Newbie question

[drpookie]

Hi guys, I am new to the site and new to homebrewing. I fell in love with an apple cider while on vacation which prompted me to start this process.
The brewmaster was kind enough to give me some advice, but I am having trouble interpreting it. Cananyone shed some light on this:

"I'd shoot for a starting gravity of about 12.5 deg P."

I am assuming this is SG and it equates to 1.050. What I can't figure out is does this mean the SG should be that at the very start of mixing my product with yeast, prior to setting it to ferment?
Also, I plan to cold crash, and then mix back with some concentrate to back sweeten prior to putting in the keg. How do I know when exactly to cold crash?
Thanks guys for any pointers

 

[Grizzlybrew]

Your assumption made an ass of neither you nor me. 1.050 is the starting gravity, meaning the gravity reading taken directly prior to adding your yeast (taking it directly after will almost assuredly yield the same results though).

You can cold crash after primary fermentation is complete. A good indication is NOT watching the bubbler. For most yeast strains, wait for gravity readings to remain constant across 2 or 3 days. You can cold crash any time after that.

 

[drpookie]

Thanks much, thats exactly the info I needed.
So you don't shoot for a certain SG prior to rack and crash? Seems some "let it go too far" (ie too low SG) which I can't quite get a grasp on..
I do plan to backblend this prior to kegging, so it may not even be an issue?

 

[Grizzlybrew]

You should never halt a yeast while it's doing its job (i.e. don't try and halt fermentation to reach a particular FG). Yeast like to finish a job completely and this means cleaning up after themselves, consuming undesirable compounds that are a natural byproduct of fermentation.

There are other ways to adjust fermentability/attenuation on the front end or the back end (i.e. back-sweetening as you mentioned)

 

[Calder]

I have fermented mine dry, because I like it that way. But many here stop fermentation before it's done; I'm guessing, but maybe somewhere between 1.005 and 1.010. Apparently if you stop it early, you retain a lot more of the apple flavor. If you stop it early, it is supposed to be better than fermenting out and then adding back juice. Cold crash, kill the yeast with sorbate and keg. Or cold crash, rack off the yeast, keg and keep cold.

I'm sure someone else with experience of it will chime in.

 

[drpookie]

awesome guys, so glad i found this site and hobby!

 

[drpookie]

hey guys, for my purposes any real difference in campden tabs vs potassium sorbate?