unintentional pellicle on Cider

It looks like I have a pellicle forming on my cider that I have aging in my pantry. The cider was fresh from the farm in November and aside from a few weeks in a fermentation bucket, has been in this glass carboy ever since.

Any advice on what I should do with it?

I'm ok with doing nothing with it and leaving it for a year or more...a sour cider like a basque would be amazing.

Anything I should worry about?

was the original cider pasteurized? If not, it's surely infected. I've let a small amount of unpasteurized cider do its thing and it came out just fine. After that I made an intentionally sour cider.

Let it Ride! It should be yummy (but the wild yeast can be unpredictable).

yes, completely unpasteurized...it came literally out of the press into my ferm bucket.
How long should I leave it alone? As long as possible?

I'm thinking that that's an infection. That's a lot of head space for long term aging. I would want to rack it to a smaller carboy and leave that ick behind. Better have a taste of it too... see what you've got there.

Leave it til the ferment is done, the pellicle is blocking air from getting in.

It's definitely infected.

Remember that once fermentation slows, the cider needs to be topped up (or racked to a smaller carboy, where there is no headspace) to prevent contact with air.

I'm going to leave this carboy alone now that it's already blessed with bacteria...

Maybe you can see it in the photo, but I do also have another carboy that hasn't been infected yet...should I top this off with fresh cider now (6 months in) or just cross my fingers and hope for the best?
Or should I bottle it and let it age in the bottles for another few months?

Thanks for all the support and advice.

The infection didn't come from the open air, it came in on the apples.

The cider could get oxidized, and that's why you'd look to top it up. I'd say yes, go ahead and top it up (with pasteurized cider)

cujocon said:

I'm going to leave this carboy alone now that it's already blessed with bacteria...

Maybe you can see it in the photo, but I do also have another carboy that hasn't been infected yet...should I top this off with fresh cider now (6 months in) or just cross my fingers and hope for the best?
Or should I bottle it and let it age in the bottles for another few months?

Thanks for all the support and advice.

Click to expand...

What works really great is if you have some finished cider to top it off with otherwise fermentation can we start and then you'll have to rack again and so on. It is probably better to rack to a smaller vessel, or use something like glass marbles to take up some of the excessive headspace.

Infection does come when oxygen loving bacteria are in the headspace and that is all the time because even the simple lacy of racking, as careful as we are, means that there is oxygen contact. Topping up does help because it reduces that Air exposure.

Many cider makers And winemakers Use Camden tablets or powdered potassium meta bisulfite to help reduce the risk of oxidation and infection.

First - I tasted this and it is really very good.

On advice of Yooper and my personal Cider guide, I am going to top this off with hard cider that I have bottled earlier, and I'm also hitting it with 1/4 tsp of metabi.

I went back and looked at my notes from November/December and I did not hit this with Sulfite originally as I usually do...I wanted to give the wild yeast a shot at competing with the packet stuff.

Better drink it quick, it's all going to heck now...

Since this is something I experienced with the last 2 of three cider batches, would you just siphon another 3/4 of a gallon or so of cider into the carboy to top off, or rack it on the fresh juice when topping off?

My plan was to move it immediately to the keg and let it age in there, perhaps with some sorbate to prevent further fermentation? Would that stop it from aging too?

following advice here, I added some cider I had finished earlier (not fresh) and added 1/4 tsp of potassium metabisulfite. It is still sitting in the carboy until I can get around to bottling.

I bottled this on Monday. It tastes fantastic, the color is clear straw, the aroma is apple juice more than cider.
No negative effects of the infection as far as I can tell.
Thanks for all the advice and help.

I believe one of my 5 gallon batches has this.
So you rack into diff carboy and add apple juice to fill headspace?
And it will be safe to drink?

It's going to be safe to drink regardless, unless you really messed up and got something terrible in it. It just might not taste like it was intended to taste.

I didn't rack to a different carboy, I just topped off the current one. I used finished hard cider, not apple juice - did not want to restart fermentation.
It better be safe to drink, since I've already gone through 2 growlers by myse....ach..splurt..poison!@!!
JK - stuff is awesome.

Im still relatively new to this!

So I racked the cider into a new carboy.
FO is 0 so this tells me its done right?

The alcohol content is definately there however I need to improve the taste.
I added 1 gallon of apple juice.

Question:

Since gravity is at 0 and I added the apple juice is there any yeast left to restart fermentation?

If I still need to improve the taste Im assuming I can add more apple juice?

By adding the apple juice when I go to bottle will there be enough sugar (from the added juice) to bottle carb or can I/will I be able to add priming sugar to bottle carb?

CyderSilverblade said:

Im still relatively new to this!

So I racked the cider into a new carboy.
FO is 0 so this tells me its done right?

The alcohol content is definately there however I need to improve the taste.
I added 1 gallon of apple juice.

Question:

Since gravity is at 0 and I added the apple juice is there any yeast left to restart fermentation?

If I still need to improve the taste Im assuming I can add more apple juice?

By adding the apple juice when I go to bottle will there be enough sugar (from the added juice) to bottle carb or can I/will I be able to add priming sugar to bottle carb?

Click to expand...

Yes. Cider will often go below 1.000 (not 0, that's not a reading, but it's at 0% potential alcohol which is 1.000 on the SG scale), sometimes to .990, depending on yeast strain.

If you add apple juice, it will restart fermentation again. If you bottle now, it will probably cause bottle bombs so you should wait until the cider is done again, and clear, and then bottle.

CyderSilverblade said:

Im still relatively new to this!

So I racked the cider into a new carboy.
FO is 0 so this tells me its done right?

The alcohol content is definately there however I need to improve the taste.
I added 1 gallon of apple juice.

Question:

Since gravity is at 0 and I added the apple juice is there any yeast left to restart fermentation?

If I still need to improve the taste Im assuming I can add more apple juice?

By adding the apple juice when I go to bottle will there be enough sugar (from the added juice) to bottle carb or can I/will I be able to add priming sugar to bottle carb?

Click to expand...

The apple juice contains sugar, much more than is needed to bottle carb. Carbing needs like 0.003 gravity~. mixing 5 gallons of juice (gravity~ 1.000 with 1 gallon of juice 1.050~) will give you 6 gallons of 1.008~. Much more than is needed to carb. Re-fermentation will definitely occur, and if you bottle they will definitely explode at some point if you don't keep them cold and drink them quickly, or pasteurize them.

It sounds like you want to backsweeten, which is fine. I sometimes add 1-2 cans of apple juice concentrate, this increases gravity and sweetens the cider without diluting as much as mixing with regular apple juice. I then keg now, but I have bottled and then let them go for a couple days then pasteurized as per the sticky thread.

Yes I want a semi sweet/carb'd cider.
I have stove top past. before and it worked great.
I will wait for the newest fermentation to stop and take a gravity reading again.

Thanks!!