How much cider lost to trub?

[BPal75]

Making my first hard cider soon and want to end up with 5 gallons in the keg. Never having made a hard cider before, I have no idea how much cider I should expect to lose to yeast cake and trub after fermentation. What do most experienced hard cider makers predicate for trub loss?

 

[Yooper]

It's hard to say.

With purchased cider/juice that is clear, you might lose very little in the way of lees.

I just did a few gallons of cider from local apple trees, and I had a ton of lees! I started with 2+ gallons of cider in one batch, and ended up with 1.50 gallons going to secondary (a one gallon jug and a growler)! There are still some lees forming in the secondary, but not much. I will probably end up with just over a gallon in the end.

I had a ton of sediment from the apples. It's nice and clear now, so I won't get much more.

 

[BPal75]

Wow that is a lot! I bought 5 1 gallon jugs of cider from whole foods. It's a pretty dark brown, I'm assuming from the oxidized pulp, so I guessed I'll get a fair amount of that when it settles out. Plus I'm planning to add pectin enzyme which I assume would increase trub? My thought was to mix in 1/2 gallon of boiled and cooled water to have 5.5 gallons into the fermenter with the hope that I'd lose no more than 1/2 gallon. Now I'm starting to wonder whether I should be anticipating much more!!

 

[MindenMan]

In my experience, I agree with Yooper. Cloudy "fresh" cider is always kind of crap shoot. I suggest if you are going to add water, make it AJC water to keep the dilution to minimum. Just my .02
And yes,plan on a lot of trub. I have gotten into the habit of pouring my trub into a screen/filter on the bottom of the secondary to drain out all the cider I can get back, and of course there will always be a little "silt" going into tertiary. I don't use siphons as all my fermenters have spigots on them. Cold crashing is also very helpful as well. After you get comfortable making hard cider, you might want to try your hand at freeze concentration. Apple schnapps is good stuff!