First batch of cider

Tomorrows the big day, botteling my first batch of cider.
any last minute advice for a newbie?

Clean wash rinse everything

It is pretty much impossible to get residual sweetness in a sparkling cider without force carbonation. Will this be a still cider in wine bottles?

RobertRGeorge said:

It is pretty much impossible to get residual sweetness in a sparkling cider without force carbonation. Will this be a still cider in wine bottles?

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I plan on bottle carbonating. 12oz beer bottles

I made 2 gallons of cider and wanted it to be sparkling so I placed a plastic water bottle with the same cider that I bottled into glass bottles, and used the plastic water bottle as a gauge for the pressure build up. When the plastic bottle was rock hard I placed the glass bottles in the fridge. This took a couple of weeks at a temperature of 72-74* and no bottle bombs.

This will likely be a very dry cider. I have found that some residual sweetness balances out the tartness of the acids. I've used both White Labs English Cider and Sweet Mead yeasts, and have not been able to get the fermentation to stop before complete dryness. I guess you could try adding extra sugar and pasteurizing the bottles after about a week but that is an iffy experiment I'd hesitate to try. I've also tried using wine yeast and bottling in swing top prosecco bottles after about a week of fermentation, then into the fridge, but again, fermented to dryness and the bottles gushed big time when opened. Another option is to pour a small amount of sugar syrup into the glasses before adding the sparkling dry cider, and stirring gently before serving. Good luck!