Sweet carbonated cider combo

[JEP32]

Trying out my first cider. Maybe went a little overboard on flavors for my first go with a blackberry thai mint. My real question is what is the best combo you have used to achieve a slightly sweet and carbonated final? I have read a lot of people saying stevia gives a funny after taste but Im not to keen on using xylitol...not that im pouring it into my dogs bowl, but spills happen. Does lactose work well in a cider? Right now the combo im leaning towards is stevia for sweetness, regular sugar (or maybe brown sugar) to carb. Im really making this for my parents who like a courser bubbled cider. Any thoughts?

 

[Chalkyt]

My first thought is SO4 yeast, but it is probably a bit late for that. I find that SO4 generally finishes a bit above 1.000. A current batch that I bottled at 1.004 is light on carbonation. When I opened a bottle and degassed it, the "finished" SG was 1.003 six weeks after bottling so there had been hardly any carbonation.

Anyhow, one alternative is to load up with sugar to, say SG 1.005 and bottle. It won't do anything for sweetness but should give you carbonation around 2 - 2.5 volumes of CO2 after a few weeks. A better option which involves a bit more effort, is to load up with sugar or AJC to around 1.009 then bottle. You will need to monitor the SG using a sacrifice bottle and hydrometer or just the squeeze test with your cider in a sealed plastic soda bottle (when it is hard you are somewhere round 2.5 vols).

When you think it is ready, heat pasteurise by putting the bottles in a container of 80C water for about 10-12 minutes then remove them... see Pappers method at the top of the forum or look up JimRausch's cooler method (see a post 16 April 2018). In both cases as the bottles heat up, the water will cool down to an equilibrium point of somewhere around 65C-70C . At this temperature internal bottle pressure shouldn't reach much more than 120psi which most bottles can handle for a short time (but treat them as potential bottle bombs using gloves and face protection just in case, until they cool down and pressure returns to normal).

 

[JEP32]

My first thought is SO4 yeast, but it is probably a bit late for that. I find that SO4 generally finishes a bit above 1.000. A current batch that I bottled at 1.004 is light on carbonation. When I opened a bottle and degassed it, the "finished" SG was 1.003 six weeks after bottling so there had been hardly any carbonation.

Anyhow, one alternative is to load up with sugar to, say SG 1.005 and bottle. It won't do anything for sweetness but should give you carbonation around 2 - 2.5 volumes of CO2 after a few weeks. A better option which involves a bit more effort, is to load up with sugar or AJC to around 1.009 then bottle. You will need to monitor the SG using a sacrifice bottle and hydrometer or just the squeeze test with your cider in a sealed plastic soda bottle (when it is hard you are somewhere round 2.5 vols).

When you think it is ready, heat pasteurise by putting the bottles in a container of 80C water for about 10-12 minutes then remove them... see Pappers method at the top of the forum or look up JimRausch's cooler method (see a post 16 April 2018). In both cases as the bottles heat up, the water will cool down to an equilibrium point of somewhere around 65C-70C . At this temperature internal bottle pressure shouldn't reach much more than 120psi which most bottles can handle for a short time (but treat them as potential bottle bombs using gloves and face protection just in case, until they cool down and pressure returns to normal).

Yeah, I pitched a Lalvin K1-V1116 already unfortunately. It finished at 1.001. I definitely need to do some more research on pasteurization methods. Is it completely necessary if I plan on drinking it relatively soon? I also have potassium sorbate and campden for normal wine stabilization. Is this a sufficient preservative?