It's gonna be tough to hit the sweetness you want if you have to bottle it. I'd say your best chance is to try to manage the yeast very carefully. Either pick a lower attenuating yeast, or maybe hold off on any nutrient additions in the hope that it finishes high.

The other option is to sweeten to taste in the bottling bucket then keep the bottles cold and don't let them ferment. Or you could try heat pasteurizing the bottles to kill any yeast in suspension. Either way, it would be uncarb'd cider.

Started 2 batches:

#1 OG 1.060 (higher than I expected)
5 gallons straight cider
I'll be pitchinging White Labs English Cider yeast

#2 OG 1.070
5 gallons cider
1 lb dark brown sugar
1 lb orange blossom honey
I'll be pitchinging White Labs sweet mead yeast
2 lbs of raspberries in the secondary



I think I am going to invest in a few cases of champagne bottles. That should curb any bottle bombs, and I can make it sparkling.

the English cider yeast took off, but the sweet mead yeast isn't doing anything.

Temps are about 68-69F. Is the sweet mead yeast that temperature dependant that it needs 70+?

It would be so easy to turn this above post into the "record number of entries in cider" direction...... But I won't.

No apples here, but we have pineapples - is pineapple cider possible?

So I called the LHBS and they said get the mead yeast into the 70's. Suggested some more yeast nutrient and another shot of 0^2 while I was at it.

Looks like I need to find a spot upstairs where the wife won't go nuts about it.

I moved the fermenter with the sweet mead yeast up to the landing area(halfway point) of the stairs going to the basement. It took off, and is going good.

So, now we got 2 carboys of cider getting happy.

Now time to find about 50 Champagne bottles.

Went to the health food store today and I can purchase similar apple juice here. This looks interesting.

I stopped by Trader Joe's today on the hunt for some frozen raspberries. They were out of the plain raspberries, but I did find Black Raspberries!!!! I bought three 12oz bags for the cyser's secondary!