Strange layer on top of cider

Ok, I'm in the process of letting my cider ferment and it's got a strange layer of brown ... sludge? snot? on the top of it ... it was put into the primary on Aug 29 ... OG was 1.070 ... i racked into the secondary on Sep 8 ... at that point, it was at 1.024 and the fermentation had settled down ...

(btw, i've brewed about 8 beers, but this is my first cider)

based on a recipe i found somewhere online, i added some "apple pie spices" since it have enough spice for my taste (otherwise, it was quite tasty) ... as soon as i added the spices, it started fermenting and formed a bit of a krausen which fairly quickly settled down as the spices (appeared mostly to be cinnamon) floated to the top (you could see it both sinking and then rising as CO2 bubbles attached to the spices) ...

after a day or two, fermentation seems to have stopped and then the spices on top started to develop a dark brown layer on the top of the cider ... (NOTE: this is also my first time using a carboy for the secondary, so i'll be the first to admit i'm not sure what it's "supposed" to look like) ... anyway, last night i decided to try to get some of that crud off the top, so i racked from the carboy into a bucket (trying to get as little of the crud as possible), cleaned and sanitized the carboy and racked back into the carboy, again getting as little of the crud as possible (which wasn't easy) ... at this point, the gravity was down to 1.008

well, the stuff is just plain NASTY ... it's basically the texture of snot or a nasty case of diarrhea ... it smells fine (just smells like cinnamon) ... the cider tasted pretty good too (a bit on the sour side, but it is still very young) ... last night, there wasn't a ton of the brown stuff on the top when i went to bed, but this morning when i woke up, the whole top of the cider was covered again as if i'd done nothing!

so, after that looooong intro, is this something to be concerned about? the cider tastes pretty good and it doesn't look like a mold or anything growing on the top ... any ideas? is there a way to filter this crud off the top? will it eventually go away? i'm afraid to bottle if it's going to grow that stuff on the top (NO ONE will want to drink my brews anymore ), even though i'm planning on letting it sit for a while yet before fermenting

if it would help, i can take a picture of it and post it

thanks a ton!
jesse

Cider does krausen a bit, just not as much as beer does. Adding spices gives the bubbles nucleation sites which makes it bubble more and it's not to worry about. It will eventually go away by dropping out of suspension to the bottom.


Holy crapballs, you've been here longer than I have and you only have THREE posts???

What does it smell like? <edit> Duh, you said fine, like cinnamon </edit>

Snot sure reminds me of "Mother of Vinegar", having deliberately made cider vinegar once in the long-ago.

Indeed 3 posts in 2.5 years is impressive, maybe I should slow down...

I made a spiced cider about a year ago, I had the exact same thing. While part of it is the krausen, ETOJ is right, its the spices. They allow bubbles to collide and connect in clumps. I say now that you have racked it again, just let it sit for a month or so. If the spices haven't dropped out, go ahead and rack to the bucket and back again. Again trying to not pick up as much of the spices as possible.

Glandix, how much sediment was in the cider before you started it? I started a couple gallons this weekend and the cider had a fair amount of sediment which is now spending its time bouncing from top to bottom of my cider. I'll rack once fermentation seems to slow down.

I've noticed that cinnamon can be quite mucilaginous. I wouldn't worry.

Are you referring to sediment in the cider prior to fermentation, for that batch I used standard filtered juice, so there was no sediment to worry about.

But I have used unfiltered cider, it takes a lot longer to clear, but it tastes damn good.

The cider I started with had sediment before I started, yes. I thought to get hard cider, you had to start out with apple cider, not filtered juice.

Message above edited for clarification.

Well here in the states, most people define cider as unfiltered apple juice, while juice is just the filtered product, and hard cider is the good and alcoholic product. However, to make hard cider, you do not need to use cider as we call it. It will often lead to a fantastic beverage, but it tends to require more aging and clearing. Many people make ciders with just store bought apple juice, as long as there are no preservatices in it other then ascorbic acid/vitamin C

Thanks for all the replies! I feel a lot more comfortable about that layer now!

"mucilaginous" -- that's the best description ... exactly what it's like

and lol about the posts vs. time here ... i signed up when i first started brewing and since then found a local homebrew shop AND a local homebrew club, so until last night i didn't have any questions to post and I completely forgot about this site! i tried to sign up for an account last night to post the question ... that's when i realized i already had an account LOL

effigyoffaith said:

I've noticed that cinnamon can be quite mucilaginous. I wouldn't worry.

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yeah, I was going to mention that - ground cinnamon has a tendancy to get goopy when soaked in a liquid for a while. if it smells like cinnimon then you are safe. if it smelled like butt... then I'd say your spices also brought an unwelcome microbe in. but thats kinda unlikely - cinnimon is a hell of an antiseptic - not much in the way of bacteria can live in/on it.

Snuffalupagus said:

yeah, I was going to mention that - ground cinnamon has a tendancy to get goopy when soaked in a liquid for a while. if it smells like cinnimon then you are safe. if it smelled like butt... then I'd say your spices also brought an unwelcome microbe in. but thats kinda unlikely - cinnimon is a hell of an antiseptic - not much in the way of bacteria can live in/on it.

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interesting ... didn't know that about cinnamon (that it has antiseptic qualities) ... would it have been better if i'd used cinnamon sticks instead? i was looking for the "mulling spices" my mom used to use in apple cider when we were kids (lol the non-alcoholic version, that is ), but since it's a seasonal item, they didnt' have it at the local Dillons/Kroger store (they actually had to go into the back to get the apple cider i wanted since it wasn't out on the shelves yet)

this whole recipe was pretty much thrown together, so i'm not overly worried if it doesn't turn out, but i want it to, of course ... mostly misc random spices and stuff found around my house along with some yeast ... one day i just randomly decided to try making cider and used whatever i had available to me lol ... if it works and it's good, i'll post the recipe

and nope, no butt smell, but it does look like something that could've come out of my son's butt when he was a baby LOL

thank you all so much!

I like to use whole spices, cinnamon sticks, allspice berries, whole cloves, etc. I think they have better flavor, the definitely keep their flavor on the shelf better, and the don't absorb as much liquid as ground does, wasting on racking. They also give up their flavor slower so you can wait till the spice flavor is as strong as you want and then take out the spices.
Sound like it'll turn out great.

well, figured i'd report back ... been checking on it every few days and it looked like maybe that layer was breaking up (but i figured i was just seeing things) ... looked at it last night and it definitely had some "chunks" that were starting do sink down from the surface ... checked it just now and NOTHING! ... not one single brown spot floating on the top! hope to bottle as early as this weekend!

PLEASE HELP ME

This is my first time brewing anything of any sort - I am currently in Hong Kong and its only just become legal to brew your own alcohol. So there are no supply stores at all - basically im trying my best to make cider - i have just transfered my cider from 1 bottle to the next for secondary fermentation however (check the photo) there is a funny film formed - please help me ???

That's krausen. Totally normal. Doesn't always happen with cider. Chill out. It will drop.

Thank you

its hard brewing with no gear

I think its great you are joining the fold,. As there are no LHB's there, what kind of yeast did you use? Will you be able to import supplies? What kind of container and lid is in the picture? It looks open to the air. Good luck.

Husko101 said:

PLEASE HELP ME

This is my first time brewing anything of any sort - I am currently in Hong Kong and its only just become legal to brew your own alcohol. So there are no supply stores at all - basically im trying my best to make cider - i have just transfered my cider from 1 bottle to the next for secondary fermentation however (check the photo) there is a funny film formed - please help me ???

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