mastiff0
New Member
Hi guys,
I'm working on my first batch of cider- a gallon of organic, no preservative juice with champagne yeast and sugar (original SG 1.062). Its going well, but during the process, a few questions arose. Maybe you can answer then so my second batch will come out better.
Campden tablets: I understand that you can use campden tablets to stop fermentation as an alternative to cold crashing. Most people don't suggest this as it will leave an off flavor. Does adding campden tablets before pitching the yeast (to kill off wild bacteria) also lead to an off flavor? Or does this only occur if you add the campden tablets later on?
cold crashing: I'm a little confused what the next step is after cold crashing. Does the cold crashing remove all yeast so that you can bottle immediately? Is the safe route to check SG after cold crash, rack to a jug, and check the SG again after a few days to see if any yeast is still working? I'm trying to avoid bottle bombs.
Racking and cider/air contamination: From reading many posts, people seem to love racking their cider. Before cold crashing, after cold crashing, as soon as primary fermentation is over, etc. But every time you rack, I lose some volume of cider. when I add the cider back to my 1 gallon jug, I have some air in the jug. I heard that cider in contact with air can cause some off flavors, though this is usually prevented by a CO2 layer. But if you were successful in cold crashing, you should have very little/no CO2 produced to protect the cider. One book I read recommended topping off with water to fill the container, but with a 1 gallon jug, this will lead to heavy dilution that I don't want to do. Is cider spoilage from air contact that big of a concern?
Efficient racking: I use an autosiphon to rack, which suck up liquid about 3/4-1" from the bottom. This is great after primary fermentation when there is a ton of stuff at the bottom of the container. But on subsequent rackings, when there is only a smaller layer of yeast, the autosiphon leads to wasting a good portion of cider. This is probably inconsequential in large tanks, but it gets significant for 1 gallon batches. But I don't want to use the old-school siphon method of creating suction by sucking on the tube. So can you tell me a different way to siphon without wasting as much cider, or the critical times when racking is necessary so that I don't go through additional unnecessary rackings?
Thanks for the help guys.
I'm working on my first batch of cider- a gallon of organic, no preservative juice with champagne yeast and sugar (original SG 1.062). Its going well, but during the process, a few questions arose. Maybe you can answer then so my second batch will come out better.
Campden tablets: I understand that you can use campden tablets to stop fermentation as an alternative to cold crashing. Most people don't suggest this as it will leave an off flavor. Does adding campden tablets before pitching the yeast (to kill off wild bacteria) also lead to an off flavor? Or does this only occur if you add the campden tablets later on?
cold crashing: I'm a little confused what the next step is after cold crashing. Does the cold crashing remove all yeast so that you can bottle immediately? Is the safe route to check SG after cold crash, rack to a jug, and check the SG again after a few days to see if any yeast is still working? I'm trying to avoid bottle bombs.
Racking and cider/air contamination: From reading many posts, people seem to love racking their cider. Before cold crashing, after cold crashing, as soon as primary fermentation is over, etc. But every time you rack, I lose some volume of cider. when I add the cider back to my 1 gallon jug, I have some air in the jug. I heard that cider in contact with air can cause some off flavors, though this is usually prevented by a CO2 layer. But if you were successful in cold crashing, you should have very little/no CO2 produced to protect the cider. One book I read recommended topping off with water to fill the container, but with a 1 gallon jug, this will lead to heavy dilution that I don't want to do. Is cider spoilage from air contact that big of a concern?
Efficient racking: I use an autosiphon to rack, which suck up liquid about 3/4-1" from the bottom. This is great after primary fermentation when there is a ton of stuff at the bottom of the container. But on subsequent rackings, when there is only a smaller layer of yeast, the autosiphon leads to wasting a good portion of cider. This is probably inconsequential in large tanks, but it gets significant for 1 gallon batches. But I don't want to use the old-school siphon method of creating suction by sucking on the tube. So can you tell me a different way to siphon without wasting as much cider, or the critical times when racking is necessary so that I don't go through additional unnecessary rackings?
Thanks for the help guys.