Mott's Hard Cider

Today, I have two goals. One is to make up a batch of hard cider and the other is to do some more crappie fishing. Can you guess what I've done yet? Here's a hint: I haven't gone fishing yet.

So far this morning, I got a batch of hard cider mixed up. I adapted a recipe that I found on www.homebrewtalk.com.
The link to the recipe I used is
http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f81/grahams-english-cider-107152/

The couple small differences between what he suggested and what I actually did is pretty small. I used Mott's apple juice (because that's all I could find) and instead of using S-04 yeast, I got a sample tube of WLP775 from Zac out of his yeast collection. I also added about 1/2lb of white granulated sugar to boost the ABV just a hair. Over the past week, I've been building up the starter and gradually got it to where it could handle the higher gravity of the must and pitched it into my fermentor.

Yeast

 Plus Apple Juice

 Equals yummy fermenting cider!

It's amazing just how fast the yeast took off after pitching. About 30 minutes after initial inoculation, the airlock is already showing signs of life and slowly starting to bubble. This thing is gonna be a pretty quick turnover for a cider and hopefully Lindsey enjoys knocking them back as much as I will! This endeavor is for her just as much as it is for me.

As for gravity readings, it started out right at 1.064 so it is looking like it has a 7-8% potential depending on where it ends up. The WLP775 is supposed to be pretty resilient and vigorous, so hopefully we end up on the higher end of things!

That's all for now, but expect another post later after I get back from crappie fishing!