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With the champagne yeast and all that honey and sugar, you are going to have a difficult time producing a sparkling cider. To be able to get a sparkling cider with any sweetness there needs to be enough unfermentable sugars in there so that when the yeast eats all the fermentable ones, there is still some sweetness left. Then when the yeast eats the priming sugar, carbonation is formed.
The problem with champagne yeast is that it will eat sugars other yeasts can't. Thus, the dryness. If there are enough preservatives in the additional apple juice to keep the yeast from eating the sugars in the juice, it will also stop the yeast from eating the priming sugar. The preservatives will be diluted too much to prevent the yeast from fermenting the additional juice. It may slow it down a little, but not in a predictable enough manner to be able to safely bottle it.
You best bet would be to go with a still cider. Kill the yeast with some sodium or potbuttium met, then sweeten to taste. If you still want to have it carbonated, then force carbonate it in a keg and use a counterpressure bottle filler to bottle it.
If you don't want to kill the yeast with chemicals, you are left with the choice of feeding it more sugar until the alcohol level (in excess of 15%) kills the yeast and then add sugar to the sweetness level you want.
Plastic carboysA late comment. I have been using plastic ( polyethelene) 25 litre fermenters ( ie 5 gals imp + headroom) for...
Next time, for a sparkling cider, use an ale yeast like Wyeast 1007 or Nottingham. Either one will stop with a reasonable level of sweetness left and will allow you to prime for carbonation. You will need to allow a couple extra weeks for these yeasts to settle out.
Wayne Bugeater Brewing Company
