Cider slowww ferment

Longtime lurker, first time poster...

I've got 5 gal of juice (no additional sugar) and Notty doing a very slow fermentation Brewed up several batches this way in the past and loved the results, but my wife liked the idea of a more "cloudy" cider (after trying some local brands) so I decided to see what would happen if I skipped the pectic enzyme.

No initial gravity reading - just plain juice. After a week, the gravity was 1.040. And 5 days later, 1.036. After another 5 days (tonight), 1.034.

I've never had such a slow cider fermentation... Could it be skipping the pectic enzyme?

The juice is store-bought cider. It's also generic, store brand cider. Pasteurized. I usually get a farm-stand cider, but it is also pasteurized.

Temp is has stayed between 68-70 deg F.

And I will admit, 5 days ago I dumped in a second package of Notty, just in case my last packet was bad. Only dropped 2 points since then.

Am I just being impatient, or did I make a mistake by using cheap juice or skipping the enzyme?

Samples taste fine, just too sweet. Nice and cloudy, soi got that part right...

And of course, right after posting, I found the thread that mentioned preservatives...

Guessing that's the issue slowing down the Notty.

Move along, nothing to see here...

i skipped the pectic enzyme in my home-pressed cider because i felt that wouldnt be "natural"... fermented just fine with wine yeast, but the natural yeast fermented the juice pretty slow.

conrad

Thanks!