Bottled my 3 gallons of brew last week. Used 2 3/4 gallons of Trader Joe's 'Real' Apple Juice, Nottingham Yeast, 1# of dextrose and a handful rinsed non sulfured raisins. Kept it in 3 gallon carboy for 7 weeks. A few days of smell nothing bad, just musty apple. Good thing too since its in my office closet.
Bottled it into 1 quart plastic seltzer bottles. Tasted good that day, even better a week later at party. It cleared to nice golden color, a little sediment at the bottom of most of the bottles. The taste was tart semi sweet w/ a clear apple origin. So success
. Very good straight, also nice served cut w/ seltzer.
I started the 2nd brew right away adding cheaper reconstituted Motts apple juice to the carboy, then accidentally added 2#'s of brown sugar. I meant to just add one, then 1/4 cup of rinsed raisins. Fermentation took off nicely. There was a sprinkle of old yeast left in the packet I put in. It was nice not to have to clean the carboy after the first load, made for a quck turn around, though I'm sorry I doubled the sugar.
I may regret buying a 'small' 3 gallon carboy. The store tried to sell me a 5 gallon and I thought it'd be too much. This stuff is good enough that I wish I had more then the initial 9 32 ounce bottles. <I left 2 or 3 inches on the bottom for renewed fermentation>
I've had no problems with rhino farts, especially with this 2nd batch. I think adding 1/4 cup of raisins may have helped, and the Nottingham ale yeast.