Carbs in dry cider

[thethirstyweasel]

Ok this probably a stupid question but here goes....
How do I calculate carbs in dry cider?
The only carb calculator that I have seen is on the mrgoodbeer website.
According to it if I have a cider with an og of 1.046 and fg 1.002 a 12 oz bottle has 9 g of carbs?
I can't believe that. 1.002 is virtually water is there something I am not understanding?
I use conc 100 percent apple juice no additives or extra sugar, I prime it with enough brown sugar for 2.5 volts per bottle.
I recently started a low carb diet but still want my cider please help
Thanks,
The weasel is thirsty

 

[TANSTAAFB]

As a fellow low carber who likes to brew and drink, I feel your pain! And I've got some bad news for ya. Alcohol really slows down weight loss. I've tried just doing straight spirits like bourbon or vodka that are essentially carb free and it slowed. I've had to do at least a month with (mostly [emoji16]) no drinking to kick start things.
As for the carbs in your cider, I've never found a really good source for carbs in drinks info or a good estimator. A quick search of the Googles shows that Strongbow has a low carb cider that has like 4g/100ml and it just goes up from there. Prolly BS. I think it's taking ABV and extrapolating out carbs, which isn't helpful. Looking for grams of sugars is probably better, still not easy to find. Here's an article that has some OK info
https://www.prevention.com/eatclean/low-sugar-hard-ciders
I think your best bet is to compare your cider to the commercial versions and see what fits. If they are saying there's 8g sugar in a 5% 12oz serving of something that seems equivalent and you have 2.5% in yours, maybe guesstimate at 5g/ serving? I've been down this rabbit hole before, I'd love to hear some better info than I just provided you! [emoji482]

 

[Yooper]

Don't forget that alcohol technically IS a carb- and a cider with 1.002 may not have much residual sugar, but since alcohol is lighter than water, it's not an indicator of the amount of carbs in a finished cider.

Staying away from residual sugar is a good idea if you're trying to stay low-carb, but figuring out how many actual carbs come from sugar vs. from alcohol probably isn't going to be easy in a home made cider.

 

[thethirstyweasel]

Thanks this is kind of what I was afraid of

 

[AZCoolerBrewer]

I think that the sugar in apple juice is highly fermentable. The sugar in a dry cider that isn’t backsweetened is all fermented out. What is left over is the non sugar carbs. In Treetop 100% apple juice 8oz. has 29g carbs 26g being sugar. Scaled up to 12 oz. is 43.5g and 39g. So your non-alcohol carbs are 4.5g. The Brewers Friend ABV calculator says that 5.78% alcohol has 147 calories add the calories for 4.5g of carbs and you have 147+18. 165 calories, 4.5g carbs.

 

[thethirstyweasel]

AZ I like the way you think
Thank you