Issues with my Cider

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dinks

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I am very new to this and I am looking for some help.

On 10/01/07 I began a raspberry cider. I used 100% apple juice, 30 ounces of raspberries (non frozen) and 2 table spoons of sugar for sport. I use the mead slap pack yeast that a local homebrew supplier recomended (I cant remember the number).

Anyways, blended up the raspberries and mixed it all together and let it go. I had activity in the air-lock within 6 hours and a strong sulfur smell late the next day. I did some reading that most people pasturized/cooked their berries before adding them. I got paranoid and decided to transfer the cider to a secondary and strain off all the excess seeds and pulp from the berries. I did this on day 3. After doing this I still had strong activity in the air lock and lots of stinky sulfur.

About 2 days ago activity in the air lock pretty much stopped, I have it a lil shake and left it alone. Last night I checked it again and there was still now bubbles. So I took a sample and the hydrometer read 1.00 even. The cider is still cloudy and smells.

Sooooooo..... Is this totally normal for only being one week old or did I kill the yeast when I moved it to the secondary? If so should I re-pitch?

Any help or advice would be great..
 
It is impossible to remove all of the yeast from homebrew. You can kill it with heat or campden tablets.

At 1.000, I'd say it's time to let the crud settle out. Give it 3-4 weeks.
 
I know my cider is still young, but at what point do you use campden? The guy at the local home brew place said to toss it in about 24/48 hours prior to bottling. Is that right?
 
dinks said:
I know my cider is still young, but at what point do you use campden? The guy at the local home brew place said to toss it in about 24/48 hours prior to bottling. Is that right?

If you let it clear on it's own (wait a couple months), you won't need to use campden. The purpose of campden before bottling is if you want to stop fermentation (residual sweetness, etc.). If you're looking for a still (non-carb'd) cider, just let it sit for a month or so until it's completely cleared, then bottle.

The normal use for campden is 24 hours before pitching the yeast to kill off any wild yeast or other baddies in there.
 
If you plan on carbing, then you really don't want to kill off the yeast... when it's clear and you're ready to carb, rack it onto your priming sugar and keg away...
 
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