Recent content by bkwing

As for your original question, the full pack won't hurt anything at all.

Oak chips work perfectly well with cider. Unless you have a barrel sitting around, oak chips/cubes/spirals are the only way to recreate a really good New England cider....which are awesome.

Really no short answer to this. Will it spoil the flavor? No, most likely not. Will it change it? Very possible. Any time you heat honey, you stand to lose some of the more volatile flavors. A pasteurized honey may not have the same fresh, delicate flavor of unpasteurized. It may not...

I know people that pasteurize beer by capping their bottles and running them through a cycle in the dishwasher....Doing it on the stove won't hurt them, but I wouldn't do anything with the bottles uncapped.

Not really. I like the idea of adding after you cool the wort down a bit. Adding at knockout will cook off some of the more delicate flavor compounds.

This answer is completely dependent on which yeast you are using. Some can be fermented at much higher temps. Always check the recommendations for your yeast. In the case of D47, your target temp is between 59-68 degrees.

Yeah, that'd be too high. It'll ferment just fine, you'll just get some funky flavors with it...and there's nowhere for that stuff to hide in a cider.

If you're using the Safale-04 from the recipe, you don't really want to get past 68-70 degrees...and even that is pushing it, since the fermenting cider will be at least a degree or two warmer (2-3 in my experience) than the ambient. Easiest way to keep it cool is grab a cooler that will fit...

Did a batch of this about 2 weeks ago, really fantastic recipe. I stopped mine at 1.010, since I wanted semi-sweet and was done with the ferment in about 7 days. It was excellent straight out of the fermenter, but I filtered, kegged, and am already enjoying this one.

Since I have been making my own cider, I've kinda lost my taste for Woodchuck...but I will admit that I really enjoyed the Fall seasonal. It disappeared too quick here in town.

Grab a hydrometer and check it periodically. Depending on all sorts of factors, you're probably looking at 1-2 weeks with 04 and apple juice. But there are too many variables affecting ferment time to be sure of what your setup produces. Just get a hydrometer and take some samples.