Natural Fermentation....

So I bought a gallon of cider from a farmers stand close to my home, the cider label said it was Flash Pasteurized.

Sat it on the table and kinda forgot about it for a few days.....I noticed over the weekend that the gallon jug was bloated and about to burst.

My first thoughts were that it was starting to ferment, I carefully opened the jug and poured it into a sanitized 1 gallon carboy, put an airlock on and waited to see what happened.

It took a day or so but the airlock is blurping away....

Question is.....is it fermenting...... and what are my chances of ending up with a drinkable cider?

I thought Pasteurization killed most all the bugs good and bad......

rebeltruce said:

I thought Pasteurization killed most all the bugs good and bad......

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Ride it out, you might end up with something orgasmic, something good, something not so great, or something only worthy of the kitchen sink. My only advice is to stop and stabilise at around a 1.020 mark, because wild yeasts tend to give off flavours as they start getting drier. If you want to continue from there you could always pitch some wine yeast and then let it go for a few days, bottle and pasteurise.

Agreed - natural ferments very rarely taste good below 1.020. You also want to keep it as cool as you can, preferably around 50-55F or else the ferment will take off before you can stop it. Natural yeast can ferment out in nothing flat at 60F.

Thanks to both of you....excellent information......I'll move the carboy to the basement tonight.

Cville.....on another note do you do business with the Fermentation Trap? It's just a few miles north of Charlottsville on rt29......

I've done a fair amount of business with Fermentation Trap - not as much as in the past, since 5th season opened up and it is much closer, but I still go to FT for some things. They have a good White Labs yeast selection and good selection of bottles and growlers. Lots of winemaking supplies also.

I've always had good luck with the guys at Fermentation Trap....I'm in Culpeper so it's just a 30 minute drive....I'll have to check out 5th Season next time I'm in Charlottesville.