cider recipe

i've brewed one five-gallon batch of cider and really enjoyed it. but i'd like to try again and correct any mistakes and off-tastes. but what i want the most is a good recipe. i plan on using nottingham yeast and cold-crashing the cider within the first week. does that sound like a good idea?

also, what do most people suggest doing at the beginning when simmering the cider and dissolving sugar into the juice? how much sugar should i use if i want a relatively hefty alcohol content? and should i only use one packet of yeast for 5 gallons?

thanks for any information!

cheers.

I'm not an expert on crash cooling to stop fermentation- I haven't had good luck with it and it's a good way to create bottle bombs if you rush the process. So, I ferment it out completely, and then sweeten later if I desire. I like my wines, meads and ciders dry usually, so I don't often sweeten.

If you want a "hefty" alcohol content, you may have to think about a different yeast, and a much longer process. It only ferments as fast as it ferments, and I think Nottingham may not go above 7--8% ABV.

I don't heat juice or cider, since it'll set the pectins.

If you have a hydrometer, you can easily use it to adjust your sugar additions. Keep in mind that the more sugar you add, and the higher the ABV, the less like "cider" the cider will be. I make an apple wine out of cider that has an ABV of 12-13% ABV and it is dry and crisp and had almost nothing of the sweet apple taste to it. It also takes about 1-2 years to not taste "hot" and a bit like rocket fuel.

I'd probably just use the yeast and not add any sugar, to get an ABV of 6-7% and have it done relatively quickly. I still think a week would be way too fast, but it'd be quicker than if you added sugar and boosted the ABV.

I never heat store bought juice. If it smells OK when you open it, the yeast will do their job and get all the sugars. You do not need to de-solve the sugar before hand, the yeast will find them and do their thing.

I crash chill some of my ciders, but they go into a keg where I back sweeten them and let them age for at least a month to where I can be certain it is not further fermenting. And as a bonus it clears even more.
Then I bottle in either flip top bottles, champagne bottles capped not corked, or 2 litre soda bottles.
Key here is they all hold pressure very well just in case.
I'm not paranoid, I just know there is a bottle grenade out there somewhere with my name on it.

I'm not sure how much you already know about calculating alcohol content, but I figured I'd throw this your way. Your cider will normally ferment to 1.000 or lower (in my experience it's normally lower). We'll use 1.000 as a base, and assuming that you want 15% alcohol we can do this (15 / 131.25 = 0.114 + 1.000 = 1.114) so let's say that you add cider to the bucket and do a hydrometer test and you get 1.035 you will need to increase it to 1.114 by adding sugar and testing it as you go.

I would personally keep the gravity lower, because it takes a while for the alcohol to mellow out and if it's too high then it can overpower the apple flavor for a long time. However, if you do use a higher gravity, be sure to have a good yeast starter, aerate well when you add the yeast, and I would recomment yeast energizer and nutrient.