Kevin Lynch’s Cider

While the variety of cider he produces is wide, Lynch’s current cidermaking process is pretty straightforward:

Fill a sanitized five-gallon vessel with local 1. apple juice, then add about 1⁄8 teaspoon potassium metabisulfites. Top with a rubber stopper. To kill any wild yeast, pause for 24 hours to allow the sulfites to dissipate.

Check the sweetness of the juice by taste or by using a hydrometer, which measures sweetness or specific gravity. Add a sweetening agent to obtain a reading of 1.060 to 1.065 (or to taste).

Add 11 grams of ale yeast to each vessel, then label each cider with a post-it note explaining what you’ve done. Top the vessel with an airlock (a valve that allows CO2 out but doesn’t let oxygen in).

At a cellar temperature of 60 to 65 degrees the juice will ferment for about two weeks (allow more time for a colder room, less time for a warmer room). The airlock will be bubbling briskly. When the bubbling slows down, and the cider begins to look lighter (and possibly more clear), it has finished its primary fermentation.

“Rack” the cider, siphoning the liquid from the lees (sediment) using a tool called an autosiphon.

Cold crash (or refrigerate) the cider for at least 24 hours to push the yeast into dormancy. For clarity and quality, you can rack the cider one more time into sanitary liter bottles, ready to premiere at the next tasting.