Bottling question:

Have a batch of cider that has been sitting in the carboy since last year... Neglected and forgotten. Was about to pull some and taste it to see of it is still any good. Was wondering if it is still possible to bottle carbonate this in the regular manner, or of all the yeast will be dead? Was thinking if the yeast are dead that I could add some fresh yeast to the bottling bucket with my carbonating sugar?

Thoughts, suggestions?

Thanks,
Jon

Strangely the batch that I though had been infected fermented out to a sg of 1.0 or so, doesn't seem to have any strong vinegar taste, is BEAUTIFUL orange/amber color, bit doesn't have a lot of body to it. Chilling it now to see if it tastes a bit better cold. Definitely has an a slight alcohol burn in the aftertaste. Will have to look at my notes and see what I did to make it in the first place.

The other batch that I think was supposed to be an apple cherry blend had some slight woody notes to the flavor and a definite alcohol taste to it. Might have to back sweeten a bit to make it taste good. As is it is rather bland and very pale colored.

Still wondering if I can just add sugar and bottle...

If you want to just carbonate your dry cider, you can just add the usual ratio of priming sugar, whether it's corn sugar, honey, concentrate, juice, etc.

If you want to backsweeten, add the usual ratio, plus however much you want to provide residual sweetness. I recommend making samples of different SGs to see what you like. I made samples of 1.004, 1.007, 1.010, and 1.013 when I did this, and I liked the 1.010, so that is what I usually shoot for.

After backsweetening, bottle. Be sure to bottle at least 1 plastic water bottle so you know when you are ready to pasteurize. Then, pasteurize in accordance with the sticky:

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f32/easy-stove-top-pasteurizing-pics-193295/

whatever you do, let us know the outcome!