First Cider

I've brewed a lot of beer but this is my first cider adventure. I'm not sure how I decided on it (most likely because I make everything unnecessarily complex), but I started with 5 pounds of store bought apple juice and 2 lbs brown sugar, and Safale s-04. My OG was around 1.065.

After about 48 hours of lag time I started getting airlock bubbles. I was expecting a big krausen with the ale yeast but there was none. My airlock went quickly and steadily for 3-4 days and since then slowed down and has been going once every 5 seconds for the last 8 days or so. It's been at 61 degrees the whole time. I took a gravity reading about 3 days ago out of sheer curiosity and it was 1.015. I haven't taken one since as there's apparently still activity.

You're probably all expecting some profound question, so I'm sorry to disappoint. I'm not worried about it, I've just never had a fermentation last so long. I thought I'd share my intrigue.

I've had four week ferments


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I'm going to guess the slowish fermentation is a result of your 61 degree temp... which is a good thing.

I ferment my ciders in my 5 gallon glass carboy. I fill to the top, add yeast, airlock, and forget. There's not usually a Krause, ferments are slow, and results are delicious. I wait until the Cider clears (I can see though the carboy) before I move to secondary, K meta/Sorbate, and finally back sweeten and keg. I also use wlp002 to ferment. I get the same result if I use the ale yeast vs. Wine/champagne yeasts. Slow ferments and no krausen.

It sounds like you have a good thing going, and it's taking its time to ferment out. No worries. I just had a Cider on yeast for 3 months, and it turned out fine. Sometimes, you can't rush it.