Did I completely screw up???

Hello again from the kid in the desert who has not a clue. I took my first ever batch, two weeks into fermentation today, and transfered it to secondary as my airlocks have had no activity for a few days. I have not bought a hydrometer yet. I know, I know... I'm flying blind here and risk ruining it. Heres where I think I may have messed up. I tasted both blends and they were very bland. I realize this was impatient, but I couldn't resist. So I very impulsively threw in some more sugar. Is this a bad thing? Have I spoiled the potential fruits of my labors? Oh yeah, it's pear cider by the way, from fresh picked pears and that's all for juice. Any suggestions? Criticism, creative or otherwise? Thanks a lot for any help!!! And please understand that I am REALLY green here. I am learning a little by the day about this whole science.

Yes.

hmm... I have not made from fresh ingredients before, but I am curious...

1) did you add any yeast or were you relying on the pear skins yeast?
2) did you witness the primary fermentation activity take-off?
3) did you put whole pieces/chunks of fruit in your primary, or just juice only?
4) if you added sugar in your secondary and the secondary only contains liquid, you should wait at least another 2 weeks before doing anything... if you have pear solids... this is a trickier game and you should have really lost any solids before secondary...
5) you probably don't need a hydrometer if you wait long enough and are sure that you had yeast in there (the whole witness the fermentation thing)

Care to elaborate? I need a little more help than that. Also, why do my airlocks keep pumping the liquid into the carboy?

You need a hydrometer ASAP. Without it you will never know. If it is finished then you can let it condition for a few months. My experience with apple cider is it takes about 6 months to peak so you need to forget about it till then.

I wouldn't worry about the extra sugar. As long as it wasn't alot you should be fine.

and one more thing... how much sugar did you impulsively throw in and how big is your batch... i hope you used corn sugar... theres a reason people use this instead of Cane sugar.... Tastes better when fermented...

Yes, I used some Lalvin 1118 champagne yeast, Fermax nutrient, and campden tabs. It had crazy activity for about a week. And I just went to check on them since the transfer, which was about 30 minutes ago, and they are going nuts again. But my airlocks keep pumping all the liquid into the carboy. and they aren't over full.

I used organic cane sugar. And I added about 3 cups to 2.5 gallons. And the other 2.5 gallons had none. When I just transferred, I added maybe about 1/2 a cup to each.

What do u mean by ur airlocks keep pumping all the liquid into the carboy...if by airlock u mean blow off tube, sometimes if the container is too high then a suction can create and empty ur water container by sucking it into the vesell in which it would be most likely ruin ur batch...plz elaborate

UNDERGROUNDMINER said:

Care to elaborate? I need a little more help than that. Also, why do my airlocks keep pumping the liquid into the carboy?

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Temperature changes are more than likely the cause of your airlock liquid being sucked into your carboy. When the temperature drops (the more sudden the worse) the liquid in the airlock can be sucked into your carboy.

My advice use less liquid in the airlock until fermentation stabilizes and slows some, or use a blow off rig with a relatively long hose that won't allow enough pressure to build in order to suck the blow off liquid into the carboy.

I have had this problem in my ferm chamber when I drop temps to settle the yeast, and in contrast, if the beer is chilled and I warm it, the same can happen.

The pressure changes from the temperature fluctuations. Like I said, more than likely the temperature is the culprit behind your dry airlocks

I'm guessing he meant pumping the liquid "out of the carboy"... its probably too late in the evening to get one, but if you replace the airlock with a rubber bung with a drilled hole... you could then put some plastic tubing in that hole and run it into a bucket of water with a small amount of bleach... then just let it eject whatever blowoff you have... many of us don't even use airlocks... i always opt for blowoff tube, even if theres not going to be a blowoff

skidaddytn said:

I'm guessing he meant pumping the liquid "out of the carboy"... its probably too late in the evening to get one, but if you replace the airlock with a rubber bung with a drilled hole... you could then put some plastic tubing in that hole and run it into a bucket of water with a small amount of bleach... then just let it eject whatever blowoff you have... many of us don't even use airlocks... i always opt for blowoff tube, even if theres not going to be a blowoff

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DO NOT use bleach in the solution you place the blow off tube into. If you get suck back you will have a bleach solution in your fermenter and that is BAD.

Do not do this.

skidaddytn said:

I'm guessing he meant pumping the liquid "out of the carboy"...

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Hmmmmm. . .

UNDERGROUNDMINER said:

Also, why do my airlocks keep pumping the liquid into the carboy?

Click to expand...

I guess a more appropriate term would be "sucking", as they can't pump anything. It's like I am getting vacuum in the carboy. but it seems to have stabilized since last night.

My suggestion:

Quit messing with it and leave it alone! Oh, and get a hydrometer. Psychic brewing is great and all, but hard numbers get rid of MUCH of the guess work. Also, I doubt the cidery quality you can get from too much cane sugar is going to be detrimental to your cider.

I'm new as well but I had all these exact same questions about three weeks ago... And the same experiences you're having right now! If you're carboy is really really full you will get overflowing, I needed to rig a blow off and didn't so I just let it go and made sure I had vodka in my airlocks in case of suck back... (so as not to contaminate)
Also, everybody told me the same thing that the last guy told you, just leave it alone... Let the yeast do it's thing...
I just got my first hydrometer and have not taken a reading yet but from what I hear it's really a necessary tool... I am doing apples and not pears and they're telling me the optimum temperature is 70 (60 to 80), so, put some vodka in your airlock or starsan I guess... I just don't want weird chemicals in my stuff EVEN if it saids it's ok, but hell, I'm a newbie, get a blow off system for next time, get your hydrometer, and just let it do its thing for a couple weeks & RHAHB. (did I say this right brewers?)

P.S.
Keep in mined ... just trying to help with what I learned so far...

I will have to admit, I've never knowingly had suckback.. if you run a blow off tube down to a water reservoir 1 ft lower than your fermentation liquid surface, i bet it would take a large temperature change to make this happen... if i get bored tomorrow I might try to calculate it normally I have only experienced positive pressure coming out of the fermentation vessel...