My first Cider and nothing happening

Ok. Well I picked up my fresh bucket of pressed cider from the LHBS.

First. I added the correct amount of Campden tablets to kill the wild yeast (crushed) and pectin enzyme.

Waited 24 hours and pitched my White labs 774 cider yeast and added the correct amount of yeast nutrient. ( the must was around 70 degrees) I added the yeast then air raided it. OG was 1.045.

I woke up this morning to check activity and nothing. The airlock isn't bubbling at all and there is no yeast cake on top of the must.

Is this normal? Took the yeast out of the fridge 4hrs prior was it to cold?

Any advice?

Thanks
Steve

A couple thoughts... 1) are you 100% sure that the mill didn't put a preservative in the cider you bought and 2) if your cider was preservative free then give it another day or so to look for activity.

100% sure it's not pasturized and no preservatives.

Sounds like you did everything right. 4 hrs should have been long enough for the yeast to reach room temp. How old was the yeast?

If you don't see any activity after another day I think I'd pitch another pack of the same yeast.

You're not going to see a typical 'beer' type ferment with cider. Give it more time.

If there is not an airtight seal the airlock won't bubble. My 2 gal bucket often doesn't, and even bungs in carboys. (I seal the latter with electrical tape if they aren't cooperating.)

Has a good seal and the yeast I used had a sell by date of July 25th.

It's been 6 days, what is the cider doing now?

MindenMan said:

It's been 6 days, what is the cider doing now?

Click to expand...

Cider started bubbling about 48 hours after pitching and just slowed down yesterday. I was worried at first but all is good. I will leave it in the primary for another week then transfer it to secondary.

If you have any bakers yeast, you could try boiling 1/2 tsp per gallon of cider in a small amount of water and add to fermenter to assist in the finish of fermentation. I add 1/8 tsp of Fermaid-K, 1/8 tsp of bakers yeast, and 1/8 tsp of DAP when I add the last bit of fermentables to my ciders.

Sometimes yeasts can be `slow` to wake up from hibernation. I've pitched on full yeast cakes that didn't take off for 2-4 days before.
Sometimes you just get a `bad` packet of yeast, and sometimes, the ferm vessel isn't air tight. Glad things turned out fine for you.