Cant get cider to start fermentation

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tange1

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Hello,
I Cant get my cider to start fermenting. My cider is home pressed by Mennonite family made up of 4 types of apples and as far as I know is preservative free. One week ago I put in 10 campden tablets in 5 gallons in a sealed food bucket. I waited 24 hrs then boiled a few quarts of cider, added 4 cups of plain sugar and 1 cup of brown sugar to the cider. I then added the hot cider to the cold cider in a steralized bucket. The cider was cold, right out of the fridge. I stirred in the hot cider. Then added yeast nutrient, acid blend, pectic enzyme and tanin. I started 2 packets of lavlen yeast in warm water for 15 minutes. I pitched it and waited. No fermentation, no bubbles. I waited till yesterday - then bought wyeast cider yeast. Smacked the packet, waited 3 hours till it was swollen then sterilized that container and pitched it about 24 hrs ago. The room the cider is in is almost 70 degrees exactly. The OG was 1.070.

What did I do wrong? What other options do I have to start fermentation?

Help?
 
I am not a cider maker, but.... it sounds like the cider might have been too cold when you pitched the yeast originally.

5 gallons of 40 degree cider from your fridge is going to need quite a while to warm up to yeast-friendly temps.

How long did you wait between 1st and 2nd pitchings? Has the cider warmed up sufficiently?
 
First pitch was about a week ago today. 2nd pitch was 24 hrs ago.

Agreed it might have been too cold on the first pitch but the 2nd pitch it should have been plenty warm.
 
Did you put in too much campden? The campden tablets that I have say to use 1 tablet for 1 gallon and that is way overkill. What does the directions on your campden say?

If you have access to good apples, I'd advise doing whatever you can to salvage this batch, then read the sticky and start over without all of the additives. All you need is cider and yeast.
 
I probably did over do the campden tablets recommended is 1 to 1 - its a friends recipe and he likes to over do it for some reason. I dont have access to the apples anymore. Can I salvage this set somehow?
 
campden is an antioxident, so you might be able to burn some of it off by aerating the cider. If you have something like a drywall mud mixer and an electric drill, that might work, although I'm not sure its worth going to the effort to salvage 4 gallons of over-sufited juice. recommended dose is overkill for cider. Measure twice, cut once.
 
No luck w/ aerating the cider - I guess I'm going to have to toss it. How many campden tables do people recommend for 5 gallons?
 
If the juice was pressed under sanitary conditions and you pitch the yeast fresh, you dont need to use campden. If you have a decent juice mix, you dont need the other stuff either. read the sticky or use the search function
 
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