divi2323
Well-Known Member
I've made wine before (about 3x 5gal carboys worth, a chianti, a reisling, and a pinot noir all from kits), so I tried to make some apple cider.
Local orchard, hand picked ~185 lbs of apples. I used a garbage disposal to grind the apples into pulp, and a home made press to press the juice out. Below is my witches brew and what I made from it:
10lbs cortlands+36lbs red delicious+31lbs gold delicious = 4.75gallons juice
18lbs mcintosh = 0.75gal juice
15lbs jonathans = 1.00gal juice
37lbs Fuji = 2.75gal juice
28lbs Jonagold = 2.00 gal juice
Here is the problem. I was working with a friend of mine, and I was going to sulfite the must before pressing to avoid oxidation. I myself dont like the sight of apple juice that looks like iced tea (personal preference). For every 5 gallons of pomace that I made, I added 1 teaspoon of sodium metabisulfite and stirred it in. I then pressed the juice out. Some of the buckets that had only 1-2 gallons of pomace... my friend inadvertently added a whole teaspoon of sulfite to them thinking the rest of the apples would get added.
I think I ended up with 3 teaspoons of sulfite for about 15 gallons of pomace which pressed down to about 11.25 gallons of total juice.
The red/gold/corts were pressed on Sunday, all the rest were pressed on Monday. I waited 24 hours and taste tested the juices and got the right mixture together that I liked (wishing I'd had more jonathans in the end for more tartness). On Tuesday night late, I created one primary fermenter with 5 gallons of batch A and two 4.5gal carboys holding just short of 3 gallons each as batch B. Batch B is just a mixture of everything left over, Batch A is my "super concoction". Batch B contains an added 1lb of brown sugar.
OG Batch A was 1.052
OG Batch B was 1.048
Batch B after sugar add was 1.054
After blending, just before midnight, I added 1 pack of Red Star Cotes de Blanc yeast to about a cup of water at 100F. I know it was this temp because I used my cooking thermometer and it was very accurate. I dissolved the yeast using a fork and stirring vigorously for about 2 minutes. I then added it to Batch A. I repeated the steps for each of the other two 4.5gal carboys (100F water per the package instructions, stir for 2 minutes, then add to juice)
Batch A was a bucket fermenter and I left the lid just sitting on top of it with an airlock. Not air tight, letting it stand so I could monitor it and when it started bubbling i'd lock it down. Batch B's carboys I airlocked right away.
Wednesday AND Thursday, I noticed vacuums in the carboys and no bubbles in the cider. This concerns me of course. I asked the local brew shop and they suggested adding more yeast. So I bought 3 packs of red star premier cuvee. This time I did not mix them in warm water but added them directly to the batches and did not stir.
Today is Friday, I saw some film on the top of the must but it was ONLY in the glass carboys of batch B, NOT anywhere to be found in bath A, and did not look convincing and yet again the airlock showed a slight vacuum and gave all three mixtures a good stir.
My question really though is the sulfiting. is it possible this batch is way oversulfited and cannot sustain any yeast whatsoever even though it's been 5 days since adding? I also have to wonder how much sulfite comes out of the must when pressing and how much remains in the dry pomace?
Other posts indicate that fermentation for some doesnt start for a week and some indicate that they never see bubbles at all yet the entire batch processes fine.
Any advice on moving forward would be appreciated. I'd rather not have to scrap this batch of course.
Local orchard, hand picked ~185 lbs of apples. I used a garbage disposal to grind the apples into pulp, and a home made press to press the juice out. Below is my witches brew and what I made from it:
10lbs cortlands+36lbs red delicious+31lbs gold delicious = 4.75gallons juice
18lbs mcintosh = 0.75gal juice
15lbs jonathans = 1.00gal juice
37lbs Fuji = 2.75gal juice
28lbs Jonagold = 2.00 gal juice
Here is the problem. I was working with a friend of mine, and I was going to sulfite the must before pressing to avoid oxidation. I myself dont like the sight of apple juice that looks like iced tea (personal preference). For every 5 gallons of pomace that I made, I added 1 teaspoon of sodium metabisulfite and stirred it in. I then pressed the juice out. Some of the buckets that had only 1-2 gallons of pomace... my friend inadvertently added a whole teaspoon of sulfite to them thinking the rest of the apples would get added.
I think I ended up with 3 teaspoons of sulfite for about 15 gallons of pomace which pressed down to about 11.25 gallons of total juice.
The red/gold/corts were pressed on Sunday, all the rest were pressed on Monday. I waited 24 hours and taste tested the juices and got the right mixture together that I liked (wishing I'd had more jonathans in the end for more tartness). On Tuesday night late, I created one primary fermenter with 5 gallons of batch A and two 4.5gal carboys holding just short of 3 gallons each as batch B. Batch B is just a mixture of everything left over, Batch A is my "super concoction". Batch B contains an added 1lb of brown sugar.
OG Batch A was 1.052
OG Batch B was 1.048
Batch B after sugar add was 1.054
After blending, just before midnight, I added 1 pack of Red Star Cotes de Blanc yeast to about a cup of water at 100F. I know it was this temp because I used my cooking thermometer and it was very accurate. I dissolved the yeast using a fork and stirring vigorously for about 2 minutes. I then added it to Batch A. I repeated the steps for each of the other two 4.5gal carboys (100F water per the package instructions, stir for 2 minutes, then add to juice)
Batch A was a bucket fermenter and I left the lid just sitting on top of it with an airlock. Not air tight, letting it stand so I could monitor it and when it started bubbling i'd lock it down. Batch B's carboys I airlocked right away.
Wednesday AND Thursday, I noticed vacuums in the carboys and no bubbles in the cider. This concerns me of course. I asked the local brew shop and they suggested adding more yeast. So I bought 3 packs of red star premier cuvee. This time I did not mix them in warm water but added them directly to the batches and did not stir.
Today is Friday, I saw some film on the top of the must but it was ONLY in the glass carboys of batch B, NOT anywhere to be found in bath A, and did not look convincing and yet again the airlock showed a slight vacuum and gave all three mixtures a good stir.
My question really though is the sulfiting. is it possible this batch is way oversulfited and cannot sustain any yeast whatsoever even though it's been 5 days since adding? I also have to wonder how much sulfite comes out of the must when pressing and how much remains in the dry pomace?
Other posts indicate that fermentation for some doesnt start for a week and some indicate that they never see bubbles at all yet the entire batch processes fine.
Any advice on moving forward would be appreciated. I'd rather not have to scrap this batch of course.