Is It Fermenting? PLEASE help.

My friend and I just began our first attempt at making hard cider. However, it's been 3 days and I haven't seen any bubbling in the airlock. There is some sort of sediment, a sort of tan color, visible at the bottom of the glass carboy.

I pretty much followed the instructions from this website. I used a full packet of Red Star champagne yeast for 5 gallons of apple juice. I put it in very hot water (about 100 degrees) like the back of the packet said before pitching it into the carboy.

Is the sediment a good sign of the yeast being active? I'm going to check the SG, but not until my new refractometer gets here next week (my hydrometer shattered). I also used organic apple juice from concentrate, but there were no preservatives. Any help is greatly appreciated.

Pitch another yeast pack. You prolly killed the yeast at that temperature. Be safe, I would boil that cider for 15 minutes or so to make sure no nasties have taken hold. Then pitch yeast at about 70 degrees or so. Let the cider cool before pitching the new yeast. I have never done a cider, but many batches of beer. But most yeasts wont tolerate such temps.

Don't boil your cider, it will introduce pectins and it will make your cider either cloudy or in a worst-case scenario, jam-like. Just pitch some new yeast and give it a good whisk and you should be fine. Don't use airlock activity to judge a fermentation, other things to look for are little bubbles rising up the sides of the carboy, a colour change (should go lighter) and most importantly gravity readings.

Sorry about the boil idea. I havent made cider before, just beer. I didnt even think about the pectin aspect. My apologies again....

raubrey227 said:

I used a full packet of Red Star champagne yeast for 5 gallons of apple juice. I put it in very hot water (about 100 degrees) like the back of the packet said before pitching it into the carboy.

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+1 Oldmate's advice.

Lalvin and Red Star suggest using water in the 100-109 degree range to rehydrate yeast, which I would call "warm water". I'm not sure most people would consider 100 degree water to be "very hot". Did you measure the temp? 100 degree water is more like bath tub temperature.

djsethall said:

Sorry about the boil idea. I havent made cider before, just beer. I didnt even think about the pectin aspect. My apologies again....

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It's alright! Everyone is here to learn, and now that's something you've learnt for when you make your first cider

So it's definitely that the yeast died, and not a leak? I pitched the yeast last Friday. Then what is the brown/tan sediment at the bottom?

raubrey227 said:

So it's definitely that the yeast died, and not a leak? I pitched the yeast last Friday. Then what is the brown/tan sediment at the bottom?

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Without a hydrometer, we're all just guessing. Pitching more yeast won't hurt when in doubt.

A refractometer is great, but you'll still want a finishing hydrometer!

A finishing hydrometer? I'm sorry I'm still a newbie. Doesn't the refractometer accomplish the same task as a hydrometer (tell you the SG)?

raubrey227 said:

A finishing hydrometer? I'm sorry I'm still a newbie. Doesn't the refractometer accomplish the same task as a hydrometer (tell you the SG)?

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No. A refractometer does read the brix of a solution. But alcohol skews the reading. Even with online calculators, once alcohol is in the mix, a refractometer isn't accurate for SG readings. A hydrometer generally goes from .990 to 1.150 or so. If you don't need it for the higher end, since you'll be using a refractometer, you can get a "finishing" hydrometer, with a smaller scale but easier to read, from .990 to about 1.030 or so.

I just use a regular old hydrometer for everything except measuring the brix of fruit or preboil gravities in beer.