RugenBrau

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I've been making cider for a few years and this site has taught mehow much I don't know! It is a great resource and thanks to you all. Could someone please tell me what cold crash means? Thanks

Tusch

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It means that you put your carboy somewhere cold, a refrigerator generally or outside or in a basement if either is sufficiently cold. The cold forces the sediment in solution to collect and drop to the bottom of the carboy. This can be used to quicken clearing, or some people use it to stabilize the brew by hopefully removing all of the yeast in solution so after a racking, no yeast remains.

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Meads: Leap Year, MAOM, Habanero/Serrano Capsicumel \m/ Oo \m/, Show Mead for Berry Melomel and Cinnamon Vanilla Metheglin
Ciders:3 Ciders with differing additives TBD, Strawberry/Apple Cider
Wine: Trader Joe's Triple Berry Wine for SWMBO, Cherry Port, planning my Black Currant Vanilla Wine, Banana Wine

BigKahuna

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Right you are...but I just want to mention for safety reasons....
Cold Crashing will NOT stabilize your brew (or wine) I cold crash ALL THE TIME, and never have a problem bottle carbing.

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Coastarine

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I think maybe what he meant was cold crashing and maintaining a cold temp will work to stabilize, like if I wanted to halt a cider, keg it, and force carb.

edit: It sounds like that's not what he meant after I reread that, but that should still work anyway.

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Tusch

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Well I should have used more italics and quotations etc, because I would never try to stabilize a cider merely by cold crashing. The idea of just trying to rack off of "all" the yeast to prevent a new fermentation is way to risky. If I backsweeten, I would not hesitate to use k-meta and sorbates.

A few people have poked up recently saying that they just cold crash then backsweeten, and that scares me.

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Meads: Leap Year, MAOM, Habanero/Serrano Capsicumel \m/ Oo \m/, Show Mead for Berry Melomel and Cinnamon Vanilla Metheglin
Ciders:3 Ciders with differing additives TBD, Strawberry/Apple Cider
Wine: Trader Joe's Triple Berry Wine for SWMBO, Cherry Port, planning my Black Currant Vanilla Wine, Banana Wine

CvilleKevin

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I have stabilized ciders by cold crashing for years and it works fine. Last year I put up 20 kegs, four of which I cold crashed with no problems (cold crashing carboys is a pain though). I also bottled over 100 liters last year from individual gallon batches, that I cold crashed at sgs ranging from 1.002 to 1.010 and I had no bottle carbonation over the past year.

You cant stabilize a sweet cider and then bottle carb though - unless you are using some percentage of non fermentable sugar, in which case it will stabilize on its own anyway.

Last year I did have one bottle break - that was with a wild yeast that I cold crashed at 1.020, so I knew I was taking a risk there.

What I do when I cold crash is I rack the cider first. Then I refrigerate for a couple days at about 36F. Then I rack it again into bottles or keg.

Buktwild

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I'm a noob here but trying to sort out lots of incoming data...

(Hypothetically) I have a given batch that has been in primary for 3 weeks. Airlock activity is nil. Cold Crashing the batch would help clear the brew of sediment but leave me with live yeast in solution, so adding priming sugar to my secondary just before bottling will give me carbonation?
Other than clear vs cloudy, what are the advantages or faults with Cold Crashing?
I've read differant things on the assorted forums here about cold conditioning (I hope that is the right terminology) but it seems the time allowed for carbonization to develop in beer is longer than what is suggested for cider. For beer it's ~3 weeks, while for cider it is a matter of days.
Am I correct in this?
And what about a hybrid, like Graff where the brew is mostly a cider but with beer making ingredients and methods involved in the process?

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I don't remember a lot of the 1970s but I did have a good time.

CvilleKevin

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It depends on the yeast that you are using. If you cold crash with ale or wheat yeast, the yeast will flocculate and the resulting cider will be stable (if you are careful not to pick up any sediment on the final rack). If you are crashing so that the cider stays stable (which is what I usually do) it also helps to use juice organic (low nitrogen fertilizer) apples and dont add any nutrients. That way, if any yeast do remain, they wont get very far because of low nutrient levels.

If you use a lager or chamagne yeast, these will typically not floc completely and enough will remain in suspension to continue fermentation.

Also, if you add malt, the yeast is less likely to floc completely

As far as carb time for cider, there are lots of variables: temperature, type of yeast, etc

Buktwild

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People bottling, it will have SUPERB taste and drinkability after the standard 3 week bottling period for carbonating.


I found this on page 1 of the Graff thread. DOH!! Now I'm bugged, wondering where I read that cider had such a short conditioning period.

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I don't remember a lot of the 1970s but I did have a good time.

CvilleKevin

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graff is not the same thing as cider. depending on yeast, temps and sg at bottling, it can take as little as 24hrs to carb a cider