Will my plan work?

[DFjorde]

I have been brewing beer for awhile now but wanted to make a cider for a gluten free friend.
I currently have roughly 5 gallons of cheap unfiltered apple juice from the store that I pitched with some Red Star champagne yeast along with some sugar to up the abv and this has been bubbling along pretty well for just over a week now.
My plan is to let this ferment completely then rack it off into a carboy with some fruit and spices to flavor it. At this point I expect that the cider will be pretty dry and not have much apple flavor so I want to backsweeten it to taste with some higher quality juice. The thing is this will make the cider really cloudy again.
Hopefully this makes sense up to this point but I'm having trouble coming up with what to do next. I was thinking of clearing it with gelatin but I don't know if this works to clear the apple pulp or just yeast. I also want to bottle carb so, would this leave enough yeast to carb or would I have to repitch? In the bottles, I was planning to add some extra sugar so the sugar content doesn't drop too much. To stop the ferment I'm hoping to pasturize using the dishwasher. Will this plan work?

 

[Saabmike]

To my knowledge everything sounds good! you wont have any problems with yeast not carbonating. i would recommend using like frozen juice concentrate or maybe even make your own but staright juice will do fine also! the part you lost me was at the Dishwasher pasteurizing? im not sure if i have read any success with that method. i try to preach my sous vide emersion cooker method(~165-180 for atleast 10 minutes). Im not sure if your dishwasher will give the same desired outcome.

 

[DFjorde]

The part you lost me was at the Dishwasher pasteurizing? im not sure if i have read any success with that method. i try to preach my sous vide emersion cooker method(~165-180 for atleast 10 minutes). Im not sure if your dishwasher will give the same desired outcome.

I saw a thread somewhere about it. My dishwasher seems like it gets hot enough (159ish?) but I'll run a thermometer through and see. They could also be in for longer if that would help.

 

[Corey Fish]

Hey There- First off, exactly how gluten free is your friend? I believe some dry yeasts contain trace amounts of gluten that gets used in the preservation process, so maybe double check on that.

Secondly, go ahead and add some fruit and spice, but time will also work wonders on bringing out the subtle aromas of your cider. Think 3-6 months. If you add more juice to backsweeten, the yeast will simply start working and chew up all the sugar (if your juice has cleared before you add the juice, it'll get cloudy again as the yeasts multiply.

For clearing, you could try something simple like pectic enzyme, which is all I use in my ciders and they clear just fine, though typically pectic is added prior to fermentation.

Read the stove top pasteurization sticky. As far as I know, dishwashers won't get hot enough. If you want a sweet, bottle carbed cider, your only practical options are to force carb in a keg then bottle using a bottling gun, OR pasteurize on the stove top which comes with it's own very important details as well as risks. If you go this method, be VERY careful.

If it were me, I would let it go to dry as you suggest, backsweeten to taste, then pay extremely close attention to the carbonation process (and read the details in the stove pasteurization sticky) and then bottle pasteurize.

Also, after you rack off of any fruit or spices, you could just let it sit for a while. Who knows, you might like it just fine all by itself.

 

[ebbelwoi]

Another option is to stabilize with k-meta and k-sorbate, then force carb in soda bottles with a CO2 tank and a carbonation cap. Works well for me.