First attempt at cider

Hi, I just joined, looks like a good site!

I've just started a cider, using about 600ml of concentrate, 6 litres of commercial juice, 1 kg of dextrose and "cider yeast" (I assume it's a wine yeast), all made up to 23L with water. Original SG was about 1.080. I added the juice to give it some more flavour, since the concentrate to water ratio seemed a bit weak.

The fermentation has died down a bit now (it had a BIG Krausen), SG is about 1.040.

What I want to do is get a strong, sweet apple flavour, maybe with some spices (strong alcohol content would be nice too, but I don't want to kill the taste).
How do I prevent the cider getting too dry, and what is a safe way to add cinnamon and cloves without causing infection? I thought of boiling them in a bag first, but what do I use for a bag?

Thanks for your help!

To keep some sweetness, you can either chemically kill off the yeast by adding a preservative or other compound designed to stop fermentation or you can pasteurize (heat to about 160 for 10-15 mins) your cider when it tastes good to you. To get more alcohol content and still maintain some sweetness, let it ferment completely, then add a non-fermentable sugar like lactose or Splenda to taste.

Make a spice "tea" by boiling about a cup of water, then steep the spices in it just like you would for tea. I wouldn't worry about using a bag, just dump the whole thing into the cider. The solids will settle out, and the flavor should remain.

Thanks!

Any ideas how much cinnamon and cloves for 23L (about 6 gallons I think)?

Also, how do you aerate the cider if the yeast have been killed? Do you have to use co2? I thought of just letting the alcohol get high enough to kill the yeast, then adding more sugar, but then I'd have the same problem.

If you kill the yeast, you will have a still/flat cider. If you want it bubbly, you will have to wait out the fermentation, then add a little sugar at bottling, or use carbonation drops.