Cold Crashing Cider

[VaNewbieWRB]

I was reading in a home brew magazine a recipe for dry hopped cider. In the recipe it said to cold crash the cider once the airlock activity subsides, and add the hops while the cider is in the frig. Leave in the frig for 2 days. Then bottle.

I have a couple questions about the "then bottle."

when I bottle after cold crashing it, 1. do I add the sugar to get a carbonated cider that I like? will it carbonate? 2. what temp do I store at after bottling? a normal 65-68 degrees?

as always, thanks in advance for your help

 

[mywifehatesmybeer]

I actually just did two dry hopped ciders, cold crashed both, and have relevant input for once!

They were both in the fermenter for about 2.5 weeks (fermented out) before I added the hops to the fermenter. Given my severely limited fridge space, I only had room for one of my (gallon) fermenters, so I added one that very same day. A week later, I bottled the cold crashed one, and stuck the other one in. A week later, bottled the second. Both with normal batch priming procedures.

Having tasted them both (yum), I can say that without a doubt, you should let the hops hang out in the cider at fermentation temperature for a while before cold crashing. The one that was hopped solely in the fridge definitely didn't have as much hop punch as the one that had a week out of the fridge.

Hope that helps!

 

[mywifehatesmybeer]

And yes, same bottling temperature was used.

 

[ArcLight]

Why is it necessary to cold crash cider?
I thought that after racking to a secondary, you let it age a number of weeks. The cider yeast settles by then.
I just made a cider with S-04, without cold crashing and there is no yeast sediment.

 

[VaNewbieWRB]

thanks mywife...I appreciate the input. I will definitely dry hop at normal temps.

ArcLight: No idea, that's just what the recipe I saw called for. I assume its to prevent cider bombs...

 

[mywifehatesmybeer]

Why is it necessary to cold crash cider? I though that after racking to a secondary, you let it age a number of weeks. The cider yeast settles by then. I just made a cider without cold crashing and there is no yest sediment.

I actually cold crashed simply because of the dry hopping, normally I wouldn't. I've been on a dry hopped cider craze lately, and I figured cold crashing would help settle out the hop gunk. Worked wonderfully.