How to make Somersby style?

[Pavalijo]

In Portugal this year we tried Somersby, a sweet fizzy cider that was served over lots of ice with a couple of lemon slices. Not what I would normally go for but it was SO refreshing in the hot weather.
I have only made cider once before. I bottled it with a little sugar for fizz and some sweetener so it wasn’t bone dry. It’s ok but I wouldn’t do it again. It’s probably a bit more alcoholic than I would ideally want to drink as well.
However I would like to try and replicate the Somersby, and am thinking of drawing a bit out of the fermenter from time to time and testing it for sweetness by taste - then once it is not too dry stop the fermentation and force carbonate it in a keg and bottle it.
Does the panel think that will work - and how should I stop the fermentation? Camden tablets? And if so how many for a 20 litre batch?
I‘m lucky to have a friend who’s sister has an orchard with tons of unwanted apples. We will be picking them tomorrow.
Should I go for sweet red apples, cooking apples, russets or a good mix? I was thinking of about 10% crab apples as well for tannin.
I found an unused inherited Bosch garden shredder on Facebook marketplace for £40 so that will speed the job up!
TIA

 

[Pavalijo]

NoT much interest here - not too surprising as Somersby is not something I would drink through the winter but over ice in a hot summer day……

Anyway, after a bit more reading I’m heading towards getting to the desired level of fermentation (residual sweetness), racking into a secondary vessel to get rid of settled out yeast and then treating (in a cold shed, I don’t have a fridge to crash) with :
“Campden: 1 tablet per gallon
Potassium Sorbate: ½ tsp. per gallon”

I found an article (with the dosing rates quoted above) which was interesting, see HERE

 

[evil.soup]

NoT much interest here - not too surprising as Somersby is not something I would drink through the winter but over ice in a hot summer day……

Anyway, after a bit more reading I’m heading towards getting to the desired level of fermentation (residual sweetness), racking into a secondary vessel to get rid of settled out yeast and then treating (in a cold shed, I don’t have a fridge to crash) with :
“Campden: 1 tablet per gallon
Potassium Sorbate: ½ tsp. per gallon”

I found an article (with the dosing rates quoted above) which was interesting, see HERE

A bit of a thread revival simply because i have been taking a look at cider options. I quite like the Somersby cider also, so I was just curious how yours turned out?