Will Nottingham be enough?

Hello all, my first 5 gallon batch of cider is bubbling away at about a bubble per second at a steady 64°. The OG came in at 1.104. I know that's pretty high, and that I can expect jet fuel, but I'm looking for a higher abv. I ended up going with Nottingham and added the 5 tsp of nutrient that the instructions recommended. Ideally, I would like to run it dry and then back sweeten to taste. From what I've read, Nottingham can tolerate an abv of about 12%. According to the math, I'm dealing with a potential abv of just over 13%. With an OG that high, how close to 1.00 can I expect to get using Nottingham? Sorry for the noob questions, but any feedback or suggestions would be awesome, thanks!

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I would stick with the Nottingham this time and see how the FG looks.

Thats a pretty tall order for Nottingham. It's possible, but 12-13% would probably be better suited for a wine yeast. If you bottle it, you'll probably have to prime and hit it with a champagne yeast to get it to carb.

Hmm...I recently did a barleywine with an OG of 1.110 and pitched 1 pack of fresh Notty and one washed jar (2 total, both with starters). I'm planning on racking this weekend so I'll let you know how well mine did for comparison.

I'd be worried about pitching more yeast at bottling though. Wouldn't that be sort of unpredictable and could potentially lead to bottle bombs?

It's not a problem with pitching yeast at bottling that causes problems its the remaining sugar that causes problems.

Say it only gets down to 1.02. Would getting it down to 1.00 be as easy as pitching some champagne yeast?

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Champagne yeast can go pretty dry at times...FG as low as .990 or lower. If I were in your shoes I wouldn't sweat a few extra points. Let it go as long as it needs and if you're still unhappy at the end, try pitching some champagne yeast...just be prepared for it to be way dry at the end of fermentation.

Pickled_Pepper said:

It's not a problem with pitching yeast at bottling that causes problems its the remaining sugar that causes problems.

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Right, it just seems unpredictable. If you prime it and pitch wine yeast, the priming sugar and any sugar not consumed during primary fermentation will be consumed. I guess if you could nail down how much fermentable sugar was left after primary fermentation you could calculate how much priming sugar you need before you pitch wine yeast. Is there a way to do that?

I'm by no means a scientist, but I think I've read that it takes about 6 points to carbonate. You'll have to research the math on that though. ie: if you have a cider that is sitting at 1.000 you will need to add .006 points of sugar to carbonate it.

Obviously you wouldn't want to prime a cider with sugar if it's stalled at 1.010. That would definitely be bad. The yeast addition was a mere suggestion if the original yeast used had reached it's alcohol tolerance. You will need something viable in there to eat sugar and produce CO2.

As it was stated above, you will need to wait for your terminal gravity and see what your next move will be.

You won't need to add yeast if the notty does it's trick all the way. If it stalls, then you can add it to primary and finish the fermentation up. You'll have to see what your final gravity is.

If you are just using the champagne yeast to carbonate...even a small pinch in each bottle will do the trick. It would be applied like carbonating non-alcoholic soda in bottles.