This is my first post on the forum and it comes after a bunch of internet research and reading 40 pages of posts on just this thread
, so at least I did my homework before posting. This thread is the answer to the question I had be asking for years and I appreciate it a lot!!! I have one thing that I wanted to bring up as it has been hinted to in this thread but not spelled out directly.
I see two common problems with making sparkling sweet hard cider in this fashion. First bottle bombs due to over-carbonation and second cider that does not clear. Obviously it can not be stressed enough that a person needs to open a test bottle before pasteurizing regardless of the technique and processes used up to that point, but also I believe there is a secondary solution that applies to both. Rather than stopping the fermentation at a particular SG to maintain natural sweetness go ahead and ferment it out dry. This will allow the cider to clear. Then back-sweeten/prime, bottle, carbonate and then pasteurize. If a person is worried that by fermenting out all the natural sweetness and then back sweetening with sugar will effect the taste, use apple concentrate. I personally prefer back sweetening with brown sugar.
My reason for this conclusion is this, first if it clears in the primary fermenter it won't need to clear in the bottle which will also have the benefit of reduced sediment. Second and this is the big one by letting it clear you significantly reduce the amount of yeast in the bottle which will slow down carbonation, resulting in more control over how carbonated the cider is and reduce the chance of bottle bombs. As I was reading all the different accounts of success and failure the people who reported problems with this technique, more often than not, were people who were working with young cider that was still fairly active. Just my observations. could be totally wrong so feel free to correct me if I am missing something.
I have not yet done the technique in this thread to get both bubbles and sweetness but will on my next batch. In the past I always pasteurized prior to bottling for a still sweet cider. I fermented the cider out dry, racked it in to a sauce pan, brought it up to temperature, sweetened, then bottled it still hot. By bottling it hot it not only had the benefit of self pasteurization but also created a better seal because a slight vacuum was created when it cooled.
