My first batch wsa sweet and awesome. My second, using APple Coder rather than Apple juice (with about 6 cans of concentrate on each batch) came out sour and not at all tasty.
I used the ferment to really low and backsweeten process, then bottle and stove-top pasteurize to get a little carbonation and a little sweetness with both batches. Now that I think of it I used an ale yeast cake in both cases and maybe they were different ones, I will have to look. Will that have an effect?
I bought a couple kegs from a dude in Charlottesville who happens to make hard cider for a living and now that I keg he said I should just 'cold-crash', and that its super easy. I was in a hurry so didn't have much time to chat, but it sounds like I just keg while it's on it's way down before it loses it's original sweetness and throw it in the fridge. Will that stop yeast enough so that it retains some sweetness? I can just carb it on CO2 at that point.
Or, should I keg once the yeast slows down and backsweeten with a non-fermentable? If so what non-fermentable should I use? I don't like the idea of unnatural stuff, but if it tastes good who cares I guess?
Also, can I use irish moss in this, would I just add it when I pitch yeast?