Kuda gives me a post like that to think about!

 

[KudaPucat]

Thanks all

Just as I though I was starting to get my head around this home brewing business Kuda gives me a post like that to think about!

Please be aware that I'm talking about common practise with mead, and that I'm pretty new to brewing too. I speak mostly of research I've done, with only a little practise.
So please make sure you do your own homework first

 

[Airgead]

Please be aware that I'm talking about common practise with mead, and that I'm pretty new to brewing too. I speak mostly of research I've done, with only a little practise.
So please make sure you do your own homework first

For a sweet mead you are spot on. Ciders though being much lower in alcohol, it si difficult to find a yeast with a low enough tolerance to work that way.

For cider the traditional methods of sweet cidermaking all seem to revolve around yeast management - nutrient deficiencies and stuff like that. Adding a percentage of pear seems pretty traditional as well.

The modern method is to halt fermentation by sterile filtering or some other process like that.

Cheers
Dave