Cider Infection

Hello !
Just though I would take the time to post what I have come across in my cider and maybe could get a couple of answers or pointers along the way?

I fermented my first cider a couple of months ago, I added campden tabs and a little pectic acid and 1 lb of additional honey to step up the SG. I was happy after the fermentation. great temps, happy ferm. 1.065 dropped to 0.998.Tasted dry and cleared up nice. I decided to leave the cider in the secondary to buy some time.
The secondary had 1 gallon or so of head space.

I came back to look at the cider, and about after 3 weeks I noticed a thin white powdery substance on the top of the cider. I was concerned and researched that is was most possibly an infection. I re-racked the secondary into a third carboy very carefully not to upset the film on top. After doing so I added campden Tablets, air-locked the carboy, and put in the dark. Cider is looking clear again with no signs of further infection and tasted pretty fine(not vinegar by any means!).

I am wondering if I could have done anything Different or what else can I do to help out the cause.


My next worry is not having enough available yeast to complete the bottle conditioning due to adding additional campden tabs to kill the infection? Thoughts?


Anyway I will give the cider another taste today and hope for the best.
If all is on track still I will be wanting to sweeten my cider up somehow for drink-ability. Lactic sugar they way to go here?


Thanks for any amount of help that you are able to put fourth and thanks for reading!

Ride it out. Could be good. Also, I did notice there is a lot of head space in carboy for secondarying. Could be a possible source of infection or from primary transfer.

What to do different is eliminate that head space after fermentation is done. An infection needs oxygen and you gave it plenty of that.

Good question about sulfite affecting bottle carbing - how much did you add? I've done the 1 tab per gallon dose and was able to carbonate that afterward.

My non-fermentable sweetener of choice is Xylitol.

Sulfite will not kill off your yeast, only stun it. Commercial yeast has been developed to tolerate sulfite. I add 50 ppm sulfite and priming sugar when I bottle. This is enough to kill of any bacteria but it does slow down the conditioning process.

Maylar and BrewSomeMore have it right about the headspace and oxygen. It looks like you had a film yeast infection which is no big deal. Just greatly reducing the head space would have killed it off since film yeast requires oxygen. Next batch, get that headspace reduced as soon are possible and you will never see film yeast again.

Thanks for all of the helpful information that yall provided! I fell better and have a little more confidence to push forward!! Thanks

Sorry for the newbie question here, but how do you eliminate headspace? For example, I have one gallon fermenting in a glass carboy, stuffed with the stopper and airlock.

Krausen has ended, but the airlock is still bubbling away. All looks good so far. What am I supposed to do to avoid that infection when it's done bubbling?

BrettCo124 said:

Krausen has ended, but the airlock is still bubbling away. All looks good so far. What am I supposed to do to avoid that infection when it's done bubbling?

Click to expand...

The answers fall into two categories: stuff something else in it, or stuff it in something else. For the former, you can hold back some juice from the batch in the fridge, or some wine from a previous run, or just some generic replacement of whatever you started off with, and then top it back up. Or you can get some filler - glass marbles are sometimes mentioned - and plunk them into the carboy after sanitizing.

Door #2 is just rack (siphon, pour) your fermented beverage into a smaller receptacle.

BrettCo124 said:

Sorry for the newbie question here, but how do you eliminate headspace? For example, I have one gallon fermenting in a glass carboy, stuffed with the stopper and airlock.

Krausen has ended, but the airlock is still bubbling away. All looks good so far. What am I supposed to do to avoid that infection when it's done bubbling?

Click to expand...

If you know you are going to rack to secondary, start with a bigger carboy and rack to a smaller one.
I'll use a 6.5 gallon carboy and put about 5.5 gallons of apple juice in
it. When primary is done, I rack to a 5 gallon carboy.
For 1 gallon batches, you actually need 3 one gallon jugs. put about 3 quarts of juice in each of the first two, when they are done, rack to the thrd jug and fill it up.
Some people will use marbles to take up space in jugs/carboys.

Thanks for the advice! Really like the marble idea. Should I add them in now? It's still fermenting.

I go from a 6.5 gal. Bucket or 6 gal. Carboy to a 5 gal. Carboy. Always start with at least 5.5 gal. juice or top off with more clear juice like FAJC + water.

Thanks Mark. How about the marble idea though? Should I add them in now while it's still actively fermenting or wait? Is that a common practice?

Wait until it stops fermenting, then rack it to another bottle. Then add your marbles. I use glass stones sold in craft stores for flower vase art. Sanitized, of course.

Thanks so much! Heading to the art supply store now! Might I add to my question, just how important is it to actually use the marbles and fill the space? Is it an absolute necessity, and without it is a huge possibility of ruining my batch?

I want to do the right thing, but I also don't want to mess with it too much. I feel like the more I'd touch everything, the more of a chance of messing something up.

Sorry to bump this thread, but could somebody help with my last question? I'm just curious on whether or not the marbles are a priority, or if it can still sit in the fermenter as is without any issues.

I'll definitely get the marbles, but I wasn't sure if it's unnecessary to do because it may cause oxygen or some other issue that will cause an infection. Thanks all.

By the way, I'm at the 2 week mark without any activity in the airlock. I have a party next weekend. Do you think I could drink it then? It would be over 3 weeks in the fermenter.

Whether it's important or not depends on how far along the ferment is. If gravity is still dropping then there's CO2 in the headspace and oxygen won't get in. If the ferment is done then the risk is there - see the first post in this thread.

After 2 weeks of no activity, I would rack to a fresh carboy and add the marbles. Better safe than sorry. Sample it at your party and see what you have..