I've made sparkling apple cider twice before. I guess it's more like a
champagne/wine than a cider, because I think they turned out to be about 11%
alcohol or so. I took the pure juice and cut it with just over an equal
amount of water. Added sugar, etc and femented. After 3 to 4 weeks and an
intermediate racking somewhere along the line, I racked into a secondary
containing sugar pre-dissolved in hot water. I used 1/4 cup of sugar per
imperial gallon. (I used corn the first time, cane the second time). I
bottled in standard 341 ml beer bottles with crown caps. I think I could
have cut back a bit on the sugar, since beers call for about 3/4 cup for an
entire 5 imp gal batch (or about 3/4ths of a teaspoon per beer bottle), but
I've made beers with vastly different amounts of sugar at bottling, and have
had no ill effects aside from some beers being a little bit more bubbly.
I've yet to lose one to explosion.

I bottled them dry. Haven't tried stabalizing and sweetening. I prefer dry
anyway.

I still have a couple bottles from 1996 and 1997. I think they should get
opened soon, maybe New Years Eve.

"Pete" > wrote in message
...
> This fall I pressed my own apples.
> I ended up with 10 gallons of cider aging in some stainless tanks.
>
> I took a taste the other day, it is dry and has a good apple aroma,
> with some tannin in the mouth.
>
> It seems to be what I want, but it fermented dry.
>
> What are my options to sweeten and carbonate the cider in bottles.
>
> I was thinking some with no sweetening and high carbonation (like
> champagne)
> And some that were sweet and slight carbonation like English cider.
>
> Can I use something like Splenda to sweeten, and corn sugar or LME for
> carbonation?
>
> Any suggestions.
>