Gidday from Australia.
I seriously believe that you cannot make sweet sparkling cider unless adding the sugar just before drinking.
I recently made my first batch using pink lady apples as we do not have the same varieties to choose from as you. Once fully fermented and racked to pure clear liquid and with SG at zero and alcohol at 7% it seems to lose all of its apple flavour and does not taste very nice at all.
I then pasteurised at 70 deg C on the stove top for 30 minutes.
I then had clear, dry cider with no yeast living in it.
By retaining some of the yeast from the bottom of the container at racking you can now add 5 gms of sugar syrup, (must be syrup not granulated) to a 500 ml bottle, add a little yeast liquid then let the yeast go to work. When that 5 gms of sugar has been consumed your bottle would have the right amount if gas in it to sparkle ( in our warm client it takes about two weeks to fizz up). Once that sugar has been consumed the yeast have nothing left so they will go dormant.
Then you need to consult the chart that came with your hydrometer. I calculated that 13 gms of sugar per litre is required to bring your dry cider up to semi-sweet.
So make your sugar syrup by adding a little water to your sugar and stir over low heat until it is a clear liquid. How you add 6 gms to your 500 ml bottle is up to you but I am considering buying an injector of some sort to squirt exactly that amount into a sparkling glass of chilled cider. Yes we like it cold.
Result? You should now have SWEET SPARKLING CIDER without too much fiddling around. As the stock of dry cider has zero sugar in it, it is not going to burst your bottles either, so you can store it on a shelf forever without blowing up the kitchen.
Rgds Cliff Ferguson
Perth, Western Australia.
[email protected]