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A sweet carbonated cider is the hardest kind! As stated, you need to stop the yeast. Personally I never liked using additives to do this so after I adjusted the sweetness of the brew and had capped my bottles, I would test the carbonation levels over a few days until it was where I wanted (open...

I made this which tastes pretty good - its just not real clear. A fair bit of crud from the ingredients moving around during ferment but does the job! Not a great carbonation either... Ginger Beer 12/10/2012 - 1150 hrs Krausen Collar 1 x med chilli chopped ~350g fresh ginger sliced unpeeled 2...

This is a recipe I made using the canned pear juice and I love it... Was a bit pricey so I made a small batch. I have since slowly accumulated enough juice for a 23L brew which I hope to put down soon for a cold ferment with Nottingham yeast. I have posted this before in case you feel a little...

That will be fine. Ale yeasts retain flavours that champagne yeasts strip out (not that I'm against champagne yeasts, I use EC-1118 a lot). I've made a couple with Safale, Nottingham and am going to try a low temp Saflager brew too.

Here's my brew notes… 1 Dec 2012 - 1715 hrs 1 Gallon Batch 200g dark brown sugar 1 kg of Pear halves mashed in own juice 1 tsp yeast nutrient Topped up with canned Pear juice (4.5 x 850mL cans used) 5g pectinol EC-1118 yeast rehydrated OG - 1065 7 Dec 2012 Stopped...

Someone who has made 5 posts on one forum may have made 5000 on another, you have to start somewhere. Forums are for advice based on personal experience so take what you want from each post and offer up what you deem appropriate.

Which store bought cider are you comparing yours to? There are so many more processes done commercially than a homebrewer would even consider. Some store boughts are called cider but are nothing more than sparkling cordial diluted with a stripped down fermented apple fluid loaded with...

For a sweeter cider, you would need to check the gravity with a hydrometer and pasteurise when the gravity is higher - like 1010 - 1030 depending on how sweet you want it. Be careful bottling at these gravities though, if they aren't pasteurised, they will explode for sure. Stopping primary...

I promise to be careful - it is after all, for a good cause!!!

Agreed but I have over 150 x 500mL bottles of homebrew cider that were pasteurised this way - one batch stopped at about 1030 gravity, a real freight train fermentation too - that have been stopped. Having said that, my temps were taken with a cheap digital thermometer with a wired probe going...

I wait until the test bottle is really hard then put the batch into the dishwasher. I choose the dishwasher setting with the hottest temp and run the cycle. My dishwasher claims its intensive cycle is 70 deg (gets up to about 40-50 when full of bottled cider) and runs for 2hrs 15 mins. The lower...

Pasteurising is for carbonated sweet ciders. A dry cider natural ferments out, ie - the yeast have nothing left to eat. They are easily carbonated in the bottle the same way as a beer, without needing to pasteurise. Try the range of ciders from Westons. More along the lines of what you'll be...

The small batch I mentioned wasn't with the kit - it was all juice and pear halves. I haven't made a kit without the pear slices so can't compare. I would suggest tasting the brew before adding the flavour to see if you think its needed or not - something I didn't do at the time.

I pasteurise my bottled ciders in my dishwasher all the time with great success. It gradually warms up the bottles rather than dunking into a hot pot. Set and forget, if they blow - and I've only had one go - its all contained and easily cleaned up.

I still have the remnants of my brew started in September... I don't hate it but its not usually the first homebrew cider I reach for!!! I've brewed a small batch - 4.5L - using 100% canned pear juice and dark brown sugar - now that I liked... was expensive for juice but worth it. Slowly...

Secondary will get your brew off the dead yeast and help flavours develop (with or without additions) and mellow out the alcohol if its a high ABV. Will also assist in clearing your brew. Champagne yeast will make it dry, you can add apple juice concentrate at bottling and pasteurise in the...

My mistake, my kit was $40 and the little packet was "Pear Flavour". For mine, it still gave a taste of something artificial.

Leave it at least 3 weeks to a month. Then add your additional ingredients. Best practice would be add the new ingredients to another fermenter, close to the total volume of your brew, syphon your fermented cider on top of it and top up the secondary fermenter (into the neck) with more juice...

Don't do it!!! Oxidising factor - if you aerate your brew after fermentation, you risk turning it to vinegar. When transferring to a secondary, avoid pouring, even carefully - best is to syphon with the hose emptying at the bottom of the new vessel using an auto syphon.

Its basically dextrose and maltodextrin - so sugar and more sugar - my understanding is that the maltodextrin has some unfermentable sugars so gives a little residual sweetness and more head retention. This is probably more true for beer but I used it because I had it on hand. With the 1.75kg...