1 gal cider overflow

[MT2sum]

After reading a lot of the cider posts in several threads, I decided to make some hard cider (my first ever batch/attempt), so when the wife was shopping at Earthfare, I bought a gallon of Organic cider, brought it home and dropped in a bit of Montrachet wine yeast (maybe 1/4 or 1/2 pkt). I put on a sanitized airlock with cheap vodka in it, and put it into a dark place under the stairs. It was fermenting fine for a week or so, and all of a sudden I came down the stairs the next morning and the airlock and the neck space of the jug was filled with an ugly brown foam --(Kreuzened? I thought that was for my beer!)-- I cleaned and re-sanitized the airlock and filled with vodka and put 'er all back together. I got called away for a few days so I don't know if it has happened again or not, I should be back home by Friday-7/18.

1. Is my gallon of hard cider ruined?
2 Should I add more yeast?
3. Any advice of what I should/should not have done?

NOTE: If I don't get any responses by Thursday (7/17) I may not be able to get to the closest town with a Library to get net access to answer any questions or advice for a week or so, but I'd appreciate any help I can get. (I'm only in the big city for a couple more days).
THX for any help/advice you can offer.
MT2sum

 

[bernardsmith]

My guess is that there is nothing to worry about. Cider ain't beer and there is no good reason to seal the mouth of a carboy with an airlock and bung while the active fermentation is taking place. I generally treat all fruit wines (and for this purpose I would call hard cider a wine) in the same way. I ferment in a bucket and cover the bucket with a towel. When the gravity drops close to 1.005 I rack the wine or cider or mead into a carboy and then seal it with an airlock. If you are anxious about oxidation (contamination is as likely as being struck by lightening) then use a 3 gallon carboy for a one gallon batch of cider or a 5 gallon carboy for 3 gallons of cider and you have no worries about the foam entering the airlock

 

[Maylar]

The krausen at the top of the bottle is normal, you have to leave room for it when you start a batch. Eventually it will fall down and become part of the sediment (lees) at the bottom of the jug. It's tempting to scoop it out with a sterile spoon or something, but all I did was swish the bottle a bit a few days before racking to secondary.

Your cider is fine.

 

[MT2sum]

Wow! that was quick .... Thanks for the positive responses
Bernardsmith - If/When i do this again, I'll split the gallon in two so as to leave some headspace for the Kraeusen ..... I just wasn't prepared for it. Someday I'll be able to get some carboys, right now, just 20 or so 1 gal jugs to use for secondaries.
I wouldn't be so much worried about oxygenation (I didn't know that might be a problem) but without an airlock, I would worry about 'wild yeast' infections. I know that in the 'olde dayes' they used wooden tubs, lofe sugar, and sacks over the brew, but they didn't know about the wild yeasts then, at least I don't think they did
Maylar - I didn't attempt to clean out the foam from the jug, just from the airlock - I'll just swish it around as you said, before I transfer to secondary. This is my first forray into wine/cider - my wife always made the wine, she being the wine-o of the house, I'm just a beer-o, can't stand wine or sweet beers (or Yukon Jack ).
I'm just trying to make some beers or ciders that she might like (hence the reason for 1 gallon batches). She does like a Mike's Hard Lemonade once in a while, so that's probably my next big attempt in brewing non-stouts/porters/IPA's.

 

[bernardsmith]

Here's my thinking about "wild yeasts" infecting your must: the yeast you pitched has a head start and that yeast will create an environment it prefers - modifying the pH, for example and the temperature and excreting molecules that weaken and damage intruders. You have also pitched millions of yeast cells that are either already active (if you pitched liquid yeast) or will be a few hours after you pitched dry yeast. In short, they create an environment that suits them best AND they totally swamp any few volunteer spores that may be floating around.
That said, in the "olde" days , folk may not have been aware of how fermentation takes place - or been aware of the need of good sanitation methods but cideries and breweries and wineries - and bakeries - were full of local yeasts that clung to the fibers of wood and cloth (and arms and legs) and those local yeasts were the very yeasts that were preferred and used to inoculate the must or wort or bread. But those were not chance visitors. If you make hundreds of gallons of wine in the same place every year using the same equipment without cleansing then the yeasts you want are in the barrels, the rags, your clothes, the walls - the air you breathe - just waiting for the next batch of cider or mead to arrive.

 

[MT2sum]

Here's my thinking about "wild yeasts" infecting your must: the yeast you pitched has a head start and that yeast will create an environment it prefers - modifying the pH, for example and the temperature and excreting molecules that weaken and damage intruders. You have also pitched millions of yeast cells that are either already active (if you pitched liquid yeast) or will be a few hours after you pitched dry yeast. In short, they create an environment that suits them best AND they totally swamp any few volunteer spores that may be floating around.

No, I didn't use Liquid Yeast, we live in a very tiny environment, no room in the fridge for the liquid yeasts, only dry , but I usually re-hydrate before pitching (not this time, but next time I definitely will!)

That said, in the "olde" days , folk may not have been aware of how fermentation takes place - or been aware of the need of good sanitation methods but cideries and breweries and wineries - and bakeries - were full of local yeasts that clung to the fibers of wood and cloth (and arms and legs) and those local yeasts were the very yeasts that were preferred and used to inoculate the must or wort or bread. But those were not chance visitors. If you make hundreds of gallons of wine in the same place every year using the same equipment without cleansing then the yeasts you want are in the barrels, the rags, your clothes, the walls - the air you breathe - just waiting for the next batch of cider or mead to arrive.

Thanks for all that info ... I'd never heard that before. Interesting! I appreciate it more than you can imagine, I'm not so much a student of brewing history ..... (obviously less than I should be), so now you've given me a reason to ask another question or two of you .... in light of the above info, what happens if I'm normally brewing 1 gal batches of Ales (porters, stouts), and I occasionally brew 1 gal batches of ciders, and hard 'sodas' like Ginger Ale, Root beer, etc.? Will the different yeasts still be in the air and are they somehow automagically able to discriminate between the different batches or no? Jus' askin
BTW, I'm very cautious about sanitation, (my son, who also brews once in a while, says I'm too anal about sanitation), because when you're on Social (in)Security, you can't afford to have bad batches - not even when it's a gallon at a time - lol.
Once again, Thanks for the info ....

 

[Maylar]

You can't be too cautious about sanitation. And there's a difference between clean and sterile... you need to be aware of that. I clean with an oxidizer (one step) and sterilize with star-san.

I know lots of people who use various yeasts depending on what they're brewing and nobody ever had any interaction. If you were pressing apples in an old wooden press and letting wild yeasts do your fermenting, that'd be a different story.

BTW I started a new 1 gallon batch a couple days ago and got some brown crud in the airlock just as you did. It happens...

 

[MT2sum]

BTW, I forgot to get back to this thread .... my wife thinks it's wonderful! I'm not so wonderful, tho, I keep 'wasting ' my brew money on beer ingredients, when I could be making cider!