water fell into carboy from airlock container!

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felix

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Location
Similkameen Valley, BC, Canada
hello people,

its a first post AND a first batch for me.

ok i'm facing a couple of problems here, and i desperately need answers!

i've processed my apples (multiple late harvested varieties from the orchard in my backyard! Ambrosia, Pink Lady, Fudji and the odd Corland) in my kitchen juicer, and almost filled a 3 gal carboy, around 3/4...

now many people will think of this stupid but i have to admit a skipped the sulfate pills step, and inoculated my juice directly with re-hydrated Champagne yeast EC-1118 "Prise De Mousse". Is contamination inevitable? Or could the yeasts be strong enough to overcome?

Now this morning my chances, if i had any, of succeeding got even more slim: i somehow managed to accidentally made a bit of the water contained in the airlock fall into the carboy. Dont ask me how. :(

This had been sitting there for 19 hours. Is my cider ruined? 100%?

Can i do something crazy like adding crushed pills now, killing everything yeasts included, then re-yeast my juice tomorrow?

:confused:

please help a clueless newbie!
:mug:
-felix
 
whoa that was one hell of a fast reply!

i should have found this amazing forum earlier!!!!

thanks.

yeah vodka sounds like a great idea...

by the way, guys please forgive my weird english.

ok i have to explain what happened: i've got blonde hair so i do stupid things sometimes. Cant help it. My juice contains a lot of solid foamy apple residue that settles to forms a 2 inch layer on top of clearer juice. i wanted to give it a little mix this morning to do like they do in the wineries when they break the crust of skins when fermenting red wines, to help the yeasts work... and there you go, allmost half the water found its way down my carboy! :(


to sum it up, if i understand well, my budding 19 hours old champagne yeast will be stronger than the few spores and bacteria that could end up in my juice from the water?
 
BK keeps that reply as a macro in his keyboard. The same reply works for questions regarding open sores and what he does with his cheerios when he's out of milk.
 
Just relax all is well....people have done worst things than that and their beer/wine/cider has turned out fine...

Fermentation's been happening in more primitive conditions than we have now for several thousands of years....the yeast you are using and the cider you are making is much hardier than most beginners give it credit...

Wait til you have to stick your hand in your full bottling bucket to fix a leak in your spigot...and everything turns out fine...then you will understand.

:mug:
 
a simplier way of asking: is 19 hours old water from a airlock a contamination danger for my 19 hours old Champagne inoculated cider?

hydrometer of fresh juice: 1.044/1.0045ish, 5.8% potential.

no campfen pills added before inoculation.

thank you :tank:
 
a simplier way of asking: is 19 hours old water from a airlock a contamination danger for my 19 hours old Champagne inoculated cider?

hydrometer of fresh juice: 1.044/1.0045ish, 5.8% potential.

no campfen pills added before inoculation.

thank you :tank:


And a simpler way of answering is...

NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

:D
 
thanks for the help guys!

so i'll wait and pray!

great forum!

juicing the apple was so long... my girlfriend and i spent one beautiful morning picking these apples.... this cider is our baby! Hence the paranoia....
 
Bonjour Felix

The cider will be fine
EC-1118 is a very strong yeast and will outcompete almost everything - even if you added sulfite now it would not hurt your EC.
You don't have to "punch down" the apple crud that bubbles to the top. The reason this is done in red wine is maily to keep the grape skins hydrated and help with tannin and colour extraction.

By the way sulfite in wine is added not only for killing native yeasts but to protect the polyphenols and such from oxidizining. See the apple juice will turn a little brown without the sulfite and it will not store as long as sulfite protected juice - but if you wind up drinking the cider within a few months it wont really make too much difference.
 
exellent, thanks for this precious info!

Vancouver eh? We're in the Okanagan!

i cant wait to taste my Okanagan cider ;)

hey by the way we did a little experiment today. We bought a half gallon of local organic, unpasterised, non-sulfited apple juice, brought the sugars up to 1.060, 8% potential with local wild flower honey, put a quarter of a campfen pill in. Tomorow we'll inoculate it with some of that ec-1118 yeast and put the bubbler on.

we tried it with this juice coz it has a great taste. Now its all about the patience to wait eh.

its also a little backup in case the big batch fails...
 
You don't have to "punch down" the apple crud that bubbles to the top. The reason this is done in red wine is maily to keep the grape skins hydrated and help with tannin and colour extraction.
It's also done so the same pulp doesn't stagnate afloat too long allowing mold growth. That's especially true for peach pulp. I would stir the cap back in gently if it's to dense and doesn't rotate back in by itself. Or at least pick up moldy bits if they show up.
 
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