first cider home-brew....krud on the side

Hello,

First off...I have never brewed beer before or cider and I just purchased a basic brewing kit online. I decided to start out with a cider first because it had less steps than beer and fresh cider is in season where I live.

Sorry for my ignorance, but it is my first ever attempt.

I started with a sanitized 6.5 gal bucket that came with my brewers kit. I also sanitized my airlock and stirring spoon. I added 5 gallons of fresh additive free cider from a apple orchard a couple miles into the country near my house. I purchased an instruction/chemical kit online from homebrewing.org for the cider.



-Sanitized the bucket
-Filled the bucket with 5 gallons of cider
-added pre measured potassium metabisulfite, acid blend, pectic enzyme and wine tannin to the cider and stirred well.
- affixed lid tightly along with airlock and allowed that to sit for 24 hours.
- next day I pitched White Labs English cider yeast (82-755)

The temp of the cider was around 70 degrees F during these steps.

After 24 hours of no activity out of the air lock I finally got some normal bubbling out of the air lock and that continued for a day and a half to where I am now present day.

The airlock stop producing visible bubbles tonight. The inside pressure was only holding up the inner piece of the three piece airlock but now no visible bubbles coming out.

As this is my first attempt, I grew nervous and decided to open the lid to see what was going on.

When I opened the lid the cider is now a light yellow color rather than the original slightly dark hazy brown of the fresh cider. there is no visible "head" on the cider but I do see visible bubbling at the surface.

The only thing that bothers me is that there is now a very visible dark brown ring of krud-ish looking stuff on the walls of the bucket just above the surface of the cider.

Is this normal? Am I screwed?

Should've I not opened the lid?

I didn't take a starting gravity reading of the cider with my hydrometer before I started. I am so new that I didn't know I should've done this.

Also some more newb questions if my cider is still ok...

How long should I let it sit before I move the cider to secondary?

Should it still be producing CO2 after three days?

Should I take a hydrometer reading now?

I'm sorry to bother you all but I'm just starting to get my feet wet here... Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Jeff S

Congratulations! You're going through what most new cider brewers go through. Relax. It sounds fine.
Keep it in primary 2 to 4 more weeks. It should clear.
It will produce CO2 for a while as fermentation winds down and the dissolved gas comes out of it.

RDWHAH. Or, a commercial brew. It's yeast, you're fine. Cider takes awhile, rushing does no good. Give it at least a month. Maybe two.

There is no "Normal". That's what makes home brew interesting. Should you open the lid to look? Well it is an invitation to outside infection, but you really think they were that sanitary 100 years ago? Is it ok? Time will tell but it sounds like a normal primary fermentation to me. Wanna watch get a glass carboy. Have fun and good drinking!

cfcjeff05 said:

Hello,

First off...I have never brewed beer before or cider and I just purchased a basic brewing kit online. I decided to start out with a cider first because it had less steps than beer and fresh cider is in season where I live.

Sorry for my ignorance, but it is my first ever attempt.

I started with a sanitized 6.5 gal bucket that came with my brewers kit. I also sanitized my airlock and stirring spoon. I added 5 gallons of fresh additive free cider from a apple orchard a couple miles into the country near my house. I purchased an instruction/chemical kit online from homebrewing.org for the cider.

-Sanitized the bucket
-Filled the bucket with 5 gallons of cider
-added pre measured potassium metabisulfite, acid blend, pectic enzyme and wine tannin to the cider and stirred well.
- affixed lid tightly along with airlock and allowed that to sit for 24 hours.
- next day I pitched White Labs English cider yeast (82-755)

The temp of the cider was around 70 degrees F during these steps.

After 24 hours of no activity out of the air lock I finally got some normal bubbling out of the air lock and that continued for a day and a half to where I am now present day.

The airlock stop producing visible bubbles tonight. The inside pressure was only holding up the inner piece of the three piece airlock but now no visible bubbles coming out.

As this is my first attempt, I grew nervous and decided to open the lid to see what was going on.

When I opened the lid the cider is now a light yellow color rather than the original slightly dark hazy brown of the fresh cider. there is no visible "head" on the cider but I do see visible bubbling at the surface.

The only thing that bothers me is that there is now a very visible dark brown ring of krud-ish looking stuff on the walls of the bucket just above the surface of the cider.

Is this normal? Am I screwed?

Should've I not opened the lid?

I didn't take a starting gravity reading of the cider with my hydrometer before I started. I am so new that I didn't know I should've done this.

Also some more newb questions if my cider is still ok...

How long should I let it sit before I move the cider to secondary?

Should it still be producing CO2 after three days?

Should I take a hydrometer reading now?

I'm sorry to bother you all but I'm just starting to get my feet wet here... Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Jeff S

Click to expand...

Everyone says cider can be slow, but it also sometimes goes really fast and finishes the initial fermentation in a few days. But it needs to finish all the way. I would let it sit a week or two before racking to secondary, then a week or two in secondary.

Also, it's ok that you peeked, but not good to make a habit of it.

Sounds like you're off to a good start!