Quick fermentation?

Hey everyone,

Have been brewing cider for a few years now and have never had this happen.....last Sunday I started brewing six gallons of raw cider from a local press, all I added was a few cups of sugar and yeast. This morning I noticed no activity in the airlock so I went to check the sg, and the meter was reading below one. It has been hot here and the airlock was going crazy for about five days. Is it possible that the fermentation all took place in about 6 days. I added some fermax and gave it a good stir just in case. Anyway any suggestions? Add more sugar to kick start the fermentation again? Just move to secondary? Admittedly I forgot to check the original sg so I don't know my starting point.

Thanks for any help

If you don't know your starting point, you'll never know exactly when it's done. It'll be a guestimation on your part. To answer your question on fermentation, yep. It's definitely possible to have a fast ferment with warm temperatures.

Just check it with your hydrometer the same as you would with any other cider. If the reading stays the same a few days in a row there is a pretty good chance it is done.

I guess you could add more sugar for the yeast, but why bother if its already done (unless you want higher alcohol).

aiptasia said:

If you don't know your starting point, you'll never know exactly when it's done. It'll be a guestimation on your part. To answer your question on fermentation, yep. It's definitely possible to have a fast ferment with warm temperatures.

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Of course you can know when it's done. There's only a finite amount of sugar in there, and I'm pretty sure fermentation never lasts longer than 2 weeks or so, and usually less than that. People let it sit in the carboy to age anyway so it'll be fine.

Plus you can always see if the sg stabilizes over several days.