First Batch Confirmation

I'm in my little world with no advisors--except you folks--and I suppose I need some moral support/confirmation that things are going alright.

My first batch has just passed its 9th day and is not openly fermenting any longer. I'm doing 5 gal of apfelwein--2 lbs corn sugar. OG was 1.070 and today my SG is 1.013...tastes like pi** in a cup of grain alcohol! Yuck.

Seems to me like it's moving along just fine. I plan to leave it in the carboy for another month or two, and then probably bottle.

Sound ok to you??

Blue

Leave it til it's totally done fermenting and it clears.

If you bottle before it's done (and it should get down below 1.000), you run the risk of exploding glass.

If you bottle before it clears, you'll have a lot of sediment in your bottles.

Apfelwein is not like beer...we're talking months not weeks...Mine didn't clear and finish for 3 months, and I left in another 3 before bottling....When you can hold a newspaper behind the carboy and read it Ed says it is finished...

I started mine on June 26th, basically Ed's Apflewein recipe except with 5 gallons of fresh cider instead of juice. As of today (22 days later) the airlock is still bubbling at least once every 10 seconds. I never imagined it would be fermenting that actively for almost a month.

What do all the cider experts here think about that? Is it normal?

Airlock activity means nothing...just that it's is offgassing co2, it should never be used as a gauge of fermentation...

Having said that, Apfelwein is going to take a long time to eat all the juice and sugar. Like I said earlier, and like what's shown throughout Ed's Thread...Apfelwein is about patience...And potent booze

I understand that airlock activity won't dictate when it is done fermenting, I'm just going on the assumption that if it is still bubbling that often then it must still be actively fermenting

ryscott said:

I understand that airlock activity won't dictate when it is done fermenting, I'm just going on the assumption that if it is still bubbling that often then it must still be actively fermenting

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I'm not talking about a gauge to doneness...I'm talking about not using it as a reflection of anything other than that there is off gassing..Yes, co2 production= fermentation, but there are way too many variables that would prevent a cheap 2.00 piece of plastic from burbling at all, loose seal on the fermenter, the airlock slightly askew, co2 bubbles sitting on the bubbler and weighing it down so that it doesn't lift but the co2 is still eeking out.....

a lot of new brewers panic when they don't see any bubbling in their airlock and think somethings wrong....Over half of my beers have had no perceptable airlock bubbling at all, and I have never had a stuck fermentation or any bad batches yet...

The airlock is not a gauge, not a precision instrument (a hydromenter is) it is just a way of letting the co2 bleed off while preventing anything from getting in....but it is not mechanically precise enough to gaurentee that the bleeding of co2 is going to lift the bubbler up and down like a piston...

Revvy said:

I'm not talking about a gauge to doneness...I'm talking about not using it as a reflection of anything other than that there is off gassing..Yes, co2 production= fermentation, but there are way too many variables that would prevent a cheap 2.00 piece of plastic from burbling at all, loose seal on the fermenter, the airlock slightly askew, co2 bubbles sitting on the bubbler and weighing it down so that it doesn't lift but the co2 is still eeking out.....

a lot of new brewers panic when they don't see any bubbling in their airlock and think somethings wrong....Over half of my beers have had no perceptable airlock bubbling at all, and I have never had a stuck fermentation or any bad batches yet...

The airlock is not a gauge, not a precision instrument (a hydromenter is) it is just a way of letting the co2 bleed off while preventing anything from getting in....but it is not mechanically precise enough to gaurentee that the bleeding of co2 is going to lift the bubbler up and down like a piston...

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I'm not worried about it not bubbling though. If you read my question I said that it has been bubbling for 22 days now and isn't slowing down. If it is bubbling, then there is a gas being pushed out, mostly likely CO2, which would lead me to assume that fermentation is still very active.

My question had nothing to do with worrying about how the airlock isn't bubbling, it was actually the exact opposite.

ryscott said:

I'm not worried about it not bubbling though. If you read my question I said that it has been bubbling for 22 days now and isn't slowing down. If it is bubbling, then there is a gas being pushed out, mostly likely CO2, which would lead me to assume that fermentation is still very active.

My question had nothing to do with worrying about how the airlock isn't bubbling, it was actually the exact opposite.

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I fully realize what you were saying.

What I was trying to say is that whether or not any bubbler bubbles...whether or not it is the first week or 22 days, or 6 months...it really means nothing other than the fact that if it is bubbling it is off gassing...it could simply be offgassing because of a shift in ambient temp...In other words don't take the fact that it is bubbling after 22 days to mean anything, just like you shouldn't take the fact that it is not bubbling 24 hours or 72 hours after pitching yeast to mean anything...Bubbling, or lack of should not be used as an indication of fermentation, lack of fermentation, doneness, or the price of gas in Cuba...Hydrometer readings are the only tool for judging those things, (except the cost of gas, of course.)

It it's bubbling it could mean that there is still vigorous enough fermentation to be happening (most likely since it's apfelwein) or for any number of other variables mentioned in the other posts of mine.

If you are curious as to how far along it is take a hydro reading.

But whether it is bubbling or not...it is fine...Apfelwein if pretty foolproof.

ryscott said:

I started mine on June 26th, basically Ed's Apflewein recipe except with 5 gallons of fresh cider instead of juice. As of today (22 days later) the airlock is still bubbling at least once every 10 seconds. I never imagined it would be fermenting that actively for almost a month.

What do all the cider experts here think about that? Is it normal?

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What is the current hydrometer reading? That should tell you a lot.