Priming turbo cider with apple juice?

[Random Badger]

This is another thing I have seen mentioned, although people seem to talk about using apple concentrate or other weird and wonderful additives to prime and sweeten.

I've get 4 litres of turbo cider bubbling away in a demijohn and I'm wondering whether to prime the bottles with sugar or try apple juice, assuming that apple juice would give a bit more flavour and perhaps slightly balance out the expected dryness (I don't like sweet cider anyway).

My thinking is that a teaspoon of sugar is about 4 grams and as far as I'm aware one teaspoon should prime a 1 litre bottle so I need 16 grams of priming sugar.

According to the label 100 ml of the apple juice contains 11g of sugar (1g per 9.1ml) so 16 grams of sugar = approx 150 ml of apple juice (16 x 9.1 = 145.6). So I could put 150ml of apple juice into a clean demijohn, add the fermented cider, give it a gentle swirl and then bottle it.

Anything wrong with my maths/assumptions/general sanity in doing it this way?

 

[johncrobinson]

Nothing wrong with the idea in principle as long as you hit your target for required sugar.

Fermentation tends to drive off the more delicate flavours due to all the gassing at the start,So adding a little fresh juice at the end of fermentation will replenish these things,(somewhat)

 

[VW911]

Not quite the same, but when I worked for a (quite well known) cider maker, we used to mix full strength cider with apple juice, pasteurise it, then keg it for sale in local pubs. It came out at a respectable and very drinkable 4.8% cider, not the hooligan 7%+ turn you inside out cider that it was originally!
I've used fresh apple juice to prime the previous years' cider, at a rate of 3L to a 20L batch, and it worked quite well

 

[danmac]

This is another thing I have seen mentioned, although people seem to talk about using apple concentrate or other weird and wonderful additives to prime and sweeten.

I've get 4 litres of turbo cider bubbling away in a demijohn and I'm wondering whether to prime the bottles with sugar or try apple juice, assuming that apple juice would give a bit more flavour and perhaps slightly balance out the expected dryness (I don't like sweet cider anyway).

My thinking is that a teaspoon of sugar is about 4 grams and as far as I'm aware one teaspoon should prime a 1 litre bottle so I need 16 grams of priming sugar.

According to the label 100 ml of the apple juice contains 11g of sugar (1g per 9.1ml) so 16 grams of sugar = approx 150 ml of apple juice (16 x 9.1 = 145.6). So I could put 150ml of apple juice into a clean demijohn, add the fermented cider, give it a gentle swirl and then bottle it.

Anything wrong with my maths/assumptions/general sanity in doing it this way?

I prime with 4g of sugar per 500ml bottle and it's only slightly fizzy so 4 g per litre won't be very fizzy at all

 

[rbunsen]

I have primed with apple juice, to hopefully add a little apple flavour. Unfortunately I haven't made a batch priming with sugar, so I can't compare the taste. It worked fine and the cider will still be dry, the sugar will still be fermented.
I have also topped up with apple juice later in the fermentation, to try to keep more apple flavour.
Apart from one time, I was making cider from supermarket apple juice.

 

[Random Badger]

I have primed with apple juice, to hopefully add a little apple flavour. Unfortunately I haven't made a batch priming with sugar, so I can't compare the taste. It worked fine and the cider will still be dry, the sugar will still be fermented.
I have also topped up with apple juice later in the fermentation, to try to keep more apple flavour.
Apart from one time, I was making cider from supermarket apple juice.

How much apple juice do you add for conditioning per litre/bottle please? The stuff I have here claims to contain 11 grams of sugar per 100 ml.

 

[danmac]

How much apple juice do you add for conditioning per litre/bottle please? The stuff I have here claims to contain 11 grams of sugar per 100 ml.

You'd need about 40ml then for 4g of sugar which is about standard for cider

 

[Scottyburto]

Just bare in mind you're adding more volume with the Apple juice and I'd say 4g is quite low for cider.

 

[danmac]

Exactly, I'd just stick to priming with sugar

 

[rbunsen]

How much apple juice do you add for conditioning per litre/bottle please? The stuff I have here claims to contain 11 grams of sugar per 100 ml.

It depends how fizzy you want it. It is some time since I made cider, but I would add a little more than you are suggesting, perhaps 200-250ml.