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Cold crashing and other first time Cider questions
Hey guys, have a few questions about a first try at cider.
We pressed and made our own cider this year with a mix of grimes golden, fuji, and red delicious apples. I brought that home to try some various things with. Our first batch of hard cider is going as so:
Pasteurized 3 gallons of fresh cider (heated to 170 deg). (I understand campden is the way to go with this, but I chose to pasteurize).
O.G of the cider was 1.05
Used Red Star champagne yeast. All went well during fermentation, temp kept around 72 deg.
20 days later racked to secondary, S.G was .990
Been sitting still now for about 7 days.
The cider is slightest bit yeasty but I'm sure that will mellow out with some time. Otherwise, quite clear (but dark almost the color of an amber ale) and pretty tasty.
I am planning on bottling this in usual crimp cap ale bottles, and carbonating with some type of sugar
Questions;
Cold crashing? I understand this will help the cider clear out a bit more, and make the yeast go dormant but is it necessary for what I want to do?
Since the cider is so dry now, can I cold crash, prime, and bottle at room temps and not have to worry about any bottle bombs?
Or should I consider some of the after-carbonation priming techniques (like this http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f32/easy-st … cs-193295/)
Thanks for any and all help!
When I have cold crashed beer in the past there has not been enough yeast left in suspension to re ferment in the bottles. I would just let it set for another couple of weeks add some carbonation tabs from coopers or muttons to each bottle and then bottle as normal. That way it will mostly clear leave some yeast for the re-fermentation and if you let it set some time in the bottles it will clear while being carbed up, especially if it is cold while you let it sit.
just some thoughts on the matter. Anyone else have an idea?
ID
Sorry, I'm new to this... What the heck is cold crashing?
I thought cider needed to be in the secondary for a month or two.
http://vermonthomebrew.com/cider.aspx
Namely the sentence that reads "You don't need to worry about bottling for a few months."
Scott
Cold crashing is simply placing your fermenter (or it can be done in the bottle) in near freezing temperature to help precipitate out solids that can form haze.
I don't know if cider "needs" to be in the secondary for a month or two but I prefer to do it that way.
So, I decided to cold crash the cider for 24 hrs before bottling. It did clear it out some and looks much better. I bottled with 1/2 cup of honey to prime the bottles. While bottling, I imbibed in quite a bit of the still cider. It has a bit of a metallic flavor on the finish. It is ok and this batch will definitely be drinkable. My main concern is how to keep this flavor out of the cider next year? Some books say it could be oxidation while others say it could be contact with the cast iron used in the crusher during the presssing process. Does anyone else have input on this off flavor and how it can be reduced?
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