Right? Thank you! Also you might get a lemonade 'top' but probably with lager and not cider, which is sweet enough as it is

I remember when you could order a snakebite in the pub! Good old days 😎

Ecoin. Thank you for your comments. Good luck on dry-hopping cider. Yes, that is a popular thing nowadays so we will see what we can do.

Thanks John! We will do our best.

We love that you are really drilling down to what you like. Thank you!

You're welcome. Thanks for watching!

You're very welcome!

Good luck with that! We look forward to hearing about it.

Love your commitment and willingness to make adjustments. Good luck!

Good luck!

Hi. So as we understand, something smaller than 2 microns will filter out the yeast cells but .45 micron will be needed to filter out other bacteria. Thus, your .8 micron should work if you are using something else to deal with bacteria like sulfites.

Yes, there will almost certainly be enough live yeast. It is very rare that you do not have viable live yeast at that point. Some people pitch a small amount of additional yeast for carbonation, which you could do as well if you like. Good luck!

We have not used maple sugar to carbonate but we see no reason why it wouldn't work just the same. Let us know how it turns out!

Hi - good questions. Yes, so you should let it condition at room temperature so the yeast is active. Once it is done conditioning it will tend to change a little over time. Generally people feel that cider will improve with aging this way for up to about 2 years. Often you get a malo-lactic fermentation in the bottle which mellows the product a little by lowering the acidity and creating a smooth buttery note. It should be good if you keep it in a cool place like the basement for that long or longer. If you do not want a malo-lactic ferment to occur - you should refrigerate it. Thanks!

Yes, thanks. We have referred to it as "sorbate" in our videos. Combined with sulfite (potassium metabisulfite) it works great to prevent re-fermentation of your sweetener. It also does however, prevent "bottle conditioning" if you were looking for carbonation. This is not a problem if you are force carbonating and/or do not care for carbonation.

Yes, I believe you can do that. You may heat pasteurize or use a sorbate/sulfite combination to prevent re-fermentation chemically.

Thank you. Yes, in a closed system.

If you're adding the stevia in the barrel, I would wait a few days to make sure any fermentable sugar ferments out. If it starts fermenting, you should consider waiting until that re-fermentation subsides. Know that a force carbonated product that is not pasteurized will still undergo a malo-lactic fermentation in the keg if you give it enough time. The longer you take to finish the keg (in terms of months) the more likely malo-lactic fermentation builds up pressure and potentially disrupts your pouring.

Hi. So the amount of xylitol depends on what you want for residual sweetness. Yes, we were talking 30-40 grams per gallon. Good luck!

Congratulations on making a great cider! Water bath pasteuring can work well - but you should wear protective gear and it is best to gradually heat up the bottles. A sudden change in temperature is more likely to cause breakage. Regular crown caps typically hold up in a pasteurization bath. Stronger bottles such as champagne bottles limit breakage. A differential of 50 degrees or more will probably result in some breakage. If you want to use natural juice with fermentable sugar to back-sweeten and you want carbonation, you will need to pasteurize after packaging. The only alternative is to force-carbonate the product using a kegging system or brite tank. When you force-carbonate you can stabalize the back-sweetened cider with sorbate and sulfite before pasteurizing.

It is best to dissolve it before adding to the cider as it will help it blend. As for the amount of water, use just enough to easily dissolve the sugar. Maybe 2 cups?

Hi Les. Glad to hear you are enjoying our videos. So for carbonating, Andrew Lea suggests 38 grams per gallon and Claude Jolicoeur suggests 57 grams per gallon. You will have to do the math on gallons to liters for that. Our notes indicate that for a high sparkle - 45 to 75 grams per gallon, for petillant 15 to 45 grams per gallon and for perlant, 8 to 15 grams per gallon. In other words, it depends on the level of carbonation you seek. We used 55 grams per gallon in our original "sparkling dry" recipe which was highly carbonated. For back sweetening, I'm afraid that is just going to have to be based on your preference. You should pull our a few small glasses and try measured doses of different products to see what you are liking. Good luck!

Were you planning to use a very low gravity juice or to arrest the fermentation?

Ray - yes, Camden tablets are potassium metabisulfite "sulfite" - which is used for sterilization. To reduce the amount of sulfite needed and to effectively kill off all the yeast, most authorities recommend using sorbate together with sulfite to prevent refermentation of a back-sweetened cider at the time of bottling. So I would say use both Camden tablets and sorbate. Thanks!

@@Number12Cider thank you

Cool idea! So the biggest problem with heat pasteurizing in the bottle is the potential breakage which from our experience, is mostly associated with degree of sudden temperature change. So going from 60 degrees f to 160 degrees f suddenly for example, will stress the glass and cause breakage. So avoid putting bottles into hot water right out of the cooler. A gradual temperature climb is less likely to break bottles Pressure also builds up in the bottles from the liquid and co2 inside, so holding them at high temperature for a long time will eventually cause breakage and/or popped lids/caps/corks. So our suggestion on trying that method is to try it on a relatively small scale and see how it works. Don't put more than 50 degree temperature change on the bottles. Put one bottle with the lid off and a thermometer in the middle to monitor the temp. As soon as you reach your desired temp - say 160 - turn it off, remove them carefully, space them out on a towel and let them cool. Depending on how much time it takes to heat them, that should get you more than adequate "PU's" (pasteurization units) to kill the yeast and anything else of concern. Probably you should use safety glasses and do it in a place that can be cleaned up if things don't go exactly as planned. Full bottles are heat pasteurized in the commercial setting so it is certainly beyond possible.

For reference, I use my sous vide immersion circulator to make dulce de leche in _airtight_ glass jars (condensed milk held at 185F for 10 hours). As they pointed out, suddenly jumping up in temperature could be a problem with glass, but the solution is easy with immersion circulators: fill your water bath with room temp water, put your bottles in, then program your pasteurization temp which gradually climbs up on its own. 160F is below the boiling point of water/ethanol, so a buildup of pressure isn't going to be problem with this system since we know for sure that the water bath won't go higher than what we set it to. There are different recommendations for time frames @160F you can find, but atleast for Pennsylvania - the Ag Department posted a minimum of 6secs @ 160F for cider (pH

No. If you are bottle conditioning you do not want to inhibit the yeast...

@@stephenhance5260 That's what I thought. Thx!

Hi. We have not tried lactose sugar in cider. As with anything, we definately think it is worth a small scale try. Brewers do it apparently because it makes their beers sweeter, fuller and creamier. It seems that those characteristics could work in some kinds of cider although we are skeptical about whether adding "creaminess" will be good for cider. Give it a try and let us know how it went! Cheers!

No need to let it sit before bottling - but make sure its thoroughly blended in. Yes, it can be added straight to the carboy.

Yes you could do that, or for that matter sweeten it and heat it all in a pot. There is always a concern though, that you introduce yeast during back-sweetening or bottling because yeast is so prevalent. If you do not care about carbonation, you could consider heating the bottles after the product is bottled in a canning kettle or something similar. There is less risk in heating the bottles when there is no carbonation in them but nevertheless, one must be careful heating glass as there is a risk of breakage.

@@Number12Cider Thank you!

Unfortunately we do not have a position on this question. It depends on your taste. Its always good to try a couple of different kinds on small samples to make that decision.

Giuseppe. For our canned products we use juice or sugar and pasteurize. For our kegged product we use a sorbate/sulfite combination before kegging. The pasteurization is harder to do at home but we obviously have a commercial operation. The sorbate/sulfite combination is not hard to do at home. We have not used non-fermentable sugars since our home cider-making days. Thanks for asking!

@@Number12Cider Thank you for answering!

@@Number12Cider I am looking to stabilize cider / kombucha using sulfites & sorbates but for the life of me can not find reliable dosing information. The packs I have say “1-2g/liter” which is a range of +/- 100%! I also understand that ABV plays a role (so dosing pressed must vs fermented cider)

Robert. Here is what we do for kegged cider at packaging: 1. Potassium Sorbate addition of 150-200ppm, dissolved in warm water 2. Potassium metabisulfite addition of 30-50ppm, dissolved in warm water Cannot say whether this works the same with kombucha as we have never made kombucha but this is what we do for cider. Good luck!

@@Number12Cider thanks!

Hi! Admittedly we have not tried this method. We assume that the non-fermentable sugar would not impact the quality of the fermentation or otherwise be lost in the yeast cake but we are afraid you are going to have to find the answer by giving it a go. Let us know. Thanks!

That should work!

Yes. Since you pasteurized, the yeast is dead. If you used heat to pasteurize rather than chemicals, you can just introduce more sugar and yeast. Good luck with that!

Hello - you can give it a try but I think you would need to add enough potassium metabisulfite or other SO2 product to kill any active yeast in your cider for that to be effective.

We are very fond of using different yeasts depending on your goal. Not aware of any that will leave a material amount of residual sugar but let us know if you found a good option for that. Traditionally the English and the French used methods to reduce the nutrients in the juice to starve the yeast (i.e. Keeving). That is also something you could try.

That's what I started to wonder, when getting into homebrewing. Couldn't believe that nobody has bred a strain that has a cider level alcohol tolerance.

If you back-sweeten and do not want it carbonated, you can treat it right away to kill the yeast. The best formula is a combination of sorbate and sulfite. The tablets are a form of sulfite.

@@Number12Cider is that the same type of sulfites that give me a headache

Yes, so some people are allergic to sulfites. If you have been using camden tablets - you have been using sulfites. Camden tablets are potassium metabisulfite.

Thank you for the correction!

HMM - thanks Andy! We will get it right in the future.... or at least try. ;)

It is possible to do that if you have expensive equipment. The only way to blend/mix a carbonated product would be by flowing it through a closed system. If there is a pressure release anywhere, you will lose carbonation. In our facility we have brite tanks that hold pressure. So for example, if we put the chemical in our hose and connected it to two ports on the brite tank, we could circulate the carbonated product. It gets harder if not impossible to do that with home equipment.

Hi Sue. Thanks for asking! The Black Market brand cider we have on the table during this video is available (along with others) to order/ship at number12cider.com/shop-ciders. Shipping costs a little bit but we do ship to most states.

Yep. It is a yeast inhibitor which, when combined in the right amounts with potassium metabisulfite, will prevent the yeast from fermenting your back-sweetened cider but to the point we make in the video, if you kill or inhibit the live yeast - you then must use force carbonation to carbonate the product. Good luck!

Earl. You do not have to kill the yeast before carbonating. However, if you add sugar (this video is about "back-sweetening") or there is any residual sugar, the remaining yeast will ferment that sugar. So if you want to preserve that flavor profile you need to stop the yeast from doing its thing. Take a look at our video on carbonating/kegging for more on carbonating cider.

Pretty much no difference. Cider is a better word for apple wine in our opinion :)

Yes

Duly noted my friend! I have to qualify that Colin has been there but not me. The England, France and Spain cider country trips are all on the bucket list.

Hi. Sorry. Yes, American habit as we continue in our failure to convert to metric and end up using both. We will do our best!

thank you @@stephenhance5260 ...I'm up to the next step in my cider making...I've got 3 demijohns full of cider made from apples from our apple tree (got sick of the lorikeets getting their fill each year)...it's now settled..the demijohns are 5 litres each so I need to know how much sugar to use in order for it to sparkle in the bottles..I got the equipment today for siphoning the bottles and will do so into food grade buckets..if this turns into a success then I think I'll be doing this every year...can't let the birds win...