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That looks like yeast that's settled on the sides of the glass.. The gaps occur when a bubble knocks some of it back into the cider, giving it that mottled appearance. I've seen it before on my own ciders.

Hi Everyone, I'm trying to put together a recipe for a mild ale, and I'm having trouble with the base malt. My starting point is one of Ron P's recipes (which I can't find at the moment, all I wrote down is it came from 1965) and the original recipe had 5.5 pounds of mild malt for its base...

Google "Brew by the Numbers". It's an old Zymurgy article by Michael Hall and has formulas for all the common fermentation-related quantities (including ABV/ABW). I'm not sure it is possible to do a hydrometer offset without knowing the calibration temperature because it's not a linear shift...

Welcome from Fairfield!

Don't worry, it's harmless. Might even be beneficial -- yeast like a bit of oxygen in the juice when they're first getting started.

I like Nottingham. Nice neutral yeast, cheap and easy to find, and it ferments fast but reliably.

My cider made in the fall is for next spring and summer. Yes, you can do things like cold-crash to speed it along, but I just let it condition naturally. When the all the yeast drops and the cider is clear, then it's time to bottle and start drinking it.

That's an old back-packing trick too. Doesn't take much bleach either, 2 drops (2 ml) of bleach per quart (liter) of water is the usual recommendation.

Most newer U.S. homes are 20A, not 15A. That may be why you see people claiming to run at full power. You say your extension cord is 1625W though, so that's your limiting factor: do not exceed 1625W.

I looks like the kit says "boil" just to help the sugar dissolve. According to the directions, you're adding the yeast and fruit concentrate after it adding the cold water, so you never actually boil the juice.

Everyone else has said good things, but to answer your questions directly: Do you rack to a secondary, or is that "old school" as is the case with beer these days? I do rack. I ferment in a plastic bucket, then rack to glass for conditioning. Note that, compared to beer, cider can take a...

No, I added it after it was done fermenting (I knew that much). Because I didn't stir it in, though, the sugar fell to the bottom. Half the bottles were flat, the other half were gushers. Now that I know better, I just cool the water on bottling day to avoid shocking the yeast.

Call me old-fashioned, but I still prefer to add the sugar-water solution to the (primary) bucket and stir like Joeymacca suggested. I boil the water before I add the sugar, then cool with an ice-cube bath to keep it sterilized. Works like a charm. Well, works like a charm except for that...

If the smell is rotten eggs, yes, a little bit of that is normal at the end of fermentation (or least it is for me). It happens when the yeast are running out of sugar.

So, getting back to the original question, what's the nearest decent LHBS now? Maltose is where I've always picked up all my supplies too. Unless they can find a new location, I'm going to need a new LHBS too.

Mine juice is fresh from the orchard. I don't take a gravity reading until I'm ready to bottle (hate to break that seal). My assumption is that if the yeast are still in suspension, then they're still finding something to eat. That's why I key off the clarity of the cider (confirmed by one...

I started my cider mid-November and it's not even close to clear yet (I don't use finings). Just give it time, the yeast will drop out when they're good and ready. Four to six months before bottling is normal for me.

Windsor isn't a high attenuation yeast. 1.016 is 65% of 1.045 (give or take), which is right about where I would expect Windsor to leave you. Certainly it's about where my own all-extract brews have landed. Keep an eye on it, but my guess would be some other yeast just started munching the...

Same as my usual, 5 gallons. This year it's a wild ferment with unpasteurized juice direct from the orchard. Still waiting for it to clear.

Ahh, South Windsor. I'm in Fairfield now but I grew up in Vernon. Jonathan