fermenting cider with scoby

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DROOO

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my intention is not to make cider vinegar. however, for the sake of experimentation, i pitched a scoby into about 3/4 gallon of unpasteurized cider i bought yesterday morning from my local farmer's market. curious if anyone can lend me their experience doing this same thing?

:mug:
 
I'm interested in doing something similar, please report back with your results.
 
i certainly will. at this point, it's been almost 70 hours, and i have no sign of a film / scoby forming on the top surface. to be clear, i literally, dumped the cider (after considerable shaking in the jug) into a sanitized gallon vessel, pitched a scoby, and covered it with a towel just like i do with my tea. the exception with this so far, i haven't had the vessel sitting in the dark like i normally would (will change that tonight), and it's been moved around a few times in the kitchen. my scoby's have been turning around good kombucha tea in about a 2-week time frame this past summer, so i'm holding any judgement back for now on the cider's progress (or lack thereof), but my patience is being challenged admittedly.
 
i certainly will. at this point, it's been almost 70 hours, and i have no sign of a film / scoby forming on the top surface. to be clear, i literally, dumped the cider (after considerable shaking in the jug) into a sanitized gallon vessel, pitched a scoby, and covered it with a towel just like i do with my tea. the exception with this so far, i haven't had the vessel sitting in the dark like i normally would (will change that tonight), and it's been moved around a few times in the kitchen. my scoby's have been turning around good kombucha tea in about a 2-week time frame this past summer, so i'm holding any judgement back for now on the cider's progress (or lack thereof), but my patience is being challenged admittedly.

What was the temp of the cider when you put the scoby in it, and what is the temp now? The scoby growth could be retarded if it's too cool.

How sweet was the cider?

Could you detail your sanitization process? Maybe some residual residue killed the acetobacter?
 
the cider was cool when i bought it, and it wasn't long after i bought it when i pitched the scoby. having to guess right now (at the day job), i'd say the cider's near 70 (thermostat read 69-70 last i check—last night).

the cider was very sweet.

as for sanitization, i used star san, so i didn't rinse it after dumping the star san solution.

i would believe temp to be one issue. i'll move it the basement where it's currently warmer (~75F).
 
the cider was cool when i bought it, and it wasn't long after i bought it when i pitched the scoby. having to guess right now (at the day job), i'd say the cider's near 70 (thermostat read 69-70 last i check—last night).

the cider was very sweet.

as for sanitization, i used star san, so i didn't rinse it after dumping the star san solution.

i would believe temp to be one issue. i'll move it the basement where it's currently warmer (~75F).

OK if it was very sweet then lack of sugar shouldn't be a problem.

I'm not familiar with Star San, but if you didn't rinse it off, that could be part of the problem. Sure you want the container to be sanitary so you don't contaminate the batch, but you don't want to sanitize the batch either.
All of my containers are washed in 5% distilled white vinegar only, then I rinse them with a little distilled water to get most of that smell/taste out (bleh it's strong!). I wash my hands really good with that foaming Dial soap, then rinse really good with tap water, then rinse no less than 3 times with white distilled vinegar. It burnses us, but better for the brew.
As with most things antibiotic, you could have residue left behind that will kill your brew. Maybe someone with more experience using Star San can provide input.

70℉ is on the cool side. Could take weeks at that temp.
Do you have just one jar of it? You could put it in a box with a night light, that'll add a couple degrees, get you a little closer to 78-80℉
 
i use star san for all things brewing beer. it's a no-rinse sanitizer. i've used it when transferring kombucha tea in the past, specifically, in the vessels i'm about to rack the tea (post-fermentation) into. it's been a while now since my first tea brew / ferment, but i'm almost certain i used a star san solution in the fermenting vessel before pitching my first scoby into the tea. i say this because i always sterilize, but i've never bought / used distilled white vinegar (or any vinegar for that matter) for cleaning. only star san. i'll move the vessel to some place warmer, but for now that's about all i can think of doing. hopefully i'll have a good update in another few days.

cheers.
 
was going to move the vessel to the basement this morning (ambient: 74F), but i noticed what i believe to be a scoby starting to form a film over the surface. gonna leave it be for now.
 
was going to move the vessel to the basement this morning (ambient: 74F), but i noticed what i believe to be a scoby starting to form a film over the surface. gonna leave it be for now.

It'll be ok, go ahead and move it. Just don't shake it up lol
 
6 days later. not sure what to make of it.

9984238305_74fe6d947a.jpg
 
The image is really small on the mobile app. I'll try to look at it when I get home but what I can make of it, looks good.
 
sampled it last night for the first time. was pleased, so i racked it and topped the vessel with more fresh cider from the same farmer.

the latest photo of the vessel / scoby was captured over a week ago, but the scoby didn't change much after this.

10072339866_383c3c74a7_z.jpg


last night at the time of racking, it had been about 10.5 days since pitching the scoby. the vessel was resting in ~70-75F for the duration. i'm pleased with the results. it's got a funk aroma i associate with all my kombucha tea. it's got a slightly creamier mouthfeel than my tea. flavor is acidic but not overly acetic at all. the cider cuts through just enough to add complexity. i get hints of vanilla and cinnamon if i really dig into flavor profile.

10072402053_0f94eec7d0_z.jpg
 
Sweet glad it turned out!

I set a couple bottles out for 2F from my last batch, and put 50ml of store "fresh squeezed" cider in each. Left capped for 4 days, then refrigerate. They had a weird funk to them too. Taste and appearance was fine. But after sitting out on my desk for a couple hours, and it warmed up, it started getting a funky aroma that was less than pleasant.
I'm thinking maybe the cider just turned on it's own instead of being fermented by the kombucha.
It was very flat too.
 
What is the alcohol content of the cider? If it is quite high the native yeast or even just kt yeast in general is not tolerant. So no matter what the level of sugar the alcohol is probably inhibiting fermentation as well as the growth of your scoby.

All that said I have a feeling you arent talking about alcoholic cider. Otherwise I wouls say the temp was too low for the yeast to actively process all that sugar.
 
"Cider" in the US is not fermented. It would only contain whatever residual % it naturally possesses.
"Cider" over seas is fermented and equivalent to "hard cider" in the US.

I was reading about cider last Friday lol
 
my last comment here... my second batch on top of the existing scoby pictured above took less than a week to reach a similar profile as the first batch. obviously the development of the scoby itself prolonged the fermentation. glad i tasted this second batch when i did; i wouldn't want it any more acidic than it is. for specifics, i topped off with a fresh batch of cider last wednesday night (10/2) and racked it off the scoby yesterday morning (10/9). so while it was just short a week, i'd say a week is about right.

:mug:
 
~7 days is my brew cycle as well. I harvest the old and start a new every quarter moon. First quarter coming up tomorrow! Still have so much in the fridge from last week, I have resorted to using kombucha to trade with other people lol
 
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