posthumorous

Recipes 

So a week ago I pressed about a gallon of fresh cider, and am looking to ferment it. I've only had 2 hard ciders in my life, some Woodchuck variety which was way too sweet for me, and the regular Crispin which I liked a lot.

Would making something along the lines of Crispin require back-sweetening? Is there any way to do so without artificial sweeteners?

I have a packet of Nottingham yeast, and a slap pack of Wyeast cider yeast, which would you recommend? Should I use the whole pack, even though it's a 1 gallon batch?

Do I need to pasteurize? How would I do this?

Can I bottle condition/carbonate post fermentation? Or will this cause bottle bombs?

Pardon my ignorance, thanks in advance for the help!

Pratzie

Recipes 

First, back sweetening is easy with juice concentrates. Depending on what flavor u want u can add as little or as much as u want.

Two, my only experience was with Nottingham and it worked great. Either way for a one gallon batch, do NOT use the entire packet.

Three, pasteurize only if u want a carbonated cider. You'd pasteurize when it hits the level of carbonation u want. U CAN pasteurize now since it was fresh pressed to kill off any wild yeast and bacteria that may have been on the skins of the apples, but it might be easy and better to use Campden tablets and wait 24 hours.

Four, as far as how to pasteurize, do a search. I'd recommend searching for the "Stove top pasteurization method" and read most if not all of the thread. It will show I everything u need to know, especially how to prevent bottle bombs, which are a part of the bottle carbing. Or u could just make a still cider and avoid the carbing and risk of bottle bombs altogether.

I'd also read this in its entirety, it gave me a lot of good ideas and info.
http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f32/results-juice-yeast-sugar-experiments-83060/

And for some more good cider stuff check out this recipe and thread. A lot of good feedback from people about modifying the recipe.
http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f32/caramel-apple-hard-cider-292770/

Good luck!

__________________
Bottled: Caramel Apple Hard Cider, Bavarian Hefeweizen, Belgian Dubbel
Kegged:
Primary: Cream of Three Crops Ale
Secondary: Empty
Aging/Conditioning:
Bottle Priming:
On Deck: Deception Cream Stout, BierMuncher's SWMBO Slayer, Yooper's Oatmeal Stout, Joe's Ancient Orange Mead, Blood Orange Hefeweizen
Rest In Peace: American Wheat, Cream Ale, Sweet Stout, Lemon-Lime American Pale Wheat

posthumorous

Recipes 

Thanks for such a detailed response! Do you have any idea how much of the packet I should use? I was thinking maybe a teaspoon or so

Pratzie

Recipes 

That could work maybe even a little less

__________________
Bottled: Caramel Apple Hard Cider, Bavarian Hefeweizen, Belgian Dubbel
Kegged:
Primary: Cream of Three Crops Ale
Secondary: Empty
Aging/Conditioning:
Bottle Priming:
On Deck: Deception Cream Stout, BierMuncher's SWMBO Slayer, Yooper's Oatmeal Stout, Joe's Ancient Orange Mead, Blood Orange Hefeweizen
Rest In Peace: American Wheat, Cream Ale, Sweet Stout, Lemon-Lime American Pale Wheat