Cotes Du Blanc that won't stop

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Loosenut

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Here is the deal:
4.5 gallons of a Pacific Gala/Pink Pearl/Gravenstein OG .050 pH 3.4, an early season Blend fresh pressed.

Added 9 campden tablets ( learned later this that was way to much, won't be using campden before ferment in the future).

Pitched a pack of Red Star Cotes du Blanc yeast and within 2 days with a bit of stirring the fermentation was up and running things, drop to .012 in 3 days.

I dont want a completely dry finished cider. But with this yeast the fermentation was easily well on its way to creating just that-a very dry cider, so in an effort to save the last bit of sweetness I placed the carboy now at 1.008 in a Frig/cooler (temp 39 F) until I had the time to rack/crash.

24 hours later SG at now at 1.0055 racked no problem. Left a bit of cider at the bottom of primary fermentor hoping to leave behind as much yeast as possible.

36 hrs later SG at 1.004. Still a heavy cloud in the cider. Lots of carbonation bubbles. Crashed.

So.....48hrs have passed since 2nd rack/cold crash, the cider is clearing s-l-o-w-l-y.

What are my options?
Take another gravity reading?
Leave it chilled and wait to see if it clears all the way?
Id love to get this round stabilized and bottled.
 
Cotes De Blancs wants to finish your cider dry, usually at .990 or so. I usually let everything finish up before backsweetening, so I don't have much good advice except to point out that stopping an active fermentation with wine yeast isn't easy as you've found out. The cold temperatures might help, but once it warms up it'll probably restart. I know some people have sucessfully stopped fermentation by cold crashing and racking, so it's possible. I've never been able to do it, though.

There are threads on pasteurizing, making sweet ciders, etc so I'll let someone else speak to that. Wine choice plays a big part, though, and choosing an attenuative wine yeast means that it'll be hard to stop.
 
Think I'll just get to bottling then stabilize with Pappers Stove top Method

That's probably your best bet. Ale yeasts are a lot easier to crash. Also the Gravensteins might give you some trouble clearing as they are an applesauce apple, hence have a lot of pectin. Not sure about the pink pearls. I've had two batches of juice now that didnt get clear in the crash, and both times there were applesauce apples in the mix (Rome and Prima). The batch with the Rome tasted great but didnt clear until the following spring. The first batch I did this season had Prima apples and they taste great so I'm just going to drink them fairly soon and not wait for them to clear. I've already got one on tap. Its cloudy as hell but everyone likes it.
 
Pink Pearl is a tart/sweet PINK flesh apple that is the usually first or second to harvest along with the Gravs and Gala here in the Bay Area. They are great for applesauce too.
So the clearing might be a little out of the question, not to worried. Im bottling right now and the gravity dropped to 1.001, thats fine. It tastes dry, mouthfeel is a little thinner than I would have liked and the after taste is slightly tart slightly sulfury. I am interested in the S04 and Notty Ale yeasts for the later season juice. I like the gallon batch approach, while learning and trying to understand different yeast and what they're capable of. Cheers
 
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