Drastic Color Change

Several days ago i started a new batch of cinnamon cyser. The original must smelled and tasted wonderful with strong honey and cinnamon flavors. Tasted a bit like a cinnamon honey stick. The color was a dark copper. The honey was raw, unboiled, but heated slightly in a bath of hot tap water (to clarify it). The apple juice was made fresh by me, and heated to near boiling, with cinnamon and cloves. I first boiledd the cinnamon stick pretty hard just in water, until the water is cinnamon color and the house smells like Christmas. Then i turned down the heat and added the apple juice.

I aerated heavily, pitched the yeast, and it sat for 72 hours with no apparent activity (I don't have a hydrometer). So i repitched with a yeast starter i had sitting around. Within a few hours, visible bubbling. Great. 24 hours later, rolling bubbles like a jacuzzi and kraussen boiling out of the airlock. And then from that time i checked on it, within just several hours, the color changed to a kind of light pumpkin color. Another 24 hours later, the activity is still just as strong as before, the bubbles smell fine, no apparent mold or tadpoles, or anything abnormal except the drastic color change...

Any idea why the color changed like that? For lack of nutrition, the yeasties ate up everything is sight, or...? Is it supposed to do that? My first batch started out kind of tannish, and is still the same color.

During fermentation all sorts of things are going on. I wouldnt worry about a color change. The yeast know what they are doing, let them do it.

Amiaji said:

During fermentation all sorts of things are going on. I wouldnt worry about a color change. The yeast know what they are doing, let them do it.

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<bigstone777 puts away his whistle and bullhorn>

ok, thanks for the reassurance. I just wasn't sure whats normal or acceptable.

Home made apple juice? If you fresh juiced your own apples, alot of that fantastic color was most likely apple pulp that settled out.

good thought, but I racked after the apple pulp settled out, then pitched the yeast. It was pretty clear at that point, and not cloudy. There is nothing on the bottom right now except some yeastie material. I think the yeast count may be up, which has lightened the color and made it more cloudy. Thats my take on it

yeast in suspension are going to lighten and cloud the fermenting must.