Begginer having fun at SG 1.020

[Takeshi_pilis]

Hello,

For my first brews I have done a session mead and two ciders. Mead chugged from 1.060 to 0.996 in a week. Its bottled and I am happy. Actualy could not believe it went sooo smooth and with no errors as my first ever brew.

On the other hand. Ciders:

First one. Orchard apple juice added sugars. OG 1.068, one week SG 1.040, two week SG 1.020, three days later SG is still 1.020. Nottingham yeast, 23C ferm temp, with nutrients. Tasting notes: very balanced, lightly sweet, definetly not dry dry.

Second one. Store bought pineaple and cranbery juice added sugars. OG 1.060, one week SG 1.030, two week SG 1.020, three days later SG is still 1.020. US-05 yeast, 23C ferm temp, with nutrients. Tasting notes: fruity, almost bubble gum ish aftertaste, just a tad sweet.

If its revelant, the two diferent nutrients I am talking about: Brewferm Servomyces vs Erbslöh Vitamon® Combi. Combi based on DHP and vitamin b. Servo is based on sacharomyces and zink. Mead was made with Combi and ciders with Servo.

Question of the day. What am I missing? There must be a common eror/problem because both brews are acting absolutely indentical. Both brews had 1/2 sugar fermented in a week and both brews lets call it “stuck” at 1.020.

General rules of thumb are:

-Fermentation is done at 1.000
-Fermentation is done when you get multiple same readings days apart.

In general I am now lost inbetween those two rules. What should my next steps be? Be a patient little man and wait a week more? Pitch more yeast to restart fermentation? Bottle them up and store in the basement so they can peacefuly explode if they felt like it?

Thank you in advance on tips!

 

[Chalkyt]

You mention nutrients but don't say if you used them. I am not familiar with the ones you mentioned but the Combi just seems to be regular DAP and Thiamin or something similar.

It isn't uncommon for ale yeasts like Nottingham to be quite YAN (Yeast Assimilable Nitrogen) dependent and start to stall around 1.010 to 1.020 if the juice is low in YAN which is sometimes the case with commercial juice.

You don't need much YAN to kick thing along again so a good pinch of nutrient would be worth a try. About 50ppm (1/20 teaspoon!) of DAP has enough YAN to ferment 10 gravity points.

Edit...Whoops, just re-read your post after a couple of hours and saw the bit "with nutrients" so the above probably doesn't apply. That will teach me not to deal with anything before breakfast!

 

[dmtaylor]

Store-bought juice contains preservatives. Look for "sorbate" on the label. This is preventing your yeast from reproducing, so the only yeast you have in your cider is the yeast you added at the beginning, and they are tired and frustrated that they cannot reproduce. You might be able to overcome this problem by adding more yeast, but it's a crapshoot, might not work now since there is a good bit of alcohol already present.

You'll be better off in future finding juice that has no preservatives. Make your own, or find a better source.

Your mead didn't have any problems because honey contains no preservatives.

 

[Takeshi_pilis]

You mention nutrients but don't say if you used them. I am not familiar with the ones you mentioned but the Combi just seems to be regular DAP and Thiamin or something similar.

It isn't uncommon for ale yeasts like Nottingham to be quite YAN (Yeast Assimilable Nitrogen) dependent and start to stall around 1.010 to 1.020 if the juice is low in YAN which is sometimes the case with commercial juice.

You don't need much YAN to kick thing along again so a good pinch of nutrient would be worth a try. About 50ppm (1/20 teaspoon!) of DAP has enough YAN to ferment 10 gravity points.

Edit...Whoops, just re-read your post after a couple of hours and saw the bit "with nutrients" so the above probably doesn't apply. That will teach me not to deal with anything before breakfast!

Thank you for the response!

I sorted out the problem. Kind of. And you are 100% right. The one I used just helped yeast feel nice and happy so to say at the start. The combi is what I actualy needed because the one I put in = no use. Both of my ciders were absolutely deprived of YAN.

Now I get why people add fermaid o and some DAP. Both important. But both do absolutely diferent things.

 

[Takeshi_pilis]

Store-bought juice contains preservatives. Look for "sorbate" on the label. This is preventing your yeast from reproducing, so the only yeast you have in your cider is the yeast you added at the beginning, and they are tired and frustrated that they cannot reproduce. You might be able to overcome this problem by adding more yeast, but it's a crapshoot, might not work now since there is a good bit of alcohol already present.

You'll be better off in future finding juice that has no preservatives. Make your own, or find a better source.

Your mead didn't have any problems because honey contains no preservatives.

Yes thank you. Both of my juices had no preservatives. Double checked with orchard and the store bought one. YAN was the problem.