My cider is not fermenting, help..

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gargoyle55

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I pressed apples from my apple tree on Sunday. Cleaned all my equipment, put 4 gallons into my bucket with 2.5 lbs of organic brown sugar (melted into 1 gallon of juice first) mixed well-- pitched yeast (liquid cider yeast) and nothing happening. Went back to the shop and they gave me another yeast, pitched it-- the juice seems to be foaming and is a little stinky-- but nothing happening in the airlock?? Any advice would be great

Side note-- I made two 1 gallon batches with fresh golden raspberries and blackberry honey on the same day and they are doing great....
 
I pressed apples from my apple tree on Sunday. Cleaned all my equipment, put 4 gallons into my bucket with 2.5 lbs of organic brown sugar (melted into 1 gallon of juice first) mixed well-- pitched yeast (liquid cider yeast) and nothing happening. Went back to the shop and they gave me another yeast, pitched it-- the juice seems to be foaming and is a little stinky-- but nothing happening in the airlock?? Any advice would be great

Side note-- I made two 1 gallon batches with fresh golden raspberries and blackberry honey on the same day and they are doing great....

If it's foaming, it's probably fermenting. Airlock activity isn't a reliable sign of fermentation. Maybe you've got a tiny leak and the co2 is escaping out somewhere else.

If you're still not sure if it's fermenting, take a hydrometer reading and see if it's changed.
 
If you didn't add any yeast nutrient ( and even if you did) it could take a few days for it to take off. I had one go almost 4 days. After day 3, I decided to rouse (swirl) it a bit, and it took off the next day. So much so in fact that I had to hook up a blowoff tube!
 
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