Cider backsweetened with honey...
- Thread starter Swordnut
- Start date
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I have a batch of hard cider i just backsweetened with honey. Normally, I backsweeten with frozen Apple Juice Concentrate, but I thought I would give the honey a try. I dissolved .25 cup of honey and .25 cup water and added it to a 2gallon batch of hard cider. Raised SG from .996 to 1.006. I had sorbated and sulfited just to be safe.
The taste was very nice, subtle honey complemented the Apple Flavor. I most definitely will do this again, reminded me of a Cyser I once did....
The taste was very nice, subtle honey complemented the Apple Flavor. I most definitely will do this again, reminded me of a Cyser I once did....
Is it a cyser though if the honey is just used as a backsweeting? Anyway my recipe:
Size: 10 Liters
Yeast: YJM789 (7gr.)
Tolerance: 14% ABV
Ingredients
Primary
Methods
I'll be using brown sugar or dextrose to raise the SG if needed. I want something semi-sweet in the end which I can serve chilled. It needs to go with summer BBQ parties so, it's gotta pass with both salads, meat, fish, etc, and generally be enjoyable with all kinds of foods like that.
I'll be step-feeding dextrose/brown sugar until it can't go any further. I also plan to add 50gr. of powdered Cinnamon in secondary. Anyone have experience with this? I know cinnamon and apple go hand in hand in cooking.
SG: 1.100
Sugar contents: 980grams
Question: the calculators on this site don't work for me. Can anyone run a calculation what this would bring me in terms of ABV and residual sugar?
If it goes dry to 14%, how much honey is needed to raise it back to 1.100?
If it doesn't go dry, how much dextrose/brown sugar is needed to make it so?
Size: 10 Liters
Yeast: YJM789 (7gr.)
Tolerance: 14% ABV
Ingredients
Primary
10l. concentrated apple juice
100gr. Raisins
100gr. Raisins
Methods
I'll be using brown sugar or dextrose to raise the SG if needed. I want something semi-sweet in the end which I can serve chilled. It needs to go with summer BBQ parties so, it's gotta pass with both salads, meat, fish, etc, and generally be enjoyable with all kinds of foods like that.
I'll be step-feeding dextrose/brown sugar until it can't go any further. I also plan to add 50gr. of powdered Cinnamon in secondary. Anyone have experience with this? I know cinnamon and apple go hand in hand in cooking.
SG: 1.100
Sugar contents: 980grams
Question: the calculators on this site don't work for me. Can anyone run a calculation what this would bring me in terms of ABV and residual sugar?
If it goes dry to 14%, how much honey is needed to raise it back to 1.100?
If it doesn't go dry, how much dextrose/brown sugar is needed to make it so?
If it goes dry and you want to backsweeten to your SG of 1.100, wouldnt you just add the same amount of sugar you started with? Not sure why you would want it that high of a FG, that would be like drinking syrup to me... Way to sweet...
Oh no certainly not, I plan on using the taste method of backsweetening
I'll let it go absolutely dry until it can't go any further, then add honey until I like the taste ^^ sorry if I was confusing there, I'm a noob.
I had a batch that I backsweetened to 1.017, and that was very sweet for me, I wouldn't want it any sweeter. But that's personal preference. As for my cider, I have settled on a starting gravity of 1.092 -- 1.096, and using Lalvin D-47, it finishes out dry. .996 - .998. With a 2 gallon batch (or maybe 1.9 gal), one can of 12 oz. apple concentrate raises it back up .01 exactly... I like the final product 1.006-1.008,
I could see sweetening to the 1.010 range, but 1.100 is like uber sweet.
dry: 0.990 – 1.010
semi-sweet: 1.010 – 1.025
sweet: 1.025 – 1.050
Just make sure you stabilize (kmeta with Ksorbate) if you are adding fermentable sugars.
dry: 0.990 – 1.010
semi-sweet: 1.010 – 1.025
sweet: 1.025 – 1.050
Just make sure you stabilize (kmeta with Ksorbate) if you are adding fermentable sugars.
I actually have no access to sulphites :-[ so I'll have to take my chances letting the yeast die in its own alcohol. Best I can do is cold crashing. Any suggestions on this area?
My suggestion would be to back sweeten to your desired gravity, leave it alone for a few weeks, test the gravity and backsweeten to your desired gravity again. Keep doing this process until you have no gravity change. With this method, the higher you go with alcohol, typically the long the mead takes to age and mellow.
Cold crashing will only make your yeast go dormant, it wont kill them off. Once the mead warms up again, there is a possibility of fermentation again.
Another option would be to use a non-fermentable sugar like maltodextrin or lactose to increase your sweetness and the yeast cant use it. I have also heard of people using splenda, but i havent tried it.
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That's a good tactic indeed, thanks mates. Anyway of making sure the bulk of the unfermented sugars is honey though? I'm not looking to making an apple-mead, cyser, I'm looking to backsweeten my cider with honey.
If my initial gravity is supposed to go near the tolerance and dry, I can be reasonably sure that the bulk of my backsweetening won't be fermented right?
If my initial gravity is supposed to go near the tolerance and dry, I can be reasonably sure that the bulk of my backsweetening won't be fermented right?
Honey is fermentable and the yeast will eat through it until the alcohol level kills them off. The only way woudl be to stabilize it first and you said that isnt an option.
The tolerance level of yeast is a guideline, sometimes the yeast wont make it to the tolerance, other times they will go 1-2% over. Unfortuantley they cant read and stop when we say stop.
Correct. If you are at the 14% alcohol range and your gravity stops dropping for an extended period, then it's reasonable to assume that all the honey you add to backsweeten will be the unfermented sugar that remains....
B. Goldwater's first suggestion is called step-feeding, like you'd suggested in your third post. I've done it a few times and it works pretty well, you're pretty well guaranteed that it won't kick back up again, and I usually find that it's not THAT hot as long as the rest of the fermentation went smoothly and I didn't try for too high of a starting gravity. I like to pick a target range, and every time the SG drops below the lower limit, I boost it back up to the higher limit with more honey. I usually aim for something between 1.010 and 1.020.
You could also fortify it with some form of spirit with either no taste like vodka or a complimentary taste like maybe brandy, to push the alcohol content up past what the yeasties can stand, then sweeten to taste...
The second suggestion is also valid, I've used Splenda in few bottle-carbonated creations and it's ok if used sparingly, but another suggestion if you don't like synthetic crap is Stevia extract, I've used this a couple of times too, and the stuff that's in glycerine somehow doesn't taste as chemically as the stuff in ethanol...
And back to your question in the third post, I'd call it a cyser anyways if there was honey included somewhere.
Size: 10 Liters
Yeast: YJM789 (7gr.)
Tolerance: 14% ABV
Ingredients
Primary
10l. concentrated apple juice (980gr.)
150gr. Raisins
300gr. Dextrose (276gr.)
150gr. Raisins
300gr. Dextrose (276gr.)
Methods
Apple juice was pasteurized together with the dextrose, raising the gravity to 1.100~. Lastly raisins were added as nutrient. Fermenter closed until 21C and yeast pitched.
SG: 1.100
Sugar contents: 1256 grams
I'll leave it go through a good primary then backsweeten to 1,020. Repeated until it won't lower again.
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Added today:
300ml water
200ml apple juice
30gr. dextrose
150gr. brown sugar
50gr. raisins
1 green apple, parted
150ml black tea
Feed's sugar contents: 197 grams
Total Sugar content: 1453 grams
(Goal: 352gr/l of which 265 are fermented and 87 leftover and from honey (F.G. of 1,025)
300ml water
200ml apple juice
30gr. dextrose
150gr. brown sugar
50gr. raisins
1 green apple, parted
150ml black tea
Feed's sugar contents: 197 grams
Total Sugar content: 1453 grams
(Goal: 352gr/l of which 265 are fermented and 87 leftover and from honey (F.G. of 1,025)
Last edited:
Added today:
600gr. brown sugar
Feed's sugar contents: 600 grams
Total Sugar content: 2053 grams or 205gr/l
(Goal: 352gr/l of which 265 are fermented and 87 leftover and from honey (F.G. of 1,025)
Theoretically requires 597 grams more. Then I'll take F.G. and backsweeten to how I like it.
600gr. brown sugar
Feed's sugar contents: 600 grams
Total Sugar content: 2053 grams or 205gr/l
(Goal: 352gr/l of which 265 are fermented and 87 leftover and from honey (F.G. of 1,025)
Theoretically requires 597 grams more. Then I'll take F.G. and backsweeten to how I like it.
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