1 year old cider help

[Bobbys]

I've made about 6 batches of cider to date. Always with Rougemont apple juice from Costco. Simple process of fermenting down to 1.010 adding some caramel syrup and back sweetening with 3 cans of frozen apple concentrate. Wait 4-5 days to carb and either bottle pasteurize or store in the fridge. I decided to try the same process with some fresh pressed cider from a local orchard. The juice was freshly pressed and unpasteurized, distributed from our local beer store. They recommended treating with a bit of meta for a day or 2 then adding your yeast. Long story short, it fermented well, added my caramel syrup and frozen apple concentrate and bottled like I usually do. After the 4-5 days tried a bottle and really didn't like the taste, it was very tart and sour. I decided to to empty all the bottles back into the fermentor and left it there for three months then racked it, again 3 months later. Now its been a little over a year and the taste seems to have mellowed out some. How would I proceed to back sweeten and carb this batch now, a year later. Would there be any yeast left to carb up ? Should I add some yeast with the caramel syrup and frozen apple concentrate ? How much for this 5 gal batch ? What type ?
Sorry for the long winded essay, apprecited any and all comments and suggestions.

 

[Bobbys]

anyone ? I guess I will just add a 1/2 pack of EC-1118 yeast and my sugars and hope it carbonates.

 

[bernardsmith]

What I would do is remove a small quantity of your cider and add some sugar. So, for example, if you removed say 1 pt and measure the actual gravity. Add 2 oz of sugar. This should raise the gravity by .040. Measure the gravity to confirm the actual rather than predicted gravity. Allow this mixture to "ferment" a couple or three days and measure the gravity. If it has dropped significantly then your yeast is still viable. If it has not changed then the probability the yeast in the remaining 4 7/8 gallons has shifted off their mortal coil is pretty much a forgone conclusion, and it makes sense to add a little more yeast if you intend to prime. Hope is for dreamers. Wine makers (I include cider makers in that term) should rely more on science.

 

[Bobbys]

Thanks for the reply. took your advice and pulled a pint of cider out. Checked s.g. it was .998. Then added 2 oz of sugar as suggested and checked the s.g. again , it was 1.038. So now I poured the cider into a 600ml bottle with a air lock and we keep an eye on it for visible signs of any activity and after 3 days I'll measure the s.g again an see where it at.
Thanks for the help.