Unintentional Cold Crashing

[NicholasL]

Hi there,

So I thought I would try my hand at Apple Cider making this year with our apple tree but have run into a bit of an issue.

I had my cider in primary for 14 days (I intended to do 10 but I was out of town and had no choice but to let it stay in primary) then I racked to secondary. Problem being that the rubber stoppers I bought for my secondary jugs were too large. I have ordered the right size but it wont be here for at least a week (amazon). We have no LHBS in my town that stocks the right size stoppers.

Not wanting anything to happen to the Cider I put the 1 gallon jugs it in the fridge with a screw cap on and they have been in there for at least 7 days now.

My questions are:

1 - will it be okay to take the cider out of the fridge put the fermentation lock on and continue to let it ferment once the stoppers arrive
2. Is it safe to drink after removing from the fridge and letting sit to ferment again.

Totally new to this, so any help or suggestions would be appreciated.

Thanks,

 

[owmatooth]

i had a 5 gallon carboy of cider that had been fermenting for 2 weeks (my usualy time before kegging a cider). Fermentation was complete for sure. I had it cold crashed to 34 to be ready to rack to keg, and then hurricane hit florida and i lost power for a week. had to commandeer the chest freezer to run off the generator for our food from our real freezer. needless to say the cider got bumped to the 85 degree warm garage. within a day it started fermenting again. after a week I got to chill it again and cold crash and keg. I'm drinking it now. it tastes exactly the same as the cider i make without anything going wrong.

moral of the story. cider is very forgiving, or at least the american ale II wyeast yeast I was using is. It might be the best cider you ever make, but it'll be tough to remember all the temp steps you went through to get it there.

 

[ten80]

Ditto! Wine yeast is especially hardy and can take large temperature swings. I'd rather accidentally cold-crash my cider than have it get really hot!

Give the cider a good swirl as it warms up to re-suspend the yeast and they should resume fermenting.

 

[MarkKF]

You could always just put a sterilized baggie over the neck and hold it on with a rubber band. Pressure will be released.

 

[NicholasL]

Thanks for the information and suggestions! Much appreciated!