In addition to this, the wine yeast has also been selected for its ability to go to a higher alcohol level like 14%, so maybe it isn’t so surprising that the wine yeast is further along than the ale yeast. The wine yeast has evolved to eat fruit sugar (like grapes and apples) as opposed to grain sugar (like barley and wheat). The Danstar Nottingham was at 1.024 - I found this surprising, but perhaps I shouldn’t be. Surprisingly, the Lalvin D47 wine yeast was further along despite having the slower start. For best results, use 1/2 packet for beers with less than 5 ABV and the whole packet when brewing ales above 5 ABV. It’s been 5 days and the two ciders have been kept around 72F (+/- 2F) - At this point, I figured that they should be close to being done, but wasn’t sure, so a gravity reading was taken using a wine thief.

Both will finish dry (< 1.005), though I’m guessing that the Nottingham will leave more apple flavor while the D47 wine yeast will leave only a delicate apple flavor behind.

Partly due to having twice the starting volume of dry yeast. The Nottingham will finish first, likely.

Both will complete in under a week since it is so warm.

Original Gravity of 1.067 and Final Gravity of 1.003 (guesstimate) will make this an 8.5% ABV cider.

These yeasts both operate ideally under 70F, so they will be moved to a cooler area of the house.

Temperature for both was around around 85F, so I’m sure that helped.

The Lalvin D47 was also started within a few hours, but the Nottingham was going in under an hour. Incredibly fast start on the Nottingham Ale yeast.Pitch Danstar Nottingham Ale yeast into one carboy and Lalvin D47 Wine yeast into the other.Divide equally between the two carboys and take a gravity reading from each.Heat the remaining 1/2 gallon to 130F (55C) and dissolve 1 lb of brown sugar into the cider.

Acquire 2.5 gallons of Trader Joe’s apple cider and put 1 gallon in each carboy.The curiosity these days for me is about a few things. This means using cider with an original gravity of 1.050 and then stopping it early at around 1.010 or 1.012 - the perfect semi-dry/semi-sweet spot. Something that won’t offend and play to many palettes. Traditionally, I’ve always aimed for a low-alcohol, semi-dry / semi-sweet hard cider. That said, a curiosity struck me recently regarding cider. It seems incredibly popular these days, but I’ve been brewing it for 7 years now, so I don’t see what the big deal is. It’s still summer-time, yet I was getting a hankering for some hard cider.

Nottingham yeast in cider amount