OK tell me if i have it:

Making my next batch friday:

1. 4 Gallons Apple Cider (Musslemans) 3 lbs brown sugar/ 1 batch nottinghmam & 1 batch lavlin 1118 take OG
2. Let ferment about 1 month (or so) switch to secondary and back sweeten; take gravity reading cant remember the acronym
3 let ferment about 3 months
3. Rack (take gravity)
4. Let bottles carbonate 1 month then pasteurize
5. let age 2 weeks.

Brewinsooner said:

Making my next batch friday:

1. 4 Gallons Apple Cider (Musslemans) 3 lbs brown sugar/ 1 batch nottinghmam & 1 batch lavlin 1118 take OG

Click to expand...

Confused here. Are you doing one 4 gallon batch, or two 2 gallon batches? If only one batch, you only need one yeast. I would not mix them. And I would recommend the Nottingham.

Someone else can chime in here if I'm wrong, but as far as I know, if you're going to let it carb a month, there's probably no use in pasteurizing. Since in a month its likely to carb until the sugar is gone, pasteurization isn't likely to retain any sweetness. If you were planning to have it sweet, after a month, that amount of sugar might produce bombs.

Check out the pasteurization thread to make sure you know what you want.

Also, I'll second the statement about yeasts. Use one per batch.

What are you planning to backsweeten with?

I should have been clearer 2 4gallon batchs guess i will cut carbonation time to 2wks is that better?

Mine carbonate in about 3 days, how much sugar are you priming with?

havn't got that far yet but that is good to know

Brewinsooner said:

Making my next batch friday:

1. 4 Gallons Apple Cider (Musslemans) 3 lbs brown sugar/ 1 batch nottinghmam & 1 batch lavlin 1118 take OG
2. Let ferment about 1 month (or so) switch to secondary and back sweeten; take gravity reading cant remember the acronym
3 let ferment about 3 months
3. Rack (take gravity)
4. Let bottles carbonate 1 month then pasteurize
5. let age 2 weeks.

Click to expand...

1. I don't like fermented brown sugar, but if you do, that's fine. Use just the nottingham yeast.

2. Don't "backsweeten" and then let it ferment out. All you'll do is let the sugar ferment again, giving you a dry cider.

3. That's fine.

3 & 4. NOW is when you add some sugar (priming sugar) to carbonate the cider. You can also add some non-fermentable sugar at this time to sweeten if you don't want to risk bottle bombs and pasteurizing. let it sit about a week, before pasteurizing, if going that route. If you wait a month, the bottles will blow up long before then.

5. Or longer.

While 3 months wouldn't hurt your cider, it seems fairly unnecessary, especially if you go with the 1118, that stuff is a beast. Unless you have a ridiculously high OG, 1 month in primary is fine. One thing you left out of your process is clearing (if necessary). My ciders are usually a bit hazy at 3-4 weeks, so I add a little pectic enzyme at that time which clears it right up.