Batch #10 (continued):

The approach that I came up with was:

• ferment 4 gallons dry
• age 4 cider in keg under slight pressure
• back-sweeten to taste
• refrigerate immediately after back-sweetening to prevent further fermentation

I think that this is a fairly standard process, with the exception of refrigerating immediately after back-sweetening. I did not want to use chemicals to kill the yeast, and didn’t trust myself to properly deactivate the yeast through cold crashing or filtering.

The 4 gallons and yeast were added to the carboy and allowed to ferment dry (~4 weeks). The cider was then racked of to a Cornelius keg, adding CO2 and bleeding off the O2. The cider was then allow to age for ~3 months. Once the cider had aged (6 months would probably be better, but who can wait!), the cider was back sweetened to taste (~½ gallon), resulting in a cider with SG of ~1.010. At this point, because there is active yeast, the cider must be refrigerated to keep fermentation from reactivating. The keg was placed in a refrigerator and attached to a CO2 tank to carbonate.

Drinking the cider has been great. The cider/juice blend did age a bit over the next month of drinking (something I wasn’t sure about, as this was my first time trying this process), with a noticeable change from a somewhat sweet cider (for our taste) for the first gallon to a very mellow dryer cider over the remainder. I don’t know if the initial sweetness was just a perception, as the juice and aged cider had not fully integrated, or because the carbonation was a bit low initially (I couldn’t wait to start drinking, and needed to adjust the pressure to reach the correct carbonation level), but the end product was a very drinkable cider that Amy and I (and friends) have really enjoyed.