Headspace for Cider Fermentation

[skee1080]

Although I've been brewing beer for some time now, I've decided to try my hand at making cider for the first time. I picked up some fresh, unpasteurized juice this morning and just added some campden tablets to sulfite the juice. I'll pitch the yeast tomorrow night, but I have a question about headspace in the fermenter. The guy at the orchard that I got the juice from makes cider as well and told me I didn't need much headspace in the fermenter because, unlike beer, there's very little protein content to cause intense foaming during fermentation. He basically filled my 6.5 gallon carboy up all the way. Am I okay just to pitch the yeast and throw an airlock on? Or should I siphon a little of the juice out to give me some more headspace. Here's a picture of my carboy with the juice in it:

[Stinkfist]

There was almost no Krausen on the Cider I made....Until I added the cherries to it...so if you are just doing a basic cider you will be just fine..

[brushvalleybrewer]

I’ve made a couple ciders and never needed much head space. My understanding is that the foam comes from proteins and cider has very little.

[bikefoolery]

I recently fermented a cider with S-04 and Lalvan 71b. The s-04 had a half inch of krausen, and 171b had no krausen. Leave all the cider in.

Asa note from my first cider making: After a tasting panel with my wife the recommendation of 'back sweeten to taste' was 1:1 ratio of hard cider to fresh cider, so our finished product will be about 3% abv. next time I'm going to bump up the ABV with sugar.

All depends on what your target cider is.

The Fool

[andy77]

I'm on my third batch of cider. All three I fermented in 5 gallon carboys with only a inch or so of headspace, because someone told me not to worry about it, like your experience. Two I used white wine yeast and had no problems. When I used Cal Ale yeast, I had blowoff city. Slurry everywhere. YMMV.

[mordantly]

i've heard reports of lalvin ec-1118 as a very low krausen on ciders..

[dmtaylor]

My experience has been that ale yeasts will generate more krausen than wine yeasts. If you use a wine yeast, skee, I'd say you're safe based on the photo. But if you try ale yeast (like US-05 or S-04, both of which are great for cider), then you might want to add a blowoff tube.