Long Primary Ferment Vs Primary And Secondary.

[Excidered]

So Greg, you reckon bottle it and let it have its month or so ageing in the bottles instead? Sounds fair. I do plan on fresh pressed craft cider one day, but I don't have the means to press apples (or enough apples) at this time. The ultimate distant future goal is to have an orchard and make boutique ciders.

Manticle, I don't really have the means to age cold. But it isn't way out of my reach, I have found a LOT of free fridges come up on gumtree, so I assume that it wouldn't be too hard to get my hands on a very cheap or free fridge for this purpose. I have fermented for 1 week, and fermentation seems to be complete now. Im looking at SG of 1.000 for all the batches, so they are done. So then I guess you would check the taste, etc, post ferment, and decide how long roughly you will need to be ageing for to get the depth of flavour desired? Also, would a fridge be ok for the sort of temps I would need to cold age something? What sort of temps are we looking at here? Also, I assume that putting it in the fridge would 'Cold crash" the yeast, stopping any further fermentation...right? Malolactic is something I have a very basic understanding of, but at the moment, I am not going to venture there. If I end up with a cider that is a bit strong on malic, I will deal with it....at least I will have made a drinkable cider. So far all I have ended up with is something that tastes like white cask wine with a touch of apple juice.
So then you would reccomend racking to secondary AFTER 3 or four weeks post ferment if I decided more time was needed? That makes sense to me.

Yeah Stux, I have heard of the CO2 blanket, CO2 being heavier than the air around it drops and stays on top. This blanket just stops oxidation from occurring on the cider's surface for a while right? so that gives me a bit of extra time?

Thanks heaps guys. Lots of ideas in my head now...all starting to make a bit more sense.

 

[manticle]

With beer and cider, I always allow at least a week after FG is reached for the yeast to clean up byproducts.

I then condition in cold temps for 1-3 weeks.

I also ferment my ciders cool (yeast dependent but at the lowest end of the temp range for the yeast).

I find this is enough maturation to give a more than drinkable cider (I'd prefer tasty, refreshing and slightly complex to drinkable). I have a way to go before I make the perfect cider but each one is an improvement and there is nothing in my process I would lessen in terms of time or try and rush.

As for aging/racking: If I wanted to age longer than 4 weeks, particularly if it wasn't cold aging, I would consider racking to glass with no headspace but so far cool fermentation and cold conditioning have been enough for me. No autolytic flavours.

Usual regime:

ferment 12-14 degrees for ~3 weeks. Make sure FG is reached (usually 1000)
Leave at same temp or a bit higher for another week
Cold condition between 0 and 4 for another week or two.
Bottle.

 

[Excidered]

Right. So that cleanup time is important, but maybe no for a whole month. I don't really have what I would need to keep the cider that cool at the moment. Im usually sitting around 25C, but it is startin to get cooler now. I could do the 0-4 deg C temp in an old fridge I am sure, but maintaining around 18 is gonna be petty hard for me. Looks like I need another week in primary for cleanup, then Im gonna have to make a decision as to which way to go.
I guess I am gettin my desired FG a bit quicker than in 3 weeks because of the higher ferment temps. like that it is a bit quicker, but I guess that the final product would be better if I were to ferment cooler.
Pretty sure I won't be needing to age more than 4 weeks at current.

So my plan of attack might be something like:

Ferment for a week then leave for another week post ferment for cleanup.
Then either:
A. Into a fridge form 0-4 deg C cool ageing for a couple of weeks. Then prime and bottle. (then obviously a while to let it carbonate which will give it a bit of a bottle age)
B. Prime and bottle, leave to bottle age for 3 weeks or so as carbonation occurs.

Thoughts? also. Am i getting any ageing while carbonating? can the two b considered to be happening simultaneously? Also how long should I be looking at for carbonation to occur? And should this be done in a fridge? or just at ferm temps?

Thankyou.