Charlottesville Cider (condensed version)

[KC]

There's an excellent thread by CVilleKevin on HBT on a modified method of homebrewing cider. Most notably, he uses ale yeast instead of cider or wine yeast, and he doesn't backsweeten. Instead, he cold crashes fermentation at the desired F.G. Feedback indicates this creates a smoother, balanced, more consistent sweetness.

I like his approach, but it can be difficult to follow 100+ pages. I've condensed the information into these steps:

1. Fresh press cider.
   Avoid pre-pressed cider that's been treated with any preservative methods. Those can affect clarity, flavor, and fermentability.
   Good cider apples are tart and sweet. Good cider varieties are Jonagold, Winesap, Stayman, Granny Smith, Empire, Pippin, Arkansas Black, and even crabapples.
2. Start with more juice than you need.
   This cider will be racked several times, so to fill a 5 gallon keg, you'll need at least 6 gallons of juice for the fermenter. Estimate 15lbs of apples per gallon of juice.
3. Halt any wild yeast by adding 1/16 tsp sulfite per 5G batch and let sit for 48 hours.
   Cider needs less sulfite than wine grapes. Too much can end up affecting flavor.
4. Pitch one of several tested ale yeasts, particularly wheat yeasts or Nottingham. No starter.
   I prefer Wyeast 3333 which is a high-flocculating wheat yeast. Lower flocking yeasts are harder to drop out of suspension and stop fermentation.
   I have also had luck with lager yeast. Bottom fermenting yeast is easier to rack the cider from above.
5. Ferment very slowly in cold temperature.
   If you ferment too fast, you may miss your target F.G. If you ferment too warm, the ale yeast may contribute too many uncharacteristic ester flavors. 55-60 degrees is a pretty good range. I use my garage because it stays consistently around 56 in the winter.
6. Choose a target F.G. and monitor daily until you reach it.
   I've found the most popular commercial ciders to have a F.G. around 1.020 which makes a sweet cider, and that is my target. Under 1.010 will be dry. Most people will like semi sweet between these two marks. Tilt hydrometers would be awesome for this.
7. Rack once off the yeast bed and immediately cold crash one week.
   When fermentation hits target F.G. transfer cider to a secondary container without carrying over excess yeast. The leftover can be saved to make a dry cider.
   Chill the cider right away. The colder the better; I used a kegerator that holds 32 degrees. If its not cold enough, yeast may not go dormant. Allow plenty of time for the yeast to drop out. You want all of it out of your cider.
8. Rack a second time off the remaining yeast.
   Be careful not to transfer ANY yeast from the bottom. The leftover can also be saved for a dry cider.
9. Let rest at room temperature for 3 days and make sure no yeast is left.
   Any bubble activity in the juice will indicate fermentation has not ceased and you will need to crash again. Bubbles in the airlock are expected.
10. Fill a keg and pressurize/serve at 15 PSI.
    Juice has no protein and notoriously poor head retention. Keeping cider at a higher pressure than beer will produce more foam up front.
    
    

This style will not bottle carb. Bottle flat or bottle from the keg. It also ages extremely well. Should get better after at least one year.

[KC]

With Jonagold apples and Wyeast 3333, this took 1st in all ciders at the 2017 Cascade Cup