I made some Apfelwein pretty much in accordance to EdWort's recipe. The exception being that I brewed on top of my last batch's scrap, and didn't add any dextrose. SG 1.049
Week one went well. The AJ/AW looked and smelled exactly like the other batches I've brewed (awesome yeasty-apply smell + lots of bubbles). I checked it again today at two weeks (SG 1.015) and it was completely still. I mean no activity on the surface, bubbles, anything. Dead. In the past it has always bubbled slowly at this time point, and fermented to an SG of 0.990-1.000.
I picked up the carboy and put it on the table. It jostled a little bit. I figured the fermentation was stuck, possibly due to Montrachet being sensitive to the lees I left in (which were six months old by that time, and may have degraded somehow). So I found some Premier Cuvee yeast, and while I waited for the yeast to hydrate, I stared at the carboy and wondered what really happened. It was still dead.
I poured in the new yeast hoping to restart fermentation - that it did. Immediately after I put the airlock back on, not thirty seconds after pouring in the new yeast, I started seeing bubbles come up, and floating particles of yeast gyrate inside the carboy.
The way I see it there are two main possibilities. Pouring in the Cuvee restarted the Montrachet. Or, the bubbles I first saw were due to a release of CO2 already in the AW, and the Cuvee was responsible for the continuing bubbles I am still seeing.
Fermentation has started, but what will come of my drink? My intuition tells me that a freshly hydrated 5 gram pack of yeast could not be producing that amount of CO2, and the act of pouring in the yeast-water mixture must have agitated the yeast bed causing fermentation to restart. It's hard to tell though, the immediate bubbles could have been from a release of CO2 already in there.
Will the Premier Curvee I put in work alongside the Montrachet, or will one "kill off" the other? Any guesses on taste if it actually is the Cuvee?
Week one went well. The AJ/AW looked and smelled exactly like the other batches I've brewed (awesome yeasty-apply smell + lots of bubbles). I checked it again today at two weeks (SG 1.015) and it was completely still. I mean no activity on the surface, bubbles, anything. Dead. In the past it has always bubbled slowly at this time point, and fermented to an SG of 0.990-1.000.
I picked up the carboy and put it on the table. It jostled a little bit. I figured the fermentation was stuck, possibly due to Montrachet being sensitive to the lees I left in (which were six months old by that time, and may have degraded somehow). So I found some Premier Cuvee yeast, and while I waited for the yeast to hydrate, I stared at the carboy and wondered what really happened. It was still dead.
I poured in the new yeast hoping to restart fermentation - that it did. Immediately after I put the airlock back on, not thirty seconds after pouring in the new yeast, I started seeing bubbles come up, and floating particles of yeast gyrate inside the carboy.
The way I see it there are two main possibilities. Pouring in the Cuvee restarted the Montrachet. Or, the bubbles I first saw were due to a release of CO2 already in the AW, and the Cuvee was responsible for the continuing bubbles I am still seeing.
Fermentation has started, but what will come of my drink? My intuition tells me that a freshly hydrated 5 gram pack of yeast could not be producing that amount of CO2, and the act of pouring in the yeast-water mixture must have agitated the yeast bed causing fermentation to restart. It's hard to tell though, the immediate bubbles could have been from a release of CO2 already in there.
Will the Premier Curvee I put in work alongside the Montrachet, or will one "kill off" the other? Any guesses on taste if it actually is the Cuvee?
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