SC - Apples for Cider

[Catherine Keegan]

Note that most apple juice only has enough sugar to produce about 6%
alcohol, so almost any commercial yeast will ferment to dryness.  If you
want a sweeter finished product, you will have to try one of the methods
brandu suggests to boost the sugar content until the yeast gives out, or
try to stop the fermentation before it is finished.

>Ale yeasts will finish out at a lower alcohol concentration, so may
produce a 
>sweeter, fruitier end result. If you like Auslese, or sweet, fruity wines,
you can 
>try this.
>
>Many people who make cider will also boost the cider, to sweeten it, until
the 
>achohol concentrations get lethal for the yeast variety used. 
>In wine yeasts that tends to be 14-21% , in ale yeasts that is closer to 8%.
>
>After the terminal concentration any added sugars will not ferment and
render 
>the end result sweeter. This is done to make the Cider more "appley and
sweet"
>Usually apple juice concentrate is added to provide the sugars.
>
>It is possible (if the brewer is patient, uses a highly tolerant yeast,
like champagne,
>rackes it to a clean carboy, and boosts the sugar regularly -- once a
month or so), 
>to make a semidry wine that will knoch your socks off at 40 to 50 proof.
>The thing is a that often in cider you will not taste the alcohol, as the
bright acid
>notes and other flavors will mask the alcohol taste. This means you can make 
>a "Stealth Bomber" Cider. (You don't see it coming, but you feel it's
effects!)
>
>You can make this kind of cider, but it requires care and patience. 
>It may take as much as a year to finish.

YOW!!!  And a year to recover, if you drink it!

Colin