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A quarter packet is fine in a gallon. When I do individual gallons, I use anywhere from 1/2 to 1/5 packet It depends on yeast and temps. Muntons is a fast fermenter and can ferment out a gallon in a few days at room temp. The cooler you can keep it, the slower it will ferment and the more...

True - I have been stopping cider via cold crashing for well over a decade, but I still never assume that the crash worked 100% until the cider has been sitting still in the secondary and is stable for at least a month. Yeah, that would be risky. The only yeast that I would bottle 3 days after...

Pectic enzyme doesnt make the cider any more clear while it is fermenting. The yeast stir everything up. They also affect the taste. I would not backsweeten until after the crash. The cider should clear and will taste a lot better after the crash and you will have a better sense of final...

Yes, many commercial cideries do this. You need sub-micron to sterile filter and you need to cold crash first or else you will clog your filters too fast. If you use ale yeast and are careful with the crash then you dont need to sterile filter to get the yeast out.

If you cold crash, you can generally stop the fermentation, although adding yeast nutrient will make it harder to crash. Just racking alone will usually not halt the fermentation, although it sometimes can. No, it depends on your process. Given that you added pectic enzyme and nutrient, I...

gallon batches are great for dialing in a recipe and a lot easier to handle - especially since you can use the original container as the primary fermenter I do mostly kegs, but all new recipes start as single gallons. The good ones get repeated as keg batches.

No amount of backside manipulation will get you there. The taste of JKS is the natural apple sugar. Start with a good juice mix from an organic orchard (ie no nitrogen fertilizer), good wild yeast strain (this is somewhat a matter of luck) and ferment verrrry cool and slow. You can also make a...

EC-1118 is a champagne yeast, which does not crash well. Use an ale yeast if you want to stop at 1.010. If you keep the temps cool - ideally 60F, you wont get much H2S production

The juice is more likely to start back fermenting after the crash

I never tried WLP007. Supposedly it is a more attenuative version of WLP002, so basically a dryer, faster fermenting version of Notty. The White Labs cider yeast is 775. Its OK for a dry cider. IMHO the WLP ale and wheat yeasts give you more interesting flavor profiles.

I have frozen batches by accident when cold crashing. In my experience it makes the juice less clear and more unstable, but depends on the juice, speed of freeze vs. floc time, so YMMV

I picked up another batch of juice yesterday. Between myself and friends, we got 175 gallons. The mix was Stayman, Empire, and Winesap. Its a good blend, nice aroma, decent sweetness with some spice up front and a nice mouthfeel. Tart finish. Sg was 1.052, although it tastes sweeter...

Yep. If you set the PSI up to 25 or so, it will carb faster, but if your not in a hurry, just set it to 10-15 and leave it. you might want to taste it first, just to make sure everything is OK before you keg you have to get it off the lees to remain stable, which presumably you want to do if...

The JKS process is similar to old school European cider makers - use low nutrient juice and keep the fermentation going as slow as possible so that the yeast run out of nutrient before sugar. At the other end of the spectrum, this season I kegged my first batch nine days after pressing. Seven...

If you want to bottle carb and keep the taste that you have now, your best bet is to read the sticky on bottle pasteurization. If some of these batches taste like they are almost done, then you might want to rack them to a clean jug and then put in the fridge until you get back from vacation...

If you used ale yeast, I would expect that to be effective. Sorbate does impart a noticeable taste, which is why I dont use use, although some people are OK with the taste. Before adding sorbate to your kegs, I would advise that you first mix a small amount of your cider with small amount of...

You might want to taste a few of those before you leave for vacation. champagne and wine yeasts can go fast, even at cool temps.

Yeah, I've heard the whole 'dont fear the foam' pitch by Star San and I know plenty of guys who dont rinse it out - but I do it anyway, mostly because I just dont want any unnecessary chemicals in my brew. So yeah, that last rinse step is mostly just personal preference. I might try the soft...

When I finish using BBs I rinse them clean and then clean them with One Step (oxygen cleaner). I mix about a gallon, put 1/4 to 1/2 gallon in each, rubber stopper in the end and then shake them two at a time like dumbells for a couple minutes. Then when I go to use them again, I sanitize with...

Yep, all of these factors can have a huge impact, which is why using a hydrometer is the way to go. Apples that are picked a little early, for sending to processing plants, grocery stores etc, typically have sg in the mid 40s. Apples picked from your typical small to mid size orchard, intended...