Just started my first batch of cider

5 gallons Mott's apple juice
1 quart of some random organice apple juice made from green apples
2 pounds "Sugar in the Raw" turbinado sugar

For the yeast... I went with the White Labs 500... Trappist Ale yeast. I'm fermenting somewhat warm (78 degrees on average) and am really interested in the flavors this yeast produces.

I'll move it to secondary after the primary fermentation completes... and will let it sit in secondary until it clarifies. However long that may be... I have no idea.

I'm going to carb this cider as well... and may make a couple bottles of still apfelwein.

Did you check to see if the Motts has preservatives in it, other then absorbic acid. Depending on what it has you might have a rough time getting fermentation to start up. Also raw sugar takes a little longer to ferment then Dextrose or DME because the sugar molecule chains are longer. I would expect close to a month, possibly longer for this to finish primary. And this is going to need some aging time from using the regular sugar.

Hi... I did check on preservatives... the Mott's only has abscorbic acid.

I contemplated boiling some of the apple juice with the sugar to make it more fermentable... but i'm totally fine with the fermentation taking longer. I figure I should be able to drink this stuff some time late spring 2009.

I'm pretty stoked to see how this will turn out.