This past Saturday I stirred up a cider. Just the normal store bought juice that I use all the time, and a bit of the raspberry wine base. Pretty standard stuff.

Usually I use Nottingham yeast for my ciders. Finishes a bit sweeter and has the apple-ish esters that go great in a cider. But this time I used new yeast.

The Brewer’s Best Cider House Select. This is the yeast that comes with those fantastic cider kits. And while I couldn’t find much info on the yeast it’s self, I have had the ciders made with those kits many times and it was great.

There isn’t much to do in cider when starting with bottled juice, except to add some nutrient, stir and put in the 67F chamber.

I do a staggard nutrient, meaning add some at pitch, some on the third day with a good stir to release some Co2. This helps the yeast out, and really keeps the fusels down.

Day 2. No signs of life from this yeast. If this would have been my normal Notty yeast I would have been worried. But this stuff is new to me so maybe it’s a slow starter.

Day 3. Still nothing. Now I’m worried. But it’s also nutrient day, so I’ll be opening it up to see whats going on. Maybe my lid just wasn’t on right.

Nope. Nothing going on in there at all. Even stirring got no push of bubbles from Co2 escaping like it normally would if there was activity. Some yeasts are slow starters, but after 3 days…time to do something.

Well I gave it another dose, and threw in the Nottingham. Next day, blam! We got the normal Notty heavy action.

I don’t know what was up with that cider yeast. Dont know if it has a super lag. But 3 days is a looong time with nothing. But from the stir it didn’t look like anything bad took over. So we should be good.. I hope