I have made cider in the years past but its been a few years. I usually make 3 gal batches for my 3 gal corny keg. I used 3 campden tablets waited 24 hours then pitched s-04. 14 hours later there is a slight layer of stuff on top but no activity. dried yeast usually kicks in by now. few questions
1 is it possible that the yeast are dead from the canmpden
2 how long should I wait with no acivity before maybe pitching more yeast
I pitched us05 into some K-meta'd cider two days ago, and it's just now bubbling in earnest. Something about cider makes visible signs of fermentation less noticeable, like the cider is absorbing more of the CO2 than beer, thus less visible signs.
It could also be the k-meta. When I stopped using it, I got much faster starts. I usually have a pretty good krausen in 6-8 hours with S04 or US05, but 24 hrs sounds about right for juice with k-meta. I would also get more sulfur at the beginning of ferment with the k-meta, probably because the yeast were stressed by it.