So after a trip to the store here is what I ended up with:
Batch A:
3 Cans 100% natural Apple Concentrate
About 32 ounces Simply Apple juice
About 1.5-2 cups oat milk
Topped off with water
Batch B:
1 Can 100% Natural Apple Concentrate
63 ounces musselmans apple juice
about 32 ounces Simply Apple juice
Topped off with water (barely)
I rinsed all of the concentrate cans into one and used that to kickstart the yeast while I prepared everything else. I used one small pouch of Lalvin EC-1118 split between the two gallons.
Batch A notes:
The reason behind the different juices was A. Simply Apple on sale looked to have a bit more apple solids vs musselmans, is that a good thing?)
and B
I used this instead of another concentrate due to the fact that I could only find 4 concentrates and wanted to kick up the 2nd gallon a bit.
I made some oat milk by toasting some oats, grinding them into a flour, and steeping for a couple hours. Now that I have done that I would say not to grind it up. I had to squeeze HARD to get it through a cloth filter. and it still has to many solids.
I made my caramel syrup with a touch of dark molasses, it tastes great. I will be adding this after fermentation has mostly stopped and then will bottle and pasteurize after carbing.
Batch B:
I wanted something simple, I used two different juices because I thought the simply apply might give a bit more food for the yeast to chew on. I would have gone with all Simply Apple after I found it on sale, but the store only had one bottle left :-(
I added the single can of concentrate to up the SG a bit.
With this batch I plan on letting it go dry and then bottling it still.
So I have a few questions for the community. I do not yet have a hydrometer, so I do not have any SG readings and will be relying on bubble activity and wild ass guessing to determine when fermenting has stopped. Any tips on how to best judge this? I am mostly worried about the cider I am going to bottle still, but since I plan on racking it into secondary for a bit I guess it won't matter so much as I should have plenty of time to let it finish eating. It also shouldn't matter much for batch A since I'm going to pasteurize.
I am thinking about adding some cinnamon to one of the batches, probably the first. But my gut keeps telling me to keep it simple since this is my first two batches.
I will be purchasing a hydrometer in a week or so, but will also have to have it shipped. Maybe by the time I need it to measure the end activity I will actually have it.
Edit: I added a picture from last night and another form this morning, major difference already and bubbles about every 5 seconds.