Hard Cider back sweetening

[Grandma's brew]

OK. I am a real newbie here. I have started a hard cider brew on 11/24 with 1 gallon of organic apple juice and 2 cups of sugar, 1/4tsp of yeast nutrient, and 1/4 pk of Cote des Blanco yeast. The SG was 1.06 at the start. On 12/6 the SG was .999 and was very dry so I back sweetened with 1 cup of sugar and 20 oz of the apple juice. On 12/13 I did the first racking. My question is - when should I see it start to clear or should I do something more to help it clear.

 

[sour_grapes]

Did you do anything to stabilize the wine before adding the additional sugar and apple juice? You should have added potassium sorbate before the additional sugars. Check to see if it is fermenting again.

 

[franc1969]

Did you add sorbate when backsweetening? If you didn't , and just added juice/sugar to a ferment with yeast still in it- you just upped the ABV. Without knowing the SG of the juice, I can't run through FermCalc to see what ABV you should now have, but I assume it is around 10%. I would be surprised myself to have cider clear in that short a time anyway, without major degassing and a clarifier like Dual-fine.

 

[user 36973]

You also may want to add some pectic enzyme. I've had varying success with apple hard cider clearing. The enzymes seem to really help. Bentonite can also help drop yeast.

 

[sour_grapes]

Oh, and welcome to WMT, too!

 

[MTJoeT]

Did you add sorbate when backsweetening? If you didn't , and just added juice/sugar to a ferment with yeast still in it- you just upped the ABV. Without knowing the SG of the juice, I can't run through FermCalc to see what ABV you should now have, but I assume it is around 10%. I would be surprised myself to have cider clear in that short a time anyway, without major degassing and a clarifier like Dual-fine.

Doesn't it depend on the alcohol tolerance of the yeast? if the alcohol topped out prior to adding more sugar then the yeast cant convert past its tolerance threshold.14% tolerance for this yeast so no matter how much sugar you add it will never get above 14% alcohol.

 

[sour_grapes]

Doesn't it depend on the alcohol tolerance of the yeast? if the alcohol topped out prior to adding more sugar then the yeast cant convert past its tolerance threshold.14% tolerance for this yeast so no matter how much sugar you add it will never get above 14% alcohol.

What you say is true, but didn't you see what @Grandma's brew starting SG was? 1.060. That would make something like only 8% ABV after the first fermentation.

 

[MTJoeT]

What you say is true, but didn't you see what @Grandma's brew starting SG was? 1.060. That would make something like only 8% ABV after the first fermentation.

Copy that. Thanks for insight.

 

[Scooter68]

I've only done 3-4 apple cider/wine batches but each time the apples without sugar added have had an SG of 1.050 to 1.065. One of those batches was from orchard purchased juice, the rest were from fresh home-grown apples that, honestly were picked early to avoid destruction/theft from birds and squirrels - so my sugar content experience would be low compared to fully ripened apples. From what I've seen unless the sugar content of the apple juice was extra low, 2 cups of sugar into one gallon of apple juice should have raised that SG a lot higher than 1.060. That being said when you added the additional juice and sugar to back-sweeten it is possible, but not certain at all, that you could have pushed the yeast beyond it's limit. BUT even if you did, it would very risky not to add the sorbate and k-meta to prevent further fermentation.

 

[Raptor99]

I have made cider both from orchard pressed apple juice and store apple juice (organic 100% apple juice, not from concentrate). The starting SG is usually about 1.05. I aim for an ABS of 5-6%, so I have never needed to add any sugar.

 

[heatherd]

OK. I am a real newbie here. I have started a hard cider brew on 11/24 with 1 gallon of organic apple juice and 2 cups of sugar, 1/4tsp of yeast nutrient, and 1/4 pk of Cote des Blanco yeast. The SG was 1.06 at the start. On 12/6 the SG was .999 and was very dry so I back sweetened with 1 cup of sugar and 20 oz of the apple juice. On 12/13 I did the first racking. My question is - when should I see it start to clear or should I do something more to help it clear.

Welcome to the hobby!

You need to add potassium metabisulfite + potassium sorbate when you back-sweeten. Otherwise it will keep fermenting anything you add in, making your cider stronger.

 

[franc1969]

Doesn't it depend on the alcohol tolerance of the yeast? if the alcohol topped out prior to adding more sugar then the yeast cant convert past its tolerance threshold.14% tolerance for this yeast so no matter how much sugar you add it will never get above 14% alcohol.

I made a guess based on FermCalc and what I know from doing this myself. I don't know apple cider/juice sugar percentage, but it won't be wine high. Mine has always been 1.06 or less either for commericially available or cider-specific, as others have said. Cotes de Blanc can go higher than 14% alcohol if treated very nicely, the rated amount is usual expectation not absolute max. But that isn't even an issue here.
guess using the highest %ABV estimate, without lower ABV potential juice
128+4oz (1 gallon plus 2 cups sugar initially), SG 1.06, ABV %8.9
132 oz + 1 cup sugar, SG 1.0738 total, ABV %10.8
And depending on which method used for ABV, should be less. Cider has some non-fermentables, not as much as beer wort.

=I forgot to say I measured my sugar, it might be high as this is brown. It's what was open.