After 8 weeks in secondary at 38º, the funky aroma from the first batch as pretty much non existent. Time to move to the keg for back sweetening and carbonation. I’m looking for a balanced medium sweet and med-high carbonation.

I’ve never done this before for so there was lots of Googling and wild guessing. This is what I started with, knowing I could most likely adjust it down the road.

The first thing was to add 2.5 tspns of potassium sorbate before kegging. This, along with the cold crashing that I had been doing during secondary, helps put the remaining yeast to sleep. Then I racked onto one cup of table sugar (dissolved and boiled in a couple cups of water) along with a single can of thawed, frozen apple juice concentrate in the keg. Then I put it on 30psi of CO2 and will let that sit until I reach the carbonation I’m looking for (3-4 days).

I did take a sample glass of each for tasting and review. Batch #002 on the left, Batch #001 on the right. In the glass, both seem to have the same color, with Batch #001 having a hazy finish, most likely due to the addition of pectin enzymes after fermentation rather than during. There is also a bit of condensation on both glasses making the one on the left look a bit less transparent than it actually is.

Super excited to see how this went. Hard to tell after the sweetening and a couple shakes of the keg. Seems a bit sweet, maybe the higher carbonation will add a prickliness that will cut back on that sweet finish.

I’ll let you know how it goes!