First cider sanity check

[LittlejohnBrew]

I plan to brew my first cider and wanted to get input from others on my plan. I want to brew a semi-sweet to sweet cider similar to Downeast.

• Plan to get raw pasteurized apple cider (or unpasteurized and pasteurize myself) from most likely Trader Joes or Wholefoods. I live in Boston so I'm sure there are better sources that I am not aware of though.
• Plan to use Wyeast 1318. Given the lower attenuation, high flocculation and the fruity esters this yeast produces it seems like it would be a good fit for a cider?
• Plan to ferment in the keg and spund to naturally carbonate. When within a few points from FG I will transfer over to a purged serving keg to get off the yeast.
• I know Downeast and others centrifuge their brews and pasteurize to kill the yeast prior to reaching FG to maintain sweetness. I'm thinking that's too much work for me so I will let it ferment out, cold crash and back sweeten.
• Plan to back sweeten with apple cider which will of course dilute and bring down the ABV. Attached are some calculations to determine how much I should back sweeten to get a final ABV ~5% and ~3% RS. A review of those would be appreciated!
• Plan to cold crash once FG is reach. At this point the cider will be fully carbonated too. Will then vent off the keg and add apple cider. Should this apple cider be pasteurized? Also with the cider off the yeast cake and cold (~38F) should I worry about the additional apple cider fermenting? I can add k-meta if needed?

Any other tips would be welcomed! Thanks.

 

[RPh_Guy]

raw pasteurized

That's an oxymoron.
Either it's raw or it's pasteurized.

Given the lower attenuation

Beer attenuation does not apply to cider. Any commercial yeast will ferment it dry.
Any yeast might be a reasonable choice. Everyone has a difference preference.

At this point the cider will be fully carbonated too. Will then vent off the keg and add apple cider. Should this apple cider be pasteurized?

Keep in mind that when you sweeten, your carbonation will be diluted.
I would suggest adding pasteurized juice for sweetening in this case just to avoid the possibility of dealing with wild yeast and bacteria.

Attached are some calculations to determine how much I should back sweeten to get a final ABV ~5% and ~3% RS. A review of those would be appreciated!

I highly recommend sweetening to taste rather than shooting for an arbitrary RS. Do a bench trial to find what ratio works for your taste and then scale up for the whole batch.

You don't need to bother with RS when calculating ABV.
Use whatever calculation you like to find the ABV when it finishes fermenting.
At that point it's a simple dilution calculation when sweetening:
Final ABV = Initial ABV * Initial Volume ÷ Final Volume

 

[LittlejohnBrew]

@RPh_Guy thanks for the feedback! A bench trial for back sweetening definitely makes more sense and I'll give that a go.