Cider Help

[eastcoastbrent]

So I'm relatively new to cider making. I've put down a few batches with varying results, some excellent some just ok. Back in late October I was given 60L of fresh pressed cider from a neighbour to experiment with, It's a mix of apples of which the varieties are unknown to me. I added some brown sugar to get the OG up to 1.065 and it fermented out well with 3 different yeast strains in 3 separate carboys. A little too well in fact, I was away for 2 days and I returned to all 3 being at a reading of 1.00!!! So the cider I wanted at 6.5% was now 8.6% and almost sour, really lacking in apple flavour. So I've had them all cold crashing for a few months and I'd like to back sweeten with some fresh cider, also blending a bit to bring the ABV down. What would be the best approach here? Do I need to add sulphites and sorbate to the new fresh cider before adding it? Or do I have to pasteurize it? The previous cider was unpasteurized and the yeast was pitched the day it was pressed. I will be kegging all of this, some is getting hopped and some will be rested on cherries, and some on strawberries from last years harvest. I don't like the idea of chemicals being added (all the apples are organic) and I've read that pasteurizing fresh cider can really kill off some flavours. Any advice would be highly appreciated. I simply don't want all the newly added sugar fermented out, I can keep the kegs cold to slow the effect, but I'd like to force carb and bottle some to give away to friends and would hate to hand over bottle bombs to people I like lol.

 

[jhespe]

If you got to 1.00 after 2 days, I assume your carboys were way too warm. Flavor will be an issue. Temperature and Fermenting are really important. Cider will generally always get to 1.000 unless you stop it before it is done.
So, I know of a couple of ways to stop the yeast from creating more CO2, I will list with and without kegging equipment to try to be helpful to everyone.
1) No Keg. If you want to back-sweeten, 2 options, stuff like Xylotol/NutraSweet, will add sweetness and be ignored by yeast but I don't personally like the flavor/side effects much. Your other option is to pasteurize after reaching proper CO2 levels. So, basically, get the flavor the way you want, put it into bottles, wait 2-10 days as the yeast creates CO2 in the bottles, (depending on temperature) to get the CO2 to the level you want, then place the bottles in a 170 degree bath for 10-20 minutes to pasteurize.
2) With Keg. 2 choices. Flavor as you wish then Camden/Sulfite/Sorbate. Other choice is have 2 kegs, place fermented and back-sweetened cider in on keg then filter to second keg with .1 micron filter to remove yeast from finished product, then add CO2.
Enjoy