i curious as to your cider recipe? must everything i've read suggests letting it age for a couple months. would really like to get a key of apple cider ready by christmas.
regarding your quick turnaround, wheats (some) can be done in a couple weeks if your kegging. but i have to be honest they do taste better at 4 or so weeks.
The first time I tried it I let it ferment out all the way, but I as well as SWMBO did not like how it tasted, and we were more so looking for a classic cider taste, because after it fermented out it was to dry and even back sweetening it wasn't great.
So I am still working on perfecting this recipe, because I am looking for that good balance of natural cider taste, alcohol and sweetness. But out of 6 batches this is the recipe that has produced the best results for me:
1.5 lbs Dark Brown Sugar
1 lbs of Honey
A smidgen of Cinnamon
5 Gallons of Cider
1 pkg of Nottingham yeast
Take about 5 cups of cider and warm it to about 90 degrees. Mix in the sugar and honey till they are dissolved.
Add the smidgen of cinnamon to the bottom of the fermenter, and pour the sugar/honey/cider on top of it. Then pour in the remainder of the cider into the fermenter. Pitch the yeast, and put it in a closet for 7 days.
7 days later, check the taste as well as the SG, (I have found that it tends to be ~ 6.5% ABV after the 7 days).
Optional Step but recommended:
Put it in the fridge for a day, to let the majority of the sediment fall out and it will also solidify a bit making it easier to siphon to the bottling bucket and not get as much sediment. Otherwise be prepared for 1/4 inch of sediment.
Then after it sits, put it in a bottling bucket and bottle the cider. Make sure to fill a 20 oz coke bottle because this is how you will know how much carbonation is in the bottles and when it is time to bottle pasteurize.
And then I pasteurize the bottles once the coke bottle is firm to the touch (Usually about a day) using the bottle pasteurization method in this thread:
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f32/easy-stove-top-pasteurizing-pics-193295/
Then I start enjoying my cider that day... Because I am impatient and it tastes good.