My First brew

rio_diamond100

I am brewing my first batch of cider, from Apple Juice but am not sure the best way to get the desired taste after fermentation,

Am I best to allow fermentation to complete leaving me with a dry cider and then back sweetning and carbonating in the bottle, I was thinking something like Xylitol to back sweeten and the Coopers tabs in the bottle to carbonate at bottling? Is this a good idea, if so how much Xylitol should I need for a 10litre brew? And after putting carb tabs in the bottle will fermentation start again in the bottle? as I dont want to create little bottle bombs.

Any tips are greatly appreciated.

HBO_Staff

The rule with cider is that you can sweeten it, but you can't remove the sweetness, so it is usually best to add a little sweetener at a time and keep tasting it to get it how you want it. A little sweetener can make a big difference, so go steady with it. You can do it two ways, either transfer the cider to a second vessel after fermentation, then add sweetener and stir it in, and sample it until it's right (sweeten as a whole batch), or fill each bottle and add a little sweetener to each. It is often easier as a big batch and easier than trying to measure out in to each bottle. Once bottled you can prime each bottle with sugar or carbonation drops, and this will start 'secondary fermentation' in the bottles which will make it carbonated and pressurise the bottles. as a rule use one or 2 drops per 500ml bottle. If you over prime the bottles this is when they will become over pressurised.

http://home-brew-online.myshopify.com/collections/all/products/sweetner-for-wine-making-50ml

rio_diamond100

Thanks for the advice, I will give this a go, i presume the sweetner you have provided me with a link for is suitable for cider.

Only just realised I had actually bought my equipment from your ebay shop, only to stumble across your website when looking for advice on actually making the cider.

So far i'm impressed with the kit fingers crossed I haven't got anything wrong in the batch.

Cheers

HBO_Staff

If you need to sweeten it then the same sweetener is suitable for cider. You should be fine as long as you leave it to finish fermenting before bottling, and don't over-sweeten it!