First Cider Questions

Yesterday I started my first cider. Wondering if anyone has any advice or suggestions for moving along with.

So I started with:
4 Gallons Organic unfiltered pasteurized apple juice
1/2 Pound Organic Brown Sugar
4 Grams Nottingham yeast

Poured half a gallon of the apple juice into my 6 gallon carboy. Then mixed the 1/2 pound of brown sugar into the 1/2 gallon of juice and shook until dissolved into the juice. Added the rest of the juice and pitched in the 4 grams of yeast. Then added airlock. My sg reading was 1.06 after adding everything.

So its a day later from mixing everything and am still not getting fermentation, which from what I have read seems normal may take another day or two?
AI am planning in racking it into my secondary with sugar before bottling to carbonate. What I am a little confused about is how does cold crashing work(and do I need to do it)? Do it do it in the carboy or in the secondary? How long does it need to be chilled for, and after cold crashing does it need to be put into the carboy then bottled, or just stay in the container it was cold crashed in? Also should I add the sugar before or after cold crashing?

Thanks for any help.

Are you sure you used 4 grams of yeast? Notty comes in 11g packets, which is what you use for 5 or 6 gal.

If you're using a 6 gallon carboy, I'd recommend filling it with 5 1/2 gallons next time to minimize headspace

If you want to bottle carb, then you dont want to cold crash. If you want it sweet, then cold crash, but you will have to to drink it still or use a keg to carbonate. search on 'cold crash' for more info

yes I weighed out 4g. Do you suggest putting in the remaining? I have no activity at the moment. I was using 4g per a recipe that I was following, but called for champagne yeast.

Yes, pitch the whole packet. Do half at a time. Try to get it to spread evenly across the top of your cider. You can tap lightly on the side of the carboy to get it to spread out evenly in a single film. You want it to rehydrate slowly and evenly. Let the first half sink, which will take about 10 min, and then pitch the rest, again letting it spread out on the surface. you should see bubbles in the cider in 24 hours. It might take a little longer to see airlock activity since you have so much headspace

ok going pitch the rest. Half now half after curb your enthusiasm is over.

Sounds good. BTW, there was a recall on some Notty packets earlier in the year. Check the code on yours just to make sure it wasnt in this batch (see link)
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f163/nottingham-yeast-recall-135065/

Thanks, checked my package and was not recalled. Will update tomorrow night if it has started to ferment.

if there is little to no activity still, and I pitched the rest of the packet around 10pm last night? Does this seem normal? There will be lots of movement/bubbling when the yeast is active correct? Thanks

BTW its about 67-68 degrees in my apartment

It sounds like you did everything right. It will take a few days before the cider really gets boiling. It seems like even the non-recalled batches of Nottingham are moving a little slow this season. Mine took 24 hours to get going while everything else was going in about 6 hours. Since you have so much headspace, it will probably take a little longer to see airlock activity, but if you look real close, you ought to be able to see tiny little bubbles coming up the side of the carboy. If not, it probably wouldnt hurt to give it a shake again, just to make sure that the contents are evenly distributed. If it goes another three or four days and still no activity, then you might want to pitch another packet, but for now, dont worry

ok, I see the little bubbles. Will wait a few days and post an update.
Thanks for all the help.

Depending on the temperature, most ciders I have made takes around two weeks to ferment out before I rack to secondary.
Use and trust your hydrometer to be your guide.

On Tuesday night it started to bubble up, and yesterday night really took off and started to get a lot of activity in the airlock. So in about two weeks I should check the sg with my hydrometer? If I do that I would need to take off the airlock. Is that the correct way to do it?

I recommend using a Fermtech thief, the ones where you put the hydrometer inside the thief. Ease of use is worth spending 8-10 bucks. With a thief, you take off the airlock with one hand and check the gravity with the other hand. As long as you dont let the airlock touch anything, you just put it back on and your done. Keep a cup next to the carboy so you can drop your theif in it, along some of the cider sample for tasting.

Check the gravity as soon as you see the airlock activity start to slow down. Two weeks is probably about right, but it could be sooner. If your temps are high, it could be one week

I bought a thief, I am going to check the sg soon as the airlock slows down. what sg should I be bottling at? I was thinking 1.010. For the priming sugar, 1.5 cups was suggested to me. Does this sound correct? Thanks.

If you are bottling and want it to be sweet, you need to stop the yeast first so it does not continue to ferment. In that case the cider will be still (flat). Cider is like wine - it doesnt really need carbonation. For stopping the yeast you have two choices: add k-meta and sorbate, which is easy but leaves a noticable taste, or cold crash which is more work but leaves no taste. you can search the forum for info on both methods

If you want the carbonation, then you need to ferment it all the way dry, add priming sugar, and wait several months to a year for some taste to come back. Personally, I prefer the cider still and with some of the natural apple sugar, rather than dry and bottle carbonated.

If you want to keep the natural apple sugar AND have it be carbonated, start thinking about a kegging system.