First Batch of Cider...couple questions.

[corypedia]

Last night I picked up 3 gallons of fresh (pasteurized) cider, 3/4 gallon of tart cherry juice and 3/4 gallon of black cherry juice. My plan was to add an addt'l 1/2 gallon of cherry juice to the finished batch, post fermentation, to bring it to 5 gallons and add in some of the cherry flavor that seems to be lost during fermentation (based on reading I've done).

Ultimately I'm looking for a 'pub' cider that has some cherry-apple sweetness that doesn't finish too dry. Targeting ~5-6% ABV, I suppose. A couple questions I have are:

1. Will this even work? Does the cherry juice affect fermentability?

2. Should I add sugar or honey? I've seen where some do, some don't. What effects does each have? It appears using honey would make this a cyser instead of a cider?

3. Is there a preferable yeast strain to accompany what I'm trying to achieve? This comment has helped, but hoping to figure out which i should use based on my method/goal. Leaning S-04 or Nottingham at this point.

4. I have temperature control, so is it safe to assume fermentation will complete in < 2 weeks?

5. I plan on cold crashing to ~38 degrees to clarify the finished cider prior to kegging. Any suggestions on how long to cold crash?

6. Once kegged, i'm not sure how much carbonation this style needs. At ~45* what pressure would i set the CO2 at?



Any help with the above is greatly appreciated!

 

[noggins]

if I was yous, and I was makin my first batch of cider, I'd start with a plain 'ol simple cider, maybe even something tried and true and super simple like apfelwein.



I know that's not what you wanna hear at all, and as soon as someone else reads my response they're all gonna get pissed at me for giving you such horrible advice instead of answering your questions...but whatever, no-one else answered your question all day so I have first responder privilege. Instead of going all gung-ho kamakaze right out of the gate, start with something that will definitely work, brew it to the letter, taste it, and go from there.

If nothing else my response will bump your thread up to the top of the new posts list and get some other eyes on it.

Relax, don't whine, have a homebrew.

 

[drumuglyknuckles]

+1 to what noggins said. if youäve never done a cider before, why go all crazy?

at least i could answer your yeast question. i myself used s04 last year on a tradiontal, simple cider and it tasted great and had character.
i cold crashed in a cellar at about 10C, after one week it looked good, after 2 it looked great. but youre using a lower temp so you should expect good results in i would guess 5 days.
also, since you are kegging. have you considered gelatin fining? after cold crash would give you even a clearer product- if thats what you are after. i personally like the natural look.
just have fun

 

[MindenMan]

At 45 F the yeast will be slightly active and burn through the additional sugar you have added; granted it will take some time but it will happen. I cold crash @ 34 F and some batches take longer than others. If it isn't clear yet, wait another couple of days and check it again then.

 

[madscientist451]

Last night I picked up 3 gallons of fresh (pasteurized) cider, 3/4 gallon of tart cherry juice and 3/4 gallon of black cherry juice. My plan was to add an addt'l 1/2 gallon of cherry juice to the finished batch, post fermentation, to bring it to 5 gallons and add in some of the cherry flavor that seems to be lost during fermentation (based on reading I've done).

Ultimately I'm looking for a 'pub' cider that has some cherry-apple sweetness that doesn't finish too dry. Targeting ~5-6% ABV, I suppose. A couple questions I have are:

1. Will this even work? Does the cherry juice affect fermentability?


2. Should I add sugar or honey? I've seen where some do, some don't. What effects does each have? It appears using honey would make this a cyser instead of a cider?

3. Is there a preferable yeast strain to accompany what I'm trying to achieve? This comment has helped, but hoping to figure out which i should use based on my method/goal. Leaning S-04 or Nottingham at this point.

4. I have temperature control, so is it safe to assume fermentation will complete in < 2 weeks?

5. I plan on cold crashing to ~38 degrees to clarify the finished cider prior to kegging. Any suggestions on how long to cold crash?

6. Once kegged, i'm not sure how much carbonation this style needs. At ~45* what pressure would i set the CO2 at?



Any help with the above is greatly appreciated!

1. Will it work? Sure it will work, but a better method is to make a base cider then add your cherry juice to taste after fermentation is done.

2. Adding sugar depends if you want to increase the ABV. There are on line calculators available to figure how much to add. Don't over do it.

3. Yeast: Haven't used S04 in cider, but Nottingham was a failure for me.
WL 002 english ale yeast makes an off dry cider, WLP 775 makes a dry cider. Both work extremely well and you can reuse the yeast many times.

4. I ferment Cider in the low 60's maybe its done in 2 weeks, but I age the cider for 3-4 months so I don't check it that soon.

5-6. Can't help with those, good luck!

 

[corypedia]

Thanks for the responses. Sadly I already put it in the fermenter using Nottingham. Guess I'll see how it goes.

I realize I should've kept it simple my first batch but right, wrong or indifferent...I rarely do that. I like to jump in the deep end and learn the hard way lol.

Anyways, my starting gravity was 1.075 so I'm guessing it will finish a little dry if it reaches sub 1.015.

Guess I'll know in a few weeks. Thanks again though, as I'll keep this advice in mind for the next cider batch I'm gonna start this weekend.

 

[corypedia]

Still looking for insight on #6.

 

[slym2none]

Unless you put non-fermentable sugars in there, Notty will take that down farther than 1.015, as almost all the sugars in AJ are fermentable. I'm betting you'll get closer to 1.000 than 1.015 .