I put down a 30L batch on the 17th Jan. Seeing this is my first cider I’m just using some supermarket purchased apple juice. It came out at 1.043 O.G. I pitched with Mangrove Jack’s Craft Series M02 cider yeast. It says recommended temperature range is from 18-24degC. I started out at 20degC. Just took a gravity reading and it’s at 1.013. From what I’ve read it should finish out at around 1.002 hopefully. I’ve just adjusted the profile to raise the temperature to 23degC over the next 3 days.
My question is what temperature should I condition the cider at for secondary? Should I lower it down to 18degC?
When I do mine I usually do no ramps and just let it sit right around 70˚F/21˚C. I dont secondary very long just a few weeks then use a clearing agent if I am looking for a clear cider, most times I do not even bother with that since I am making it to drink not for comps.
I usually transfer it to keg then put it in the keezer for a few days prior to back sweetening with frozen concentrate. I know a lot of people kill the yeast of first but once it’s in the keg it’s cold till kicked at my house so no worry about refermenting.
I will be bottling so no back sweetening. After I start secondary fermentation I’m going to add some passion fruit I harvested last year. Not sure if I need to do anything to try and sanitize the pulp before adding it in. That might bump up the ABV a bit. I’ll probably secondary ferment it for 3 or 4 weeks before bottling.
I’m keen to see a bit more discussion on here regarding what temperature profiles people are using for different brews. It’s all well and good having the ability to control temperature well but for those with not much experience on the affects of different temperatures it’s hard to know where to start.