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baseballstar4

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I have kinda jumped right into making a hard cider before pulling my boots up. I used 5 gal of cider from local orchard with no preservatives in it. I added a pound of honey and cup of brown sugar to it and pitched my yeast before my packet was swollen. (to impatient to wait for it to swell) It has been 4 days with zero activity at all.

Today I pitched some active champagne yeast, but when I took the lid off of my fermentor, the smell was awful. It was of rotten food/apples and had no cider smell to it. After stirring to aerate it for the yeast it smelled of normal cider. The question is: is this normal? is the batch ruined?

thanks
 
How did it turn out? Did the second pitching of yeast get the fermentation going?

My process for cider:

- Sanitize primary, pour cider in, install airlock.

- Add 1/12 teaspoon potassium metabisulfite per gallon, stir to dissolve.

- Boil 3 cups of fruit juice (any kind without preservatives). Allow it to cool (covered) to about 70-80 degrees.

- Rehydrate yeast (per instructions on packet). Pour cooled fruit juice into sanitized gallon jug, aerate (shake), pitch rehydrated yeast and install airlock. Consider using Lavin 71B or D47 wine yeast to help preserve the apple flavor.

- Wait 24 hours for SO2 to kill bacteria and wild yeasts. This also allows the free S02 levels to drop enough to avoid harm to the chosen yeast. This also gives time for the yeast starter to get going.

- Add sugar to adjust specific gravity to desired level (1.060-1.070 for beer strength cider, 1.080-1.095 for wine strength cider).

- Add tartaric acid if needed to achieve around 4 to 5 grams/liter (acid titration kit reading of 0.4 to 0.5) depending on how tart you like your cider.

- Add pectic enzyme (per instructions on bottle, perhaps 1 teaspoon per gallon). This will reduce the chance of cloudy cider.

- Add 1 teaspoon yeast nutrient (Urea/DAP blend) per gallon.

- Optional. Add about 1/4 teaspoon of wine tannins per gallon.

- Aerate cider (shake primary, or beat with sanitized whisk, etc.) Pitch yeast starter into cider. Install air lock. Fermentation should be well underway in 6-8 hours.

- Rack to sanitized secondary after about 5-7 days.

- Rack to bottling bucket when fermentation is complete. For sparkling cider use beer bottles and add carbonation sugar as desired (about 1 ounce per gallon), bottle and cap (I use beer bottles). If a sweet cider is desired, consider using artificial sweetener to taste before adding carbonation sugar. For still dry cider, just bottle. For still or sparkling cider sweetened with real sugar you will need additional steps not described here.

- Ready to drink in a 3-4 weeks, but will continue to improve for a year or more.
 
Randyl- The second yeast did indeed get fermentation going. It is in bottles and awaiting carbonation. Had a very sweet taste with a dry finish. My impatience got the best of me and I tried one after 7 days of bottling and it was like a sweet-tart candy.
 
Glad to hear that it is working out! I recommend that you keep an eye on the carbonation levels to make sure that the pressure doesn't get too high (in case there is more sugar than needed for carbonation). I have seen a thread that talks about stopping the carbonation while the cider still has some sugar by pasteurizing the bottles (https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f32/easy-stove-top-pasteurizing-pics-193295/).
 
great to hear it worked for you. i'm not much of a cider-brewer, but i go for beer and wine :D ... always like to hear what works for other people, so i can learn more myself
 
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