First Cider attempt - Check my recipie please!

So my buddy has been hounding me to make a cider - I'm not much of a fan but he is.

This being August, choices for fresh cider aren't great, so I picked up 5 gallons of Zeigler's (sp?) and used it.

It was THEN I noticed that Zeigler's is pasteurized, but then again so is Tree Top and all the other brands the store has.

Will I be okay?

Here's my recipie:

5 gallons Zeigler's cider
1 lb brown sugar
Wyeast Cider Yeast.

How will this turn out?

Andy

Pasteurized is OK, what you want is apple juice with no yeast killing preservatives in it.

I am pretty sure Wyeast says the cider yeast needs some nutrient. You might drop in a quarter teaspoon of yeast nutrient if there seems to be some trouble.

If your friend doesn't like it just leave it on a shelf in a closet for six months or so and then let him try it again.

Ok - added a bit of the Wyeast nutrient. We'll see how we do.

That said - should I plan on kegging/force carbing this?

Andy

sounds good to me..

You will want to taste quite frequently to make sure it doesn't get to dry...

How do I keep it sweet? Crash cool the fermenter?

All of the Zeigler's I have seen also has preservatives. Did you find a style without?

PitsPale said:

How do I keep it sweet? Crash cool the fermenter?

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I have to kill off the yeasties with pot. sorbate? and then back sweeten with a can or 2 of apple juice concentrate

coffeegod said:

I have to kill off the yeasties with pot. sorbate? and then back sweeten with a can or 2 of apple juice concentrate

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Well, after fermentation is finished, you can stabilize with campden and sorbate. They work better when you use them together. You don't actually kill the yeast that way- but sorbate inhibits yeast reproduction. So, they are still there, but can't reproduce so fermentation shouldn't restart. After that, you can add sweetener to taste- honey, apple juice, sugar, etc. You can't bottle carbonate cider after you stabilize, though. You can make a sweet still cider or a carbonated dry cider easily, but if you want to carbonate a sweet cider you have to use unfermentable sweeteners like lactose.