newbie question - heat pastuerization and back sweetening

so i have my first batch in the primary. 3 gallons of storebought wegman's natural apple juice with preservatives. i used pectic enzyme and s-05 yeast. it's bubbling away.

I was planning on letting it ferment dry, until it finishes. Then I was planning on heating up my keggle with some water to 180 degrees, where i would rack to my corny keg and place it in my keggle to heat pastuerize the cider. Leave it in there for 30 minutes or so. That should kill the yeast, right? Then I can back sweeten with brown sugar or frozen apple juice concentrate, right?

I will carb in the corny keg and serve out of it. Based on what i was thinking, i wont have a need for potassium sorbate or campden. will this work?

(keggle pic hyperlinked in signature)

Can I ask about why you plan or pasteurizing the keg?

I would generally expect pasteurization if you were bottling a semi sweet or sweet cider and you wanted to carb in the bottle. Generally once it reaches the desired carbonation level, you would pasteurize to stop additional fermentation (bombs) and provide some extra shelf life, but still allowing some sweetness to remain.

Since I love to have lots of cider on tap, I usually just go straight from secondary into a sanitized corny, and will backsweeten before I rack to help mix.

Then I will carb and serve. Sparkling dry, sweet, or semisweet cider like this will keep in the beer cooler without any noticeable difference in flavor or issues as long as my sanitization methods were good through my other steps of cider making.

The only thing I was thinking was maybe you wanted to bulk age at fermentation temps outside of the cooler or something?

I haven’t tried brown sugar to back sweeten yet, but for a 5 gal batch I would recommend starting with one can frozen concentrate as much more starts to make the cider taste like a sugary apple syrup. I made a batch once with 2 cans, and it was a little sweet. Depends on who your drinkers are though, some people like it sweet on want it on ice.

in order to backsweeten, i need to kill the yeast, correct? if i don't then the yeasties will eat out any additional sugars i introduce. So i can either stabilize using campden tabs and pot. sorbate or heat pastuerize right? If i can heat pasteurize by submersing my corny into a 180 degree bath, i may as well do that.

i know plenty about beer, i know nothing about cider

If you are racking to keg, then back sweetening to carb and serve (and keep it cold) your yeast will go dormant (not to mention I'll let my sit for longer than beer, so there isn't much yeast left anyways) and I don't think it will continue to ferment at such a cold temp and under pressure.

I'm actually testing "Simply" brand apple juice from the cold juice section as a back sweetener because it doesn't include preservatives and has much better flavor than the concentrated stuff.

It just probably won't clear though it backed with, as that stuff is quite cloudy.

I'd love to buy real fresh cider, but around here the fresh stuff is expensive and packed with preservatives (which would cease your fermentation if backed with)

I would cold crash it in the primary then siphon it to the corny and refrigerate/carb it. As long as your keeping it cool you should be OK.
It to take a while to pastuerize the entire corny. You would have to heat the entire 3 gallons up to 160.

Shove it in the fridge, job done.

Your keg should have a safety release valve if the pressure gets too high anyway. It's not gonna become one big bomb!

im also thinking about backsweeting 5 gallons of cider with brown sugar. so if i keep it cold(30 degrees) will the yeast stay dormant enough to not ferment anymore or should i pastuerize to be sure. im gonna be force carbing in a keg and dont really wanna use chemicals.

if you are force carbing in a keg just throw the carboy/bucket in the fridge and cold crash it and rack it to the keg. You'll be ok. The keg has a pressure relief valve so it won't blow up.

I agree, once you are at fridge temps your yeast will dormant out.

You can force carb at 30 psi (by hitting your keg with 30psi, unhooking, shaking the keg around, and repeating 5 or 6 times) + leave at 30 lbs for 24 hours.

Then I would test the next day (after lowering pressure of course) and then maybe leave pressure at 10-15psi .

I have done all ways, but I agree with other posts, if you can be patient, hook up to the keg at 10-15 and let her sit for two weeks.

What I have found though, is since the cider has little proteins to cause foam, you can carb anyway level you like and then serve at 4-5 psi and have no trouble. Some I carb like a champagne, and some I carb like a strongbow (High to Medium)

Watch out though, this stuff will go fast.

I plan on it going fast I'm making it for my moms 55th birthday

ok, so need for potassium sorbate or magnesium if kegging?

I assume you mean .."no need". That is correct as long as you keep it cold

If you are kegging, and your keg will always be chilled, then the above advice about not needing to stop the yeast will likely work. But, if you are not sure that your keg will always be chilled, then I would stop the yeast in either of the ways you suggested (pasteurizing or using camden and sorbate) before backsweetening, or use a non-fermentable to backsweeten.