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22 litres apple juice Around 800 grams brewing sugar 3tea bags for tanning - saw this on another post, thought I'd give it a go

So I'm a couple of days into my primary and I'm going for a semi sweet cider

This is what I'm planning on doing and I'm interested to see if you guys think it will work, or advice to improve?

I started off with a reading of 1.055, I will leave it in primary til it drops down between 1.002-1.010

Transfer it to second tub add Campden tablets and cold crash it for around 2-3 days

Then transfer to bottling bucket, batch prime it, bottle it up and pasteurize on the cooker

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  • Steve, can you please improve the title of this post to be more clear about what you're asking? Is it about the recipe, or the process of arresting fermentation? – jsled Sep 29 '15 at 3:14
  • Also, why would you Campden, then prime, then pasteurize? Those 3 things are at cross-purposes, unless I'm missing something? – jsled Sep 29 '15 at 3:15
  • I'm going for a sweet fizzy cider, can I stop primary at a certain fg and bottle it or do I HAVE to wait till dry then backsweeten it. I guess that u was trying to ask? – steve Sep 29 '15 at 16:10
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Regarding this question :

Can I stop primary at a certain fg and bottle it or do I HAVE to wait till dry then backsweeten it?

You can stop your fermentation at a certain specific gravity by bottling and pasteurizing. It will get the sweetness you want, but will not be as much fizzy because it will not ferment in the bottle .

To get the fizzy cider, you can bottle ferment it, so it seems easier to me to use a non fermentable sugar to keep the sweetness and a fermentable sugar to get the fizzy you are looking for.

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  • Could you just force-carbonate it in a keg? – Bolwerk Oct 31 '15 at 0:59
  • @Bolwerk Yes, but how would you kill yeast in keg? It's not as easy as "pasteurizing" bottles in water bath. – Mołot Oct 31 '15 at 7:23
  • Well, I figured you pasteurize on a stove, pour into a keg, and then force carbonate. But I suppose campden tablets could work too. And maybe you could just apply direct heat to some kegs (probably not most corny kegs though). – Bolwerk Oct 31 '15 at 13:25
  • Potassium sorbate can also be used to kill the yeast. I bought a bottle of unfermentable sweetener at my LBS and the ingredients are: water, sugar and potassium sorbate. Commonly used in winemaking. – Philippe Oct 31 '15 at 13:47
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You might be interested in making a "Graff" http://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=117117

You basically create a wort with unfermentable sugars, mix with apple juice, then proceed as normal. No need to mess with pasteurization.

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  • On a personal note: I just made this for the first time on 10-16-15. I took a gravity reading today (1.010) and it tasted AMAZING. Can't hardly taste the hops, but I'm sure it helped balance the tartness of the cider I used. It tastes like cider you can get form an orchard and is about 6.3% alcohol! I'm bottling on Sunday and can't wait to drink this in a few weeks. Should be great at Thanksgiving dinner. – BoilerBrad Oct 30 '15 at 23:17

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