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Cider Digest #0386
Subject: sweet ciders (Can you believe it, this post isn't about lead!?)
Date: Tue, 7 Dec 1993 17:20:25 -0800 (PST)
From: _Ralph Reed <reedr@BCC.ORST.EDU>
[Disclaimer: I am not suggesting the use of any chemical, including cider;
I don't know what I'm doing; you should only take the advice of a
professional pharmacist; and I hope that covers my rear legally.]
I read on this group a few weeks back that some people have tried
to make sweet ciders by either using certain yeasts or by adding sodium
benzoate. I have explored the latter a bit. I was able to purchase a
pound of sodium benzoate for about $9.75 by special ordering it through a
pharmacist. Apparently there are a number of chemicals that are available
if you ask the pharmacist and if it is not a controlled chemical. I then
called for advice from a friend who used to work for a major American soft
drink manufacturer as a chemist. He told me that almost all of the soft
drinks contain 500ppm sodium benzoate, which comes out to one-half of one
tenth of a percent, which is 0.05 percent. He told me that only a few
brands with very old recipes, such as Classic Coke, original Pepsi, and
original 7-Up do not contain this additive, and that essentially all the
rest do have it. It is present to prevent yeast growth in these products,
which contain around 10 to 11 percent sugar. Soft drink labels often say
that they contain "less than one-tenth of one percent." This was the
same instruction given on the chemical that I purchased.
Being the novice at cider making that I am (although I have made
sparkling wine [methode champenoise] for several years), I used champagne
yeast, which will ferment my first cider attempt to dryness. So, I will
try to add some sugar to some of the batch, make some it sparkling, and
keep some it "as is."
I would appreciate any help from readers of this group as to:
1) their experience in using sodium benzoate and sugar in cider
2) their preferences as to the percent residual sugar in finished sweet
cider, whether using the chemical or not
3) any other tasting experience with commercial cider batches of known
sugar concentration.
I will try to post later about some tasting experiences in Spain
and France. If anyone would like to post on cider tasting around the US
or around the world, I for one, would like to hear about it.
Thanks in advance for your input.
ralph reed
Corvallis, Oregon
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