Cold Crashing Cider

[LeBreton]

Just to clear things up for new folks, unlike grape juice, there is virtually no tartaric acid in apple juice. It's 99% malic acid. Cold crashing won't effect the overall acidity of cider.

 

[phug]

Thanks man... I think that is what was worrying me. Reading about crashing and pasteurizing. Its my first cider so I'm used to just bottling my beer and throwing it in the fridge until its ready.

Like kgressler said. If it's for the everyday simplest dry cider, then there's no cold crashing or pasteurizing required at any point. It may seem like a step has been left out, " it can't really be that simple, there must be something missing" but I'm pretty sure that all the steps are there. If anyone wants to poke their heads in the thread to verify and chime in, please do. But please keep the intention of the thread in mind. Simple, reliable, tasty and dry.

 

[bernardsmith]

If your trying to follow phug's recipe then there is no need to cold crash. Just let it ferment all the way down to 1.000. He said it took 4 weeks. You can let it go longer to clear if you want. The can of FAJC is just to carb the bottles. Pout the thawed can in the bottle bucket and then sophin the cider into the bucket then bottle and cap and store in room temp for a few days.
He said it shouldnt blow up since you are using just enough sugar to carb. But I would use 1 or 2 soda bottles as test to see if they over carb. If they do you can pasteurize if they dont you can just enjoy chill and enjoy them.

If I prime cider I allow the cider to ferment dry then add no more than 1 oz of sugar per gallon. I have no idea how much sugar will be in the concentrate... but that does not matter. One ounce of sugar will increase the gravity of one gallon by about .0025 (1 lb /gallon raises the gravity by .040). You will need to check how much additional sugar you are adding... Unlike beer all sugar in fruit is 100 percent fermentable.

Bottles can easily withstand the pressure that .0025 of sugar will add if that ferments out, BUT you need to be sure that your cider has fermented dry before you add more fermentable sugar, otherwise you may add 1 oz per gallon but the gallon may still be pumping out many volumes of CO2. (Note, of course, that while bottles can withstand the pressure that 1 oz of residual sugar will produce when it ferments, corks won't so you need to use either beer caps or the kinds of wire cages that are placed on corks in bottles of sparkling wine...

 

[AidanSavage]

I think most cans of FAJC will have 27 grams of sugar per serving.

 

[seabrew8]

If you are going for a sweet cider I would recommend racking as soon as it is at point that you like, regardless of whether you cold crash. I've found that with the yeast I mainly use (Nottingham), bumping the juice with sugar to at least 1.064 allows fermentation to be stopped just by racking.

Very old post, i just racked my cider yesterday too and it seems it stopped fermenting, i thought it was strange.... Its in the fridge now!

 

[JCBeagett]

Hey everyone, I have kept about 4 gallons of cider with airlock in the garage for a couple months now.No yeast, all natural. The racking kinda got away from me, but the cold temperatures have made it dormant. I can mess with it now that I have time. What step should I take now? I was thinking of racking it and moving it inside. I could pitch some champagne yeast back in to reboot.
What should I expect from taste? What would you do at this point? I love a dry cider.

 

[OriolesMagic]

Has anyone tried to backsweeten to reduce dryness, bottle and let ferment a few days for carbonation and then cold crash the bottles? I am thinking of trying to do this with a one gallon experimental batch and want to make sure I understand the risks.

 

[Maylar]

Has anyone tried to backsweeten to reduce dryness, bottle and let ferment a few days for carbonation and then cold crash the bottles? I am thinking of trying to do this with a one gallon experimental batch and want to make sure I understand the risks.

I did that many times before I could keg. The important part is to be certain that the ferment is done before adding sugar. My ciders have always used pectic enzyme and when they finish (at or below 1.000) within a couple weeks they're perfectly clear. At that point I've bottled with sweetening/priming sugar and put them in the fridge when bubbly. At typical fridge temps (38-40F) some yeasts will continue to ferment, so the level of carbonation continues to increase but I never had one that was a gusher before it was consumed. The longest I've had them in the fridge is about a month.