Splenda in cider

Hear me out on this one:

I have a pretty flavorful cider that I am about ready to bottle.

The problem is that the flavor is "tangy" because all of the ferment able sugars are now alcohol.

I want to re-sweeten half of it with Splenda, and half with sugar.

The complicating factor is that there are women involved. I need to carbonate it too.

Here is my game plan:.


1. Draw off about a gallon of this stuff

2. Add the sugar gradually and let the ladies test it to get the right amount of sweetness.


3. Once I get the right level of sugar to cider, split the batch into two halves and dose appropriately.

4. Prime the batch with the Splenda with just a little sugar.. I typically use 4 oz per 5 gallon batch of beer so were lookin' at half of that. I suppose I'll dose the "real sugar" half batch too.

5. Bottle it in beer bottles. I have some festive "American flag" bottle caps.

6. Check a bottle after 3-4 days and if it gets to the right level of fizz do a stovetop pasteurization to kill the yeast... Assuming that the yeast is alive after what I have done to it already. (I used champagne yeast, FYI but have plenty of ale yeast in case I need to dose the batch.

So my two potential risks are infection/bacteria in the sweetener And also, the Splenda is actually some percentage maltodextrin which is ferment able.

Oh, and the possibility that the champagne yeast is dead and it won't carbonate...

Other than that... What do you think?
You can see the potential in the "skinny cider"...

Maltodextrin is not ferementable by champagne yeast (sacc). It will add some body and mouth feel too it.

I like your approach. Doesn't sound like you need to be worrying about "overcarbing" so...I personally would add some concentrate to a larrger batch before bottling. I've had success with regular juice too.
If you can avoid the "fake stuff" and it sounds like you can, just try backsweetening with real stuff involving apple sugar. As long as your cider is dry, you can afford to add some "apple" back to it. Just try it. Sounds like you know what you're doing.

Update: I opted to dissolve both the sugar and Splenda in water first. For the sugar I used 2 cups dissolved in 2 cups of water for a volume of 27 ounces. One cup of this was added to most of a gallon of cider and it was just about right...

For the Splenda I dissolved 2 cups into 2 cups of water and it only came to about 22 ounces... And 1/2 cup of this brew was enough to sweeten 1 gallon...

I had about 2.5 gallons left in the carboy, so I added 1.25 cups of the splenda water, poured the gallon of sugar cider into it (which should have contained about a half cup equivalent of dry ferment able sugar and then bottled off the whole thing this morning...the ladies believed I should just make one big batch and keep it low-cal.

So on the whole this 4.5 gallon batch of cider took about 1.5 cups of Splenda equivalent, and a half cup of dry sugar equivalent to sweeten it up plus prime it.

I know my yeast is still alive too... The plastic jug with the sugar in it was inflated a little this morning when I checked it. Suspiciously, the Splenda jug also had a little gas in it but not as much.

So now, I will wait until about Sunday to check the carbonation....

So far so good.

Why Splenda? Why not just backsweeten with juice or ajc? Seems like it would taste better

Update: 10 days pass and I declare cider brilliance... The carbonation level is delightful with small champagne bubbles... Pretty good sweetness...

Tempted to pasteurize about half of it and leave the other half the way it is to see if that small sugar addition gives me just the right amount...

So far so good.

The reason for the Splenda is to cut down on the calories slightly, since this stuff will be enjoyed mainly by middle aged women.

The purpose of adding splenda after fermentation is to add sweetness with out restarting fermentation... as yeast eats real sugars and sence splenda is only part of the sugar molecule the yeast don't see it as food and it still tastes sweet.
I hate splenda personally, xylatol is the only one I have found so far I like the taste of. .. But if it's taste doesn't bother you...