Cold Crashing basic information

[Chachane186]

Hello,

I'm relatively new to brewing cider (and brewing in general for that matter) and completely new to cold crashing so please forgive me if I seem a little ignorant here.

I'm currently brewing a hard apple cider with the following ingredients:

4 gal apple juice
3.3 lbs light brown sugar
3.5 lbs castor sugar
1 pack champagne yeast
O.G: 1.13

Fermenting in a 5 gal plastic fermentor which is kept 65-70F in a small wine fridge. (I know I should be using better ingredients and equipment but this is the only thing I have available to me at the moment)

It has been fermenting now for 1 day I want to cold crash it before it eats up all my sugar so I don't end up with a super dry cider.

Here are my questions:

1. When is the right time for when I can cold crash it?
2. Is there is a recommended time to wait after start of fermentation?
3. Can I open the top of it and take a sample or will that risk tainting or oxidizing the cider?
4. If I slowly tip the fermenter over so I can use the spigot (which is at the top for some reason) then will it disturb the sediment at the bottom? And what happens if I disturb the sediment? Will it mess up my cider?

Thanks for all your help in advance

Best Regards

From Bangalore, India.

 

[aiptasia]

1) In cider-world, usually this is done to taste. Ferment for 2-3 weeks. You'll have to also add some k meta & sorbate to it to kill off the yeast/preserve the cider or pasteurize it to kill the yeast. Otherwise, it'll keep right on fermenting all the way to vinegar.

2) Each fermentation is different. You'll just have to keep an eye on it and sneak some samples using a wine thief.

3) I wouldn't open it until signs of active fermentation and krausening are over. You won't hurt anything if you use a sanitized wine thief or turkey baster.

4) Yes, it will disturb the yeast cake. Nothing will happen other than mixing yeast back into solution to settle out again. No, it won't mess up your cider. Just let it sit and it will settle back out.

 

[IvanTheTerribrew]

[*]When is the right time for when I can cold crash it?
[*]Is there is a recommended time to wait after start of fermentation?
[*]Can I open the top of it and take a sample or will that risk tainting or oxidizing the cider?
[*]If I slowly tip the fermenter over so I can use the spigot (which is at the top for some reason) then will it disturb the sediment at the bottom? And what happens if I disturb the sediment? Will it mess up my cider?


Thanks for all your help in advance

Best Regards

From Bangalore, India.

Welcome to brewing, I agree with the post above. Wait until your fermentation is complete. Cold crashing isn't suppose to be used to stop the yeast from working on the active fermentation. It is generally used to help clarify your beer or cider by trying to put some of the yeast kinda to sleep.

I have made one cider and it is something that benefits from having enough time to balance out all the flavors.

I would def consider the potassium meta bisulfide to kill the yeast and then you could do what's called back sweetening which is adding stuff to your cider without worrying about yeast eating it.

Idk why there's a spigot on top but that will def cause problems when it comes time to bottle unless you have another way to bottle it available to you. Good luck!

 

[Chachane186]

Thanks so much for the advice, I don't know if I have the Potassium Meta bisulfide tablets, those aren't the same as Camden tablets are they?

Could I pasteurize the cider to kill the remaining yeast before back sweetening? would that work? I've read I can do this by waiting until all the sugar is gone, then cold crashing, then racking then bottling and then stuffing it into the dishwasher on the rinse cycle? would this work?

The fermenter that I have isn't really supposed to be a fermenter, it's a 5 gallon water drum made by Coleman, it has a spigot on the top where the handle and the air release valve is, I drilled out the air release valve so I could shove a grommet and airlock into it and unfortunately i have to keep the fermenter on it's side with the tap/spigot on the top of it so I can fit it into my wine fridge to keep the temp down (temps here are super hot and this is the only container I could find that fits into the wine fridge.)