[dnicholson]

Has anyone tried adding 10-20% wort mashed at 155 F+ to add subtle sweetness/body to cider?

[dmtaylor]

No, I haven't tried that yet, but it's a friggin great idea!  Go for it.

[Jimmy K]

It's an idea - doesn't mean it's a good one  . But seriously, I had a cider sweetened with maltodextrin once. It did add body but any sweetness faded within a month or two. Since that was with all dextrins, I expect wort would have a lesser effect and probably also add malt flavors, which I wouldn't want. But then, that's no reason not to try it.

[dnicholson]

Yeah, I am full of ideas and have had to suffer through some consequences over the years. Perhaps a touch of pie spice would balance any malty tones? Just bought a beauty small commercial apple press for $350 and am "juiced" to try it out! Am also going to try dunking apples in a bath of 200 mglL chlorine, followed by sodium metabisulpite to dechlorinate prior to pressing and forego sterilization for a batch - all the contaminants will be on the outside of the apple - right?? Thanks for the replies - I will try anything once.

[Jimmy K]

How do you usually sanitize? I just rinse with water, crush, press and treat the juice with sulfites. Dunking the apples in sulfite before crushing will still result in sulfites in your cider, so I don't know what the difference would be. Are you trying to get natural fermentation?
 
With good apples, the contaminants will be on the outside. Just make sure you don't have damaged ones in there. There will also be lots of biological stuff on the press - although not if it's brand new.

[denny]

A friend tried that.  Based on his results, I won't be doing it.  It didn't add any appreciable body and I didn't care for the flavor.

[dnicholson]

K - based on your friend's experience - will ditch that idea. The thought behind using chlorine vs sulpite is cl will give nearly instant death to creepies where sulpite is more passive - has been many years ago since made cider but do recall sulphur burps pretty vividly - sounds like a chunk of copper for few days would fix that up though - Thanks All - it is so great to have good advice!