Cider Fermentation Temperature

[joel falk]

I have made cider from fresh apples for several years, but I always let it ferment at room temperature. This year I wanted to ferment at a lower temperature, so I used a small fridge and kept the temperature between 55 and 60 deg F (~13 - 15 C). I used fresh tart apples and Safcider AB-1 yeast. The SG started at 1.040, but after 5 days was already at 1.005! That is much faster than I expected at that temperature. What experience have other had with cool fermenting temperatures?

 

[doublejef]

Same as you, 13-15°C is ideal to avoid very intense fermentation with high volume of CO2 leaving the vessel with all the aroma.
But it won't be enough to make it go as slow as they do in France and get a rythm of 1-2 gravity point a day.
5 days is already quite slow actually, at 20-22°C, with well-fed yeast, this could be done in less than 2 days if not less.

You should try wild ferment or low pitching yeast rate and low temp, but you could get funky smells and/or taste on that path, including bad ones like sulfur, poney tail,... But also complexity, caracter, fruity aroma,...

 

[Maylar]

I bought 2 gallons of orchard cider once and put them in my 38° fridge. After 2 weeks I came down to the basement and discovered that they had started fermenting with wild yeast. Made a hell of a mess. I transferred them to carboys and let it continue at basement temp (maybe 65°). Don't remember how long it took to finish.

For commercial yeasts I find that about 62°F is the sweet spot.

 

[Chalkyt]

I try to ferment at 15C - 18C (60F - 65F) because the folklore says "low and slow is the way to go". Generally, with typical 1.050 juice this takes 5 -10 days for the foam to settle (at around 1.020) then another 10 days or so to get down somewhere around 1.005. However, this isn't at all predictable... sometimes faster and sometimes slower. I am guessing that the yeast type, natural levels of YAN, added nutrients (DAP or Fermaid) probably have more effect than temperature although I have found that if my outside storeroom where I ferment and store the cider gets too far below 10C (50F), I will sometimes bring the cider inside the house if I want to keep some progress happening.

The outside store is concrete block construction and in autumn when I start making cider it is naturally in the cool temperature range (ideal for storing produce). We are at 36 degrees south (sort of mid-coastal USA, say California) and 1000M (3000ft) up in the foothills of the Snowy Mountains about 200km from the coast, so it is mostly a "Mediterranean" climate a bit like Northern Spain or Southern France and we can get snow from May onwards. I haven't really put any effort into controlling fermentation temperature (apart from having a small A/C to keep things below 18C in summer) and am just lucky that the storeroom temperature is mostly in the "sweet spot". I don't know if it would be any different if I was fermenting above 20C (70F) which can be the outside temperature on mild days even though the overnight temperatures get down to below 10C 50F) during Autumn.

Maybe this gives you something to think about.

Cheers!