Nottingam and cider

[Safa]

I've used Nottingham for cider a few times and I'm very happy with the results, it's really fantastic with apples.

However, I tried the aging thing out on a batch by leaving it on the lees (trub?) for about 4 months before bottling. Apparently that's too long for Notti, as its not carbonated at all, not even a little bit. Very weird since most other long aging ciders seem to carb up fine according to others. Anyone else had this problem?

I've opened the bottles and dropped a couple of grains in each bottle to see if I can get fermentation going again to carb things up. Will post back with results.

 

[Safa]

So adding a few grains of Nottingham to the bottles did sweet **** all.

I just finished another cider, so I added some water to the cake and swirled it to get the yeast in suspension. I then used my turkey baster to drop some yeast filled water into each bottle. Hopefully this will result in some carbonation.

Cant help but think that there might have been something in that juice that I used to back sweeten that is killing yeast. It seems implausible that absolutely nothing has happened up until now, especially since in the past I've carbed bottles with Notti even after a cold crash.

 

[beertroll]

How high is the ABV? If it was up in the ballpark of 8-9%, 4 months of aging is enough to kill off just about all of your yeast. I'm not sure why the repitch didn't help; maybe it wasn't sufficient?

 

[Safa]

It came out at 9.15% BUT - I split the batch and used the second half to make some caramel apple cider. When I was racking the second half for that batch, I picked up a bunch of trub because I was an idiot with the siphon, and it carbed up just fine.

So either: Grape juice killed the yeast, OR, careful racking in first batch meant not enough yeast to carb the cider.

Just seems weird to me, 4 months shouldn't knock them ALL out of suspension, surely?

Agree the repitch must not have been sufficient. Hoping the re-repitch will be more successful.

 

[Safa]

Update:

Slurry has done absolutely nothing.
Looks like I'm drinking this batch flat and too sweet.

 

[buckwheat34]

How long has it been in the bottles? I have had batches that did nothing for 8 months and then all of a sudden were carbed perfectly by 9, and the wait helped the flavor immensely too.