Hi Ed. The cider pictured is a simple cider, what Ed Watson in his book calls a "draft-style" cider. He doesn't exactly look down his nose at it, but does make the accurate point that its not a complex or deeply layered cider.
For batch pictured, I used a store bought cider (it was on sale for $3 a gallon, woot!), no preservatives, but i'm sure it was filtered. After sanitizing the equipment, pour it into the carboy, add approximately 1 tsp of pectic enzyme, I decanted a yeast starter (some Edinburgh that I have harvested/washed/stored in the fridge) and added it to the carboy. Ferments at 68 degrees, give or take a degree. I watch the fermentation and at around 2 weeks, when it starts to die down, I take a reading and tasting. I aim for around 1.010, semi-dry, with enough sweetness to let significant apple flavor through.
Bottle (with priming sugar, so the cider doesn't get any drier) and then monitor the carbonation level until its where I want it and pasteurize it to stop the yeast. As you know, cold-crashing at that point would work also.
The end result is a light, refreshing, crisp sparkling cider. Not complex, but very pleasant.
