Steps In Brewing Cider

[Jeff_beazley]

Hi all.
Ok so I have my 1st cider brew (18l fresh juices, 250g light dried malt extract and some liquid cider yeast) fermenting away in my wort - very exciting
My question is after achieving a stable sg, what do I do? Do I literally just bottle with carb drops similar to beer brews? Is this second fermentation necessary? Also I heard some people chill after the initial fermentation?
Any help would be super. Thanks!
Jeff

 

[pk.sax]

Chill to drop yeast out of suspension (there will be enough left to carbonate with).

Adding carb drops/or bulk priming is necessary to carbonate bottles.

Alternatively, keg or use a counter pressure bottle filler to bottle.

If you bottle, either way, make sure that the cider ferments dry before you prime to bottle.
If crash chilling and drinking flat or kegging, this is not an issue.

Carbonating also helps keep the product in the bottle free of infection. The yeast use up any oxygen introduced and also nothing gets left for bad microbes.

I hope these are simple enough explanations. Someone more into ciders might be able to comment better.

 

[Jeff_beazley]

Chill to drop yeast out of suspension (there will be enough left to carbonate with).

Adding carb drops/or bulk priming is necessary to carbonate bottles.

Alternatively, keg or use a counter pressure bottle filler to bottle.

If you bottle, either way, make sure that the cider ferments dry before you prime to bottle.
If crash chilling and drinking flat or kegging, this is not an issue.

Carbonating also helps keep the product in the bottle free of infection. The yeast use up any oxygen introduced and also nothing gets left for bad microbes.

I hope these are simple enough explanations. Someone more into ciders might be able to comment better.

Thanks for the response - that makes a lot of sense. I do hve a question though. Do I chill the whole wort before bottling and also roughly for how long?
Thnks again.

 

[pk.sax]

Yeah, the whole lot. It's only to promote clarity and precipitate dead yeast and any trub.

Put the whole thing in a fridge and wait till it clears up. A day or so.... If you aren't too crazy about clarity and the cider has absolutely fully fermented, just prime and bottle it. They will also clear up in the bottle eventually. Remember to not stir up the settled yeast bed whichever way. Chilling does rather help in getting a nice compact harder to stir up yeast layer.