Adding Yeast - Complete Beginner

Hello all,

I am a first time brewer and I plan on trying to make an easy Hard Cider recipe for my first time. I finally received everything I need to make my first batch but I am a little confused on adding the yeast. I have read two books, searched around the internet, and read some on the forum but I just don't see exactly what I am looking for.

I am going to be using a 5 gallon glass carboy. Once I get my 4 gallons of apple juice in there exactly what do I do to add the yeast? Do I just empty the packet into the top? Do I add the yeast then shake or stir the yeast to mix it into the apple juice?

Most of the instructions I have read just say add the yeast as if I know what I am doing. I just want this to go as smoothly as possible so I thought I would ask first.

Thanks for your help in advance!

You want to let the yeast sit in a warm (100 degree or so, basically body temperature, tepid) glass of water for a half hour or so to let it rehydrate. That's about it. You could just dump the yeast in, but it is better to let them rehydrate.

Dry yeast can just be sprinkled in. Some of us prefer to re-hydrate it in a (sanitized) cup of water for 20 minutes, then pour the slurry in. It will work either way. Rehydrating is supposed to result in a higher number of viable cells pitched into the wort/must.

Doesn't take much water to hydrate them, really. Just a few ounces in a cup to get 'em wet.

Just sprinkle it into the neck of your funnel and rinse it down with some of the AJ, you should be fine.

Edwort has a Sticky on his Apfelwein Recipe/Method here: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f25/man-i-love-apfelwein-14860/?highlight=edworts+apfelwein

Good info, and I will be bottling my first batch this weekend!

I can't wait to try it!

Thanks for the responses guys!

I have one more question. Is it okay to leave the hydrometer in the carboy while it ferments? I don't have any kind of tube to fill and use the hydrometer.

I really wouldn't do that. I went to the .99 cent store and bought a glass rose vase to use for my graduated cylinder. you have to put a little more in it, but it works fine. I wouldn't leave the hydrometer in the fermenter because all the off gassing will cause little bubbles to adhere to the bottom of your hydrometer and give an incorrect reading anyway.. That's my theory anyway.

Your hydro didn't come in a little tube to store it in?

That's what I use for my tests, it doesn't have a perfectly flat bottom, but it still works.