I am crushing apples for the first time this season to make some hard cider. I usually just use pasteurized juice. I know i can boil to kill everything but then I’m worried about pectin haze. My goal is to not use any chemicals, thanks everyone if this had been asked before just looking me in the right direction because I couldn’t find anything.
I use no chemicals and have no haze. Part of the trick is patience. The cider will clear in time. I pasteurize my juice not by boiling but only raise to 160F for about 10 minutes. Very effective and you won’t lose so much aromatics either. Yeast is a matter of preference. ANY yeast will work fine. My favorite is Cote des Blancs which is a white wine yeast which throws off some sulfur over the first couple weeks but the result afterward is very clean and allows all the apple flavor to shine. I like to leave my cider alone for at least 6-8 weeks to ferment out completely (patience!), then bottle with a little xylitol which tastes just like sugar but does not ferment. Works really well. If you do not want to use xylitol, your cider will still be good but very dry and tart. To maximize sweetness in this case, you can try a very low attenuating yeast such as a Scottish ale yeast or Windsor, those will drop out quicker and result in a more balanced cider with no chemicals necessary.
There are other methods but these are my favorites. Cheers!
I agree with everything Dave said. If you like dry, tart cider than it couldn’t be easier.
Also, I always make some of my cider wild. Just put it in a fermenter as is, no heating, with an airlock and let ferment in the sixties for around six weeks. I like to bottle these and let sit a couple months. It’s always my favorite version.
If you do heat use pectin enzyme as insurance against haze.
I have had the same experience as Dave regarding ale yeast vs wine yeast.
The tricky part is if you want to backsweeten. If you keg it’s easy because you can just add Apple juice concentrate to the keg and keep below 40.
If you don’t like dry cider another option is making apple ale. The ale part takes care of the residual sweetness. It also makes the apple flavor come through, there is some magic with mouthfeel that makes it seem more apple than regular cider. Just warn your gluten free friends.
I harvest and press my own apples. I stopped using sulfites years ago after determining I didn’t need them. There is nothing in my cider but juice and yeast and it comes out crystal clear. As Dave mwntioned, qithout sweetening the cider can be very dry and tart, but that’s not a given. It depends on the apples and yeast. One of the batches I make every year you’d swear was back sweetened. But it’s not. It’s just apples from a certain tree and WY1450. Finishes at .996, but full apple flavor and lots of body.
Lucky duck! I wish I could find a juice that didn’t turn out so dry. I might just want to play with Windsor a whole lot more, which I haven’t done for a few years. Or your 1450!
Start with 1450. Even when I use our Delicious apples, it leaves some apple flavor behind. When I use what we call crabapples (I have no idea if they really are) you wpuld sweat that its been sweetened, even though we add nothing. If Drew ever has time to post the latest podcast, we do a tasting of it there. He wrote a book about cider, and was stunned by now mine turned out with no additional ingredients.
I might prefer to read YOUR cider book if you got around to one! If I wrote one, it would only be like 2 pages, and would have zero “recipes”. Just leaving some juice sit for a while can make a splendid product. 
Cheers!
I will try 1450 this year, we will be picking and pressing soon.
I have never done straight crabapples but love to add them into the mix.
Do you just add one smack pack per 5gallons?
I agree, although I’ve only had anound 50% success with wild cider. But when it’s good, it’s great!
Yeah. The gravity of the juice is usually around 1.045 so I just dump in a smack pack, no starter.
And good luck repeating a good wild cider.
I have had 100% success with wild cider being great every time and 0% success with wild cider being the same every time. May it always be so.
Thanks! Cote des Blanc is also my favorite yeast
Denny do you boil after crushing?
Currently I will be making plum wine with no chemicals let me know if you have any tips
Never! Completely unnecessary and would ruin the fresh flavor.
I mean bringing to 160 for 10minutes
No, I don’t do that either. Not needed.
Weekly is it not needed, what about bad bacteria
I’m about to do my last pressing of the year I have many many apples around 1000lb that are really clean but it’s going to take forever to bring it all to 160 for 10 minutes. Take quite awhile to cool down to be able to pitch yeast. I hear people just pitching their yeast and it takes over but what about bad bacteria?