First TC here goes

[lukehgriffiths]

Very easy process. Ingredients...
3 litres apple
1.5 litres aldi forest fruits
The usual others pectolase, malic, tannin oh and yeast with nutrient.

One question I might as well ask now is how much splenda type stuff to achieve a.bulmer's red type sweetness?

 

[oldbloke]

Um, dunno how sweet the Bulmer's is, not having tried it, but some of the commercial stuff these days is so sweet it makes me gag.
What I can say is 8 tsp Morrison's own-brand artificial sweetener per gallon only takes the edge off and gives a hint of sweet aftertaste, rather than tasting actually sweet.
So you probably want more than that, but maybe not too much.
Consider maybe adding it at serving time, so you can adjust on the fly? Dissolve it in something first though or it'll just provide nucleation points for the CO2 and all the fizz will go, possibly quite suddenly

 

[simkin]

My palate does not particularly favour the hyper-dry, and likes some sweetness and I read so much about back-sweetening. Its never been an issue for me and TC's though? Maybe as I never use champagne yeast as Lalvin all-purpose leaves plenty of sweetness for medium-dry and is not averse to carbonation.

I guess using champagne yeast, that has a high attenuation, will lead to a nun's a*****ole dry brew. I'd rather drink a cider with natural, remaining sugars than spendida . . . but I am quite a newbie.

 

[oldbloke]

Kinda know what you mean, simkin. All but my last batch of TC have been fermented out to dry, mostly with Young's cider yeast, and though it's clearly not sweet the dryness doesn't hit you with a sledgehammer, it's just a good drink. Bit like hops in ale are bitter but you need them.

 

[lukehgriffiths]

Am trying to make a BR type brew as it is my sisters fave apparently it is very sweet.
My first batch has been unsuccessful however as my 5 year old son decided it would be better all over the shed floor.

 

[Enjay]

I've just bottled my first TC, it was an extremely basic recipe - apple juice, half a mug of strong tea and cider yeast. Put into 1 litre bottles with about 2 tsp sweetener in each and the general opinion is that it tastes like Woodpecker, don't know if that's any help!