Planning my first cider

I plan starting my first cider sometime next week. I am a full time student so my money/time is very limited. My plan is to come out of this with a sweet uncarbed cider in a relatively short amount of time with the least amount of money and without sacrificing too much quality.

So far the supplies I've gathered are:

5 gallon carboy off of craigslist $20

Nottingham yeast
hydrometer
campden tablets $18 for all
syphon tubing


I plan on using enough frozen apple concentrate, tap water, and maybe some sugar/syrup to raise the sg to fill my carboy. Im going to make a starter with a stirplate using nottingham yeast. Now before I add the starter solution to my carboy would it be beneficial to add a campden tablet or two?

Im going to let the cider ferment until it gets a little sweeter than what im looking for, expected sg around 1.010-1.015 and then dropping it in a cooler full of ice. I plan on racking it after two days and letting that sit in the ice cooler until it clears out. Hopefully the extended time in the ice will be enough to stop fermentation so that I can bottle the cider without worrying about any bottlebombs.

Like I said this is my first time brewing anything so I imagine that I'm being a little optimistic about this whole endeavor. I'm looking to avoid as many mistakes as possible before I make them, so please if something seems wrong or if it could be better let me know.

Yes, since you are mixing concentrate juice, you could contaminate it, so add Campden tablets.

Chilling cider won't make it stop fermenting, but only make it go dormant. If you bottle, you will end up with carbonated cider, and if you don't drink it fast enough, bottle bombs. If you want a sweet cider, you need to add a preservative (AKA stabilizer ) when you are done fermenting to kill the yeast. You can get it at your local home brew store.

if you read the sticky about the yeast experiments, he has stated that to successfully cold crash you need to rack, cold crash for 2-3 days, then rack again. This should make the yeast go dormant and drop out of solution so you can bottle without the risk of bottle bombs

Cold crashing really only works with beer because not all the sugars are fermentable, and technically, if you left the bottles long enough (a year?), you could get beer yeast to wake back up and create bottle bombs. Cider and wine have 100% fermentable sugars, so yeasts just go dormant and perk right back up when it warms up. UK cider makers let their ciders ferment outside, and it freezes, and thaws, and starts fermenting again.

maybe CvilleKevin will pop in and set this straight... and when you cold crash cider, you have to rack it off the lees that are in the primary, cold crash, and rack it off everything that drop outs. That effectively removes the yeast from the cider...

Right - cold crashing is not the same as cooling. Chilling will make the yeast go dormant. Most types of yeast will drop to the bottom at that point. To cold crash you rack, cool, and rack again. Keep an eye on for a week or two to make sure you got it, or else you can go straight to a keg at that point.

By cold crashing, you are getting the yeast and nutrients to drop out of suspension and racking them out. You can do it with just about any yeast, but some are easier than others. Nottingham is very easy. One of its properties is that it flocculates at low temps and makes a nice compact sediment. Most ale and wheat yeasts are easy to crash. wild yeast, lager yeast, champagne yeast and some wine yeasts are tougher.

I've been cold crashing cider for years without problems. I've got about 20 liters right now from last season that have been stored at room temp for over a year with no problems.

Last season I did some experimenting with using sorbate to stop the ferment, hoping to save time by cutting down on the number of rackings. It worked, but tasted like ass. Sorbate has a very distinctive taste that stomps on the apple and does not go away. A few of my friends liked the taste or else couldnt notice it. If you are one of those people, and dont mind drinking alone, then more power to you because sorbating is easier.

I'd skip the campden as well, just make sure you filter your water. Municipal water treatment will kill all the likely bugs but will be highly loaded with chlorine and other chemicals. campden also leaves a harsh taste, although it dissipates in a few months. Thats fine if you dont want to drink it for a while. If you want something you can drink in a few weeks, skip all the chemicals.

If you are looking for a cheap buzz, using concentrate will do the trick as long as your expectations arent too high. It aint gonna be no Etienne Dupont but should be drinkable. If any of your buddies from school live in the North GA Appalachians, maybe they can hook you up with some fresh cider apple juice next season

Okay then, I will back off, but I will say one more thing - when talking about cold crashing to newbies such as this post, it does sound exactly like cooling.

Thanks for the replies. The rest of my supplies arrive tomorrow so hopefully I'll be able to start everything up sometime this weekend.

Originally I was going to grab some cider up in the mountains late fall during a camping trip, but plans fell through. I understand cider can be made from store bought cider ,but everything I found is either pastuerized or has preservatives expect for the apple concentrate. This more of an experiment than anything else.

Yes, fresh raw juice would be better, but that isn't always accessible, so go with what is. It will probably still be very good.