04,05,23 nottingham and Windsor. Got them tonight and will pitch Friday night. Now I got to decide what (honey or sugar) to add to what yeast! This should be fun!
Sounds good - FWIW, with the juice I use, Notty and S04 go good with pretty much anything - sugar, honey or no sugar. US05 is great with sugar, not as good with no sugar or with honey. So far I've only tried S23 with sugar. That one is tough to crash because being a lager it is perfectly happy in the fridge (though it clears nicely), but since it bottom ferments, an extra rack after the crash usually gets it. Windsor did best for me with no sugar. Its all dependent on the juice tho, so YMMV. Good luck!
I've got my first batch brewing right now. Me and my buddies pressed 6 gallons of apple juice and bought some juice to add to it, which is all now fermenting in my basement with some S-04. This is my first time fermenting anything, and its very exciting to watch. I'm going to follow your advice and split it into a couple batches and try different methods. Unfortunately I won't be back home for the first 4 days of fermentation, so I hope that by the time I get back it won't be completely dry (from what I understand, this takes around two weeks).
One thing I'm wondering- since I'm going to split my carboy into a couple different batches, will it be okay to leave just 3 gallons sitting in a 6.5 gal carboy for an extended period of time? My guess is no, because too much air will be left.
Any suggestions on what kind of containers I should use to split my 6 gallons into 3, 2, and 1-gallon portions? How should I do this in order to minimize exposure to air? I do already have a whole bunch of bottles between 22 oz - 750 ml, but those seem a tad small, not to mention a pain to install airlocks on.
You're right that you dont want to leave a lot of headspace if you can avoid it. Sometimes it cant be helped, but if you've got a carboy that's full, you should probably leave it that way until you can split it into jugs without a lot of headspace, like two 3 gallon carboys or single gallons. Gallon jugs work great for experimental batches. The plastic jugs that are used for milk and cider cost about $0.25 in bulk, but the trick is finding someone who will sell you some unused ones. Worst case, you could buy a gallon of water for a buck or maybe cheaper and use the container. Glass gallon jugs are nice because they are reusable, but its hard to find them at a decent price. You might be able to ask around at some restaurants if you are low on funds.
If you split it, shake it up first so that the yeast cake is evenly distributed in the new jugs. Since you've already got it in a carboy and fermenting, you may want to consider just keeping this one as a 6 gal batch and experiment with some other. Its still fairly early in the season, so you have plenty of time.
The fermentation time depends on temps, if your basement is fairly cool, two weeks sounds about right. For the batch got on 9/14, it was about 70F in my basement and some of those were done in 6 days. Later in the season, basement temps get down to 55-65 and the ferments take about a month. Generally the cooler you can keep it the better.
Use a racking cane to transfer the cider from one container to the next. That will minimize air exposure. If you've got a source of apples and expect to be doing this for a while, you probably will want to invest in an autosiphon sooner or later. Maybe start looking on craigslist for some secondhand kegs
I feel like the sticky is a good place to go ahead and post this, I don't know if any of you have heard but I was browsing he forums and found that a lot of nottingham yeast has been recalled. I know that this is or at least was one of cvillekevin's favorite yeasts and I have recently done a batch of cider with it. I did not get one of the recalled packets but some of you may have. more information here: http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f163/nottingham-yeast-recall-135065/
Thanks for the heads up. I used Nottingham for one of the carboys that I got last Thursday. It was from a different batch though. It was a little slower than the S04 to start, but it seems to be doing fine now
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