roofman70
Well-Known Member
Please Define
Why?
When?
What to do?
Why?
When?
What to do?
So does this mean after you cold crash you can store in bottles at RT or will you have to keep it in the fridge?That's mighty dry. Well, does it taste like good lemonade? A lot of people like it dry. If you want it sweeter, you might want to add some more or the original juice. You could try adding a little bit and see if fermentation starts back up. If so, I would add enough to take it up to 1.015 or so and then let it ferment back down to taste. Or if you got all the yeast out when you racked it, just add juice to taste. It shouldnt take much, maybe a quart or two in 5 gal. I just checked out my WLP300 batch with no sugar and it still has a ways to go at 1.024. It tastes very good though. I crashed a few others that I started at the same time (11/15) and were further along in fermentation WLP302 at 1.004, Nottingham at 1.010 and Safale S04 at 1.010. Of the six yeasts I tested in this last round the WLP300 took the longest to start.
After cold crashing, does the cider have to be stored in a refrigerator or can it be stored at room temperature?
If you cold crash successfully, you can store the cider at room temperature afterwards. I have a fair number of kegs and dozens of bottles from previous seasons that have been stored in my basement for 1+ years at ambient temperature.
However cold crashing successfully is not easy to pull off the first time. You need to start with low nutrient juice - ie old standard trees that havent been fertilized in a while, or juice from an organic orchard. You need to use a strain of yeast that flocs at low temps, be careful when you rack, and keep an eye on the carboy after you rack in case it starts back up. Then, once you have cold crashed successfully and removed essentially all of the yeast, you will need to force carbonate (ie kegs and CO2) if you want carbonation. Its doable, but for someone starting out, you are likely to get better results with the pasteurization method in the sticky, or keep the cider in the fridge afterwards if you want a sweet or semi sweet carbonated cider.
Do you have any recommendations for FG or other ways to measure when a cider is semi-dry or semi-sweet (dry with a bit of sweetness in it)?
any idea what temp range would be good for cold crashing?
I've got next to no fridge space but it can get pretty cold here in the north, also after cold crashing for a week or so would it be fine to rack it off to a demijohn to see if I got all the yeast then repeat crashing if not?
It is just juice and EC-1113. It will stay in the carboy until it is fermented dry.
Did you mean EC-1118? If you are fermenting to dry, then you dont really need to cold crash unless you want to accelerate the clearing, which will happen on its own if you give it enough time. For purposes of cider, the main reason to cold crash is to shut down the fermentation, but you need to use an ale yeast for that. EC-1118 will not shut down if you crash it, but it will usually clear the cider up quite a bit.
Why are you "cold crashing"? What are you hoping to gain from that action? If you really feel you must "cold crash". You live in Buffalo. The temperature outside must be close to freezing. Can you leave your cider outside for a few hours and let it get close to freezing then bring it back in again..
I was cold crashing because I thought I had to, but maybe I am doing it at the wrong point. Once it ferments clear, I will not crash it then...but instead go straight to bottle. I do plan on (per the recipe used) adding a can of Frozen AJ Concentrate as a primer. Is this where I should cold crash...or am I completely confused?
Also to answer your question, I guess I could leave it outside for sure. I just worry about it actually freezing but if all I have to do is drop the temp for a bit I can definitely do that. Thanks for the info guys.
Cider makers who come from a wine making background as opposed to being brewers don't cold crash anything (except perhaps to remove trataric acid crystals)...
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