cinderbike

Recipes 

I made a starter of White Labs english cider yeast and pitched it into my cider about 2 1/2 weeks ago. OG 1.054. Measured it this morning: 1.038!

It's fermenting, but it is so SLOW. I've got it in the middle of the temp range for the yeast, but I cannot understand what is causing such a SLOW ferment. The cider is fresh pressed, non-pasteurized, no sorbate, k-meta, etc. I tasted a small sample when measuring the SG and it didn't taste soured or anything.

I'd rather not have to spend another $7 on another vial, so if anyone has any suggestions to potentially speed up the ferment without ruining the final product (so many yeasts seem to make cheap, wine tasting cider), let me know.

cinderbike

Recipes 

I'm not usually one to bump my own topics, but nothing? Guess this must be a rare occurrence.

Rhoobarb

Recipes 

Rouse the yeast and maybe up the temp 2-3 degrees.

cinderbike

Recipes 

Yeah, I tried shaking them awake before, and it's been warmer the last few days and the gravity hasn't dropped in the past 3 days now. I think I'll just repitch.

Calder

Recipes 

Did you aerate the juice (shake the hell out of it to get air dissolved in it)?

Hex

Recipes 

What type of juice were you using? did it have preservatives?

cinderbike

Recipes 

I answered that in the original post. It's fresh juice, no preservatives/pasteurization/anything.

I used a little bit of unfermented juice I had left over and made a starter with some S-04 to restart it, since it seems to have stuck. There is some small bubbling from the juice which may be fermentation but I think it is outgassing, as there is NO foam/krausen/large bubbles at all, and it looks like a majority of the yeast is sitting on the bottom of the carboy doing nothing. I racked it off the lees and repitched with a half-gallon starter, but it is still doing nothing. The yeast dropped to the bottom like a rock, and hasn't done anything in 36 hours.

The only thing I can think is that the place I bought it lied, and it was sorbated or something. But if that is the case, I don't think it would have fermented at all.

And yes, I aerated it.

jamesjensen1068

Recipes 

What about adding some yeast nutrient to it? I'm making a hard cider and the only thing I did different than you was add yeast nutrient. Hope this helps.

Cheers

cinderbike

Recipes 

Already did, a couple of times. The gravity is still dropping, albeit slowly, as it's down to 1.033, so the yeast is still alive.

bolts

Recipes 

I used WLP775 last year, similar circumstances except it was UV pasteurized. It was a long slow ferment. This year I used Fermaid-K and DAP.