I threw on a 5L turbo cider last Friday, it's doing is thing at the min. I want to back sweeten it when carbonating it. I have lactose to hand so I was wondering how much to add? Or do I add some then taste till it's right? Also re carbing how much sugar per 500ml (thinking 5L might be too small to batch prime)
splenda seems to be the backsweetener of choice.
Quote from: LordEoin on April 01, 2015, 07:18:15 PM
splenda seems to be the backsweetener of choice.
Problem is I hate the taste of Splenda.... I probably should have added lactose before fermenting
the problem with non fermentable sugars like lactose or maltodextrin is that they're generally not very sweet, so you'll most likely change the body of the beer considerably but still have a fairly dry cider.
Quote from: LordEoin on April 01, 2015, 07:40:15 PM
the problem with non fermentable sugars like lactose or maltodextrin is that they're generally not very sweet, so you'll most likely change the body of the beer considerably but still have a fairly dry cider.
True...what's the story with xylitol? Is that much different to splenda
Quote from: Oh Crap on April 01, 2015, 07:49:29 PM
Quote from: LordEoin on April 01, 2015, 07:40:15 PM
the problem with non fermentable sugars like lactose or maltodextrin is that they're generally not very sweet, so you'll most likely change the body of the beer considerably but still have a fairly dry cider.
True...what's the story with xylitol? Is that much different to splenda
Have you considered using stevia?
Shanna
Quote from: Shanna on April 01, 2015, 08:09:46 PM
Quote from: Oh Crap on April 01, 2015, 07:49:29 PM
Quote from: LordEoin on April 01, 2015, 07:40:15 PM
the problem with non fermentable sugars like lactose or maltodextrin is that they're generally not very sweet, so you'll most likely change the body of the beer considerably but still have a fairly dry cider.
True...what's the story with xylitol? Is that much different to splenda
Have you considered using stevia?
Shanna
I hadn't...but I will...what is it and where can I get some😀?
tesco: http://www.tesco.ie/groceries/product/browse/default.aspx?N=4294953305 (http://www.tesco.ie/groceries/product/browse/default.aspx?N=4294953305)
Pour a few small glasses and try a few different sweeteners, they're no tbad unless you overdo it
Oh right, it's that easy... I'd never heard of it...cheers lads. I'll be trying different ones.
i like these ones for consistency: http://www.tesco.ie/groceries/Product/Details/?id=254917575 (http://www.tesco.ie/groceries/Product/Details/?id=254917575)
Quote from: LordEoin on April 01, 2015, 08:36:41 PM
i like these ones for consistency: http://www.tesco.ie/groceries/Product/Details/?id=254917575 (http://www.tesco.ie/groceries/Product/Details/?id=254917575)
1 per bottle I presume?
Quote from: Tube on April 01, 2015, 10:22:38 PM
If you can at all use natural sweetener. Check my blog for my recent experiences.
Interesting info there.. Cheers
Have the same problem myself. Was looking into priming with juice, use one plastic bottle to fill as a tester and the rest in glass. Step 2 is to wait a day or 2 until the plastic bottle firms up, the pop all the glass bottles into a pot onto the stove and pasturize them in the bottle to kill the yeast. Leaving some apple juice left to keep your cider sweet .
Reading this on HBT but am very wary of this... Anyone else try it? Or will I be guinea pig
if you do that, be sure that you have extremely strong bottles and the lid must be covered.
Otherwise you risk bottle bombs.. well.. more like depth charges surrounded by scorching water.
If they pop you'll have cider reach the ceiling and all 4 walls.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1flVlL4Mf8k
I've been doing a few 'experiments' with back sweetening turbo cider recently. For my money, xylitol is definitely than artificial sweeteners. I haven't tried erythritol but it's also supposed to be good, but can have a 'cool' taste. I've read mixed reports on stevia. Xylitol is quite expensive - my next batch of turbo cider will be sweetened 50/50 with xylitol and Cologran from Lidl, a mix I've found works well, but is cheaper than xylitol alone. I'll be adding them at a rate of 2 Cologran and 2 teaspoons xylitol per 500ml bottle of cider (plus priming sugar / juice).
I did a couple of batches of cider last year and sweetened with Cologran - 1 at 4 tabs per bottle, the other with 1 tab. The 1 tab bottles were drinkable but I could taste the sweetener's artificial flavour. The 4 tab bottles that taste was overpowering and I ditched them. I preferred earlier batches that were unsweetened but they did tend to be a bit dry (particularly for other drinkers :) )
So in summary, I don't recommend Cologran.
I decided, for some mad reason, not to back sweeten this time. I suppose it'll give me a base to start from. And I tasted one last night, appley taste but bitter as expected. I kinda liked it but added a tsp sugar to see and it improved it a huge amount. I got some yeast from hbw that has sweetener in it so going to bang that on tomorrow, along with 15L dragon blood.
Try this - ferment to dry, and then add 20g of sugar per gallon, make sure that all the sugar is dissolved. If you want a flat wine, add 5ml teaspoon of K-sorbet
Xylitol is a laxative...
If you add sugar to a non-pasteurised cider it will just referment!