sweetening cider

[news-server.socal.rr.com]

My recipe for hard cider is this:
5 -6 gallons of apple cider
5 pounds of brown sugar
a little bit of honey
champagne yeast.

It fermeted for about 2 weeks, and has been clearing nicely for about
another 2 weeks, but it's still sour. I'd like to sweeten it up. I was
thinking of adding apple juice (maybe a gallon) - but I don't want the yeast
to eat the sugars in it - so I was thinking of getting some w/ preservatives
in it. Will this cause the yeast not to eat it? I also want to make it
sparkling. I was going to add priming sugar before bottling. Will the
yeast eat the priming sugar w/ preserved apple juice in there?

-Lars

[Wayne]

With the champagne yeast and all that honey and sugar, you are going to
have a difficult time producing a sparkling cider. To be able to get a
sparkling cider with any sweetness there needs to be enough
unfermentable sugars in there so that when the yeast eats all the
fermentable ones, there is still some sweetness left. Then when the
yeast eats the priming sugar, carbonation is formed.

The problem with champagne yeast is that it will eat sugars other yeasts
can't. Thus, the dryness. If there are enough preservatives in the
additional apple juice to keep the yeast from eating the sugars in the
juice, it will also stop the yeast from eating the priming sugar. The
preservatives will be diluted too much to prevent the yeast from
fermenting the additional juice. It may slow it down a little, but not
in a predictable enough manner to be able to safely bottle it.

You best bet would be to go with a still cider. Kill the yeast with
some sodium or potassium met, then sweeten to taste. If you still want
to have it carbonated, then force carbonate it in a keg and use a
counterpressure bottle filler to bottle it.

If you don't want to kill the yeast with chemicals, you are left with
the choice of feeding it more sugar until the alcohol level (in excess
of 15%) kills the yeast and then add sugar to the sweetness level you want.

Next time, for a sparkling cider, use an ale yeast like Wyeast 1007 or
Nottingham. Either one will stop with a reasonable level of sweetness
left and will allow you to prime for carbonation. You will need to
allow a couple extra weeks for these yeasts to settle out.

Wayne
Bugeater Brewing Company

[ralc...@hotmail.com]

I had the same idea last year to make a sparkling sweet cider, and I
got 2 suggestions from this group: pear juice, which contains some
sorbitol, which tastes sweet but is not fermentable. Another
suggestion was household corn syrup, which is likewise a few percent
non-fermentable.

I tried these suggestions this year with my cider, and I also used
Wyeast cider yeast, and well, it didn't come out perfect. The yeast is
able to ferment well above 7 % alcohol, and is eating up all my
priming/sweetening suger -- I can tell from some small bottles I've
been sampling. I'm hoping that chilling the bottles will slow the
process down enough so my cider is, at least, off-dry by new year's.

Here's the thread from way back when:
http://groups.google.com/group/rec.crafts.brewing/browse_thread/thread/390880f348ab7d0b/f42a76e8f9eb42d5?q=ziegler+ralconte&rnum=1#f42a76e8f9eb42d5

[s]

Wayne,
I also have some cider that is fermenting..I brought it up to 1.085
with corn sugar, and used champagne yeast. My intention was to put
enough sugar in it to carbonate it and have enough left to have
residual sugar..It is not like beer so I dont mind the 15%+ alch...(and
I was planning to get it real cold to rebottle it to get rid of most of
the lees)...I would be curious as to your thoughts on this project...
Bud

[billb]

I was
> thinking of adding apple juice (maybe a gallon) - but I don't want the
yeast
> to eat the sugars in it -

better idea, skip the preservatives, and add some apple juice at the time of
drinking to kill the sour taste.
--

"news-server.socal.rr.com" <nos...@nospam.com> wrote in message
news:N3nhf.21206$2k6....@tornado.socal.rr.com...

> My recipe for hard cider is this:
> 5 -6 gallons of apple cider
> 5 pounds of brown sugar
> a little bit of honey
> champagne yeast.
>
> It fermeted for about 2 weeks, and has been clearing nicely for about

> another 2 weeks, but it's still sour. I'd like to sweeten it up. so I

[Paul]

Why not drink it flat? In the UK it's quite normal...

--
Paul

[s]

At the risk of being known as "abnormal", I was trying to duplicate
some of the French stuff from Normandy that is not available here....
Bud

[Droopy]

The acidity will balance out in about 9 months if you let it sit.

[raindog]

iv bottled a batch of cider about a week or 2 ago. i used champagne
yeast with it which has made it very dry but i added sum glycerol
(glycerine) when bottling which has removed the harshness of the
acidity. i like cider dry but the previous batch (my first) i made the
same without the glycerol and was too dry. i ususally added a small
amount of sugar to this in the glass

[Paul]

Is glycerol non-fermentable?

--
Paul

[JEP62]

Paul wrote:
>
> Is glycerol non-fermentable?
>
> --
> Paul

Yes. It is not fermetable by the yeast and is produced in small
quantities during fermentation. It is a sugar alcohol that can taste a
little sweet and gives a heavier mouth feel to the wine.

Andy

[Warren Place]

On Fri, 2 Dec 2005, Paul wrote:
> Is glycerol non-fermentable?
>
> --
> Paul

Glycerol is not fermented, but yeast can metabolize it by respiration in
the presence of oxygen. Since your bottles shouldn't have much O2 in
them, it's a moot point.
Warren Place

[Ray Calvert]

Non fermentable and it is actually a byproduct to fermentation. In small
amounts it improves the mouth feel in too large of amounts it will make the
wine "hot".

Ray

"Paul" <paulrobert...@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:113352704...@spandrell.news.uk.clara.net...