Still hard cider - newbie question

I want to make a still hard cider for Christmas. I have located a local cider maker and his cider is simply amazing (at least for straight drinking).

The plan is to boost the gravity up a tad using cane sugar, add pectic enzyme, ferment with S-04 until 1.008-1.012, add tanin/acid blend if necessary, rack off the lees and cold crash for 2 days, bottle and immediately pasteurize using Papper's method.

Any obvious flaws in this plan ? The cider is UV pasteurized.

jfr1111 said:

Any obvious flaws in this plan ?

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nope

I should add that if its still hard in 5 hours to seek out the help of a doctor.

I apologize for that one as well.

Looks good. I recommend brown sugar if you're killing fermentation before its dry, it'll taste great. Just be sure to get as much ageing in as possible before drinking!

Thanks everybody. Turns out I can also buy unpasteurized. Which one would be better or does it make no difference ? There's no difference in taste that I can discern. Brown sugar is a good idea. I also have simple invert sugars (#1 and #2) that I use in my english beers. I might give that a shot too.

BTW, still hard after 5 hours is an average saturday night with the gf.























Not

Unpasteurized usually clears better. UV pasteurization doesnt affect the taste much, but it sets the pectins.

CvilleKevin said:

Unpasteurized usually clears better. UV pasteurization doesnt affect the taste much, but it sets the pectins.

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Would bottle pasteurization (what I'm planning on doing) mess with clarity then ? I'm making this for my gf and her side of the family and they probably won't find a cloudy cider to their liking, even if it is good.

Would bottle pasteurization (what I'm planning on doing) mess with clarity then ?

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no because any pectins should already be cleared by then