Cold crash question..

So I made a batch of hard apple cider with some granny smiths I grew in the back yard. I used S-04 to ferment it. After 4 weeks at 64F in the primary it went from 1.048 to 1.002, so I racked it to secondary to age it a few months before bottling. When I racked I had an extra quart, so I put that in to a mason jar and stuck it in my serving fridge (35ish*F). I noticed that my hard cider in the jar(otherwise very cloudy looking) started to clear out very nicely at 35F. The thought occured to me that I could cold crah it like beer to clear it up. Here's my question...

Can I cold crash it to drop everything out untill it's nice and clear and then take it out of the ferm chamber and let it bulk age (in the secondary still) for a few months at room temp? Or.... should I just bulk age it at 65F and then cold crash for a week or two right before I bottle it?

If it was beer I would know what to do, but I've never brewed cider before.

Thanks in advance!

Stauffbier said:

should I just bulk age it at 65F and then cold crash for a week or two right before I bottle it?

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yep. cider needs a long time to clean itself up

lumpher said:

yep. cider needs a long time to clean itself up

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I'm starting to figure that out. It took the entire month to ferment, yet with the same yeast I can ferment beer in less than 5 days! I think I caught the cider bug. I'm now thinking of other fruits I can use to make another batch!

Stauffbier said:

I'm starting to figure that out. It took the entire month to ferment, yet with the same yeast I can ferment beer in less than 5 days! I think I caught the cider bug. I'm now thinking of other fruits I can use to make another batch!

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Cider definitely takes more time than beer (though not as much a mead). I did two batches last fall. Both took over a month to ferment, and the MacIntosh-Crab Apple blend didn't clear entirely for at least 5 months (which meant that it cleared in the bottle, since we were too impatient and bottled it at about the 3-month mark).

...and now you've gotten me all excited for making cider again! I can.t wait to get the press out again (hopefully this weekend)!

Did you use any pectic enzyme? If not, that is the likely culprit of it's cloudiness

snuesen said:

Did you use any pectic enzyme? If not, that is the likely culprit of it's cloudiness

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No, I didn't. I decided to make the cider on a whim one weekend, because I had so many apples. A friend of mine says he can give me some. Can it be added to the secondary, or is it too late?

You can, but it's not quick working-it will take some time. If you're in a rush, a fining agent like bentonite should work. Just don't add both as they will bond to each other and the haze will stay.

I could be wrong. But bentonite won't clear a pectin haze will it?

My wine kits only had bentonite, so I guess I'm not sure. I can't really find a definitive answer doing Google search, although the consensus is that pectinase is the way to go

If you are aging it for a few months it should clear up all on its own. I would just leave it alone. The last two batches i made are crystal clear after aging about 8 weeks in secondary.

Can I cold crash it to drop everything out untill it's nice and clear and then take it out of the ferm chamber and let it bulk age (in the secondary still) for a few months at room temp? Or.... should I just bulk age it at 65F and then cold crash for a week or two right before I bottle it?

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If you like it really dry, just let it ferment out and it will eventually clear as noted above. As you observed, ale yeast is easy to cold crash. However all of the yeast will drop to the bottom. This can be a real advantage if you want the cider to have some residual sweetness. If you catch the cider between 1.005 and 1.010, the apple sugars will balance the acids and there is less need to age. If you are careful, it will remain stable at room temperature. I have kegs in the fridge from apples that were pressed two weeks ago, as well as kegs sitting at room temp from apples that were pressed last year.. The downside is that if you do a thorough job on the crash, you will need to use a keg or some sort of forced CO2 to add any carbonation back