You can successfully make good cider without sulfites by following a few simple procedures. First you must use clean, sound fruit. Leave the dirt and the rot out. Second, sterility of anything that comes in contact with the cider is essential after the initial stages of fermentation. Third, once fermentation is close to finishing, exclusion of oxygen is crucial.
The high pH of apple juice will ward off most problem bugs and fortunately most apples grown in the US are high in acid compared to what is available in the UK or France, although pH and acid levels are not necessarily linked. A pH of equal to or greater than 3.5 is desirable. If less, add a bit of malic acid. Most larger US commercial ciders contain added malic acid - the acid that we connote to apples. In the traditional heart of cider making in the UK, less is more with regards to acid. I am convinced that our experience with what we call sweet cider (which unfortunately for them the UK knows nothing of) is why we prefer higher level of acid in our finished cider.
If you rely on naturally occurring yeast as I do, you may experience mold growth on the surface of the juice before fermentation kicks off. In that case, simply remove what you can see and the fermentation should take care of the rest. Cider is most prone to infection after the fermentation is complete, so exposing finished cider with no SO2 to air is asking for trouble, so fermenting to dryness and back sweetening at bottling is risky business. My suggestion is to bottle at whatever sweetness level you prefer +.005 for carbonation. Alternatively, you could ferment to dryness and back-sweeten, but the risk of film mold infection is much greater. The good thing is that surface yeast is usually self limiting in the bottle because it needs O2 to survive. either way, monitor CO2 levels by opening a bottle every couple of days. Once the carbibation is right, either refrigerate or pasteurize to preserve sweetness levels and protect from exploding bottles. These are the only options open to you if you want anything other than dry cider which is a rare acquired taste in this country. That is unless you sweeten artificially (Yuk). Obviously there will be sediment on the bottom of the bottle, but the in bottle fermentation and CO2 is what is protecting the cider from contamination. Also, w/o SO2, oxidation is a bigger issue, so shelf life will be reduced.
