Cider to keg to carb then sweeten to bottle

[V-Fib]

So I've read hours worth of contradicting info on carbing and back sweetening cider that my head is spinning. I racked to a keg last night with plans to back sweeten while it was carbing then move from the keg to bottles in 2 weeks once its carbed up. I added 5 crushed campden tabs and 2.5 tsp of potassium sorbate last night. At the time I was of thr mind set that the yeast would be sent to Davy Jones Locker. However after reading more it seems like if I add apple juice concentrate the yeast still has a chance to pick back up with the risk of drying out again or making bombs once bottled.

I planned on simply dropping the additives in, waiting 24 hr, adding the apple juice concentrate 1 can per 24 hr till I was happy with it, then carb, bottle and store at basement temp (60f).

Now I'm guessing I should carb, guess on how many cans of concentrate to add, then bottle and stove top pasteurize. I'd like to not use artificial sweeteners but I'd humor the idea for keeping it simple.

 

[dlettow]

I tried the bottle pasteurization route. To many cases of bottles exploiding leading to nightmares of one blowing up in my face. People have success with it, but not me. I used it as an excuse to convince myself and my wife to spend a few hundred bucks and invest in a kegging setup. Way cheaper than an ER visit.

Anyways, I've been using potassium sorbate and campden tablets as you describe before sweetening for a while without issue. I do use some apple juice concentrate to sweeten too. I mix some brown sugar, a little water, and a can of concentrate. I bring the mixture up to around 160-180 deg F, which I believe kills anything off that's in the unpasteurized juice concentrate.

 

[Cheesy_Goodness]

Not exactly the same thing but I did something similar with a summer shandy. I brewed a beer, fermented as normal. When it was done and had conditioned for a while I added campden and potassium sorbate. It was blended with a lemonade-ish drink and force carbed. It spent most of its life in the keg but I did bottle some after that. They weren't in there for very long but carbonation level seemed exactly the same as coming from the keg.

YMMV but in my limited experience I think that's a solid strategy. The only thing you could add to the process to be sure is to cold crash before racking to a keg and adding stabilizers, but I'm not entirely sure that's necessary. Just be sure that fermentation is complete and you should be good.

 

[Maylar]

I planned on simply dropping the additives in, waiting 24 hr, adding the apple juice concentrate 1 can per 24 hr till I was happy with it, then carb, bottle and store at basement temp (60f).

You will be fine with this. With Campden and sorbate there will be no more fermentation.

 

[Drewed]

....

I planned on simply dropping the additives in, waiting 24 hr, adding the apple juice concentrate 1 can per 24 hr till I was happy with it, then carb, bottle and store at basement temp (60f)....

This is exactly what you want to do. You can probably do more than one can per 24 hrs. The sweetness really shouldn't change over time.