Thoughts on Cider

[bhfd64]

My fiance just started a new job, and her boss also runs an apple orchard! Naturally I'll be taking advantage of this situation and snatching up a few gallons of pre-sorbate cider.

I have a dozen or so beer brews under my belt but I'm very new to ciders and wines. I like sweeter apple tasting ciders. I don't have a kegging operation and I don't like the idea of using artificial sweeteners or Stevia, so I think I'm just going to create a still cider.

I'd like an OG around 1.065 and assume my cider by itself will be well shy of that. I'm looking for some recommendations of what to use to bring the OG up.

I think I'm also going to use champagne yeast so it ferments out thoroughly and has a high alcohol content.

My thought on back sweetening was to use the same cider I'm fermenting, except post-sorbate. I'm going to do a 6 gallon batch and buy another gallon for sweetening to taste. Would there be enough potassium sorbate in a partial gallon to stabilize my cider or will I need to add some additional?

Thanks for any advice.

 

[bhfd64]

Actually looking at the numbers now I don't think I need such a high OG. Looks like with champagne yeast it would ferment a cider to 6.5-7%abv with an OG of 1.048. That'd be good enough for me and probably close to the natural sugar content of the cider.

I guess my main question is about the preservatives in the cider used to back sweeten.

 

[LeBreton]

There will not be enough potassium sorbate in the singe gallon to stabilize a 7 gallon batch, definitely add more.

 

[gratus fermentatio]

If you're wanting still & high abv, why not make a cyser? Roughly 3lbs honey per gallon of volume (21lbs for your 7 gallon batch). It'll be something nice to sip on in a couple years.
Regards, GF.