It's our first time making cider. I'd appreciate any advice. Here's the status:
We took a half quart of pasteurized cider and added some sugar. We pitched a packet of Champagne yeast and let it go in a sealed container for two days. It showed a lot of activity.
We took ~ 4.5 gallons of unpasteurized cider. They were divided into 5 jugs. The 4 full jugs got a full tablet, the one half gallon got a half. 28 hours later we poured them into a sanitized carboy, and added cinnamon, clove, allspice, nutmeg, maple syrup, and brown sugar. We then pitched the starter, and placed the container in the basement. It's hovering around 65 degrees there. It's been 4 days and all we get for activity is a slight bulge of CO2. No bubbling, no sign of yeast forming anywhere.
There are two things that I probably did wrong. When I pitched the starter into the unpasteurized cider, that cider was rather cold. Warmer than the fridge, but not much. The other, the part that scares me, is that I didn't do anything to the tablets before putting them in the jugs. The tablets don't give any instructions to crush them, or do anything really.
I'll gladly take any advice at this point. I'm hoping that the worst case is that the yeast is nearly dead and a re-pitching will work.
Thanks
We took a half quart of pasteurized cider and added some sugar. We pitched a packet of Champagne yeast and let it go in a sealed container for two days. It showed a lot of activity.
We took ~ 4.5 gallons of unpasteurized cider. They were divided into 5 jugs. The 4 full jugs got a full tablet, the one half gallon got a half. 28 hours later we poured them into a sanitized carboy, and added cinnamon, clove, allspice, nutmeg, maple syrup, and brown sugar. We then pitched the starter, and placed the container in the basement. It's hovering around 65 degrees there. It's been 4 days and all we get for activity is a slight bulge of CO2. No bubbling, no sign of yeast forming anywhere.
There are two things that I probably did wrong. When I pitched the starter into the unpasteurized cider, that cider was rather cold. Warmer than the fridge, but not much. The other, the part that scares me, is that I didn't do anything to the tablets before putting them in the jugs. The tablets don't give any instructions to crush them, or do anything really.
I'll gladly take any advice at this point. I'm hoping that the worst case is that the yeast is nearly dead and a re-pitching will work.
Thanks