Cloudy, yellow cider....Is it contaminated?

[tcorsetti]

Hi everyone, I'm new to home brewing and this is my first batch of cider. I used fresh-pressed, unfiltered, unpasteurized apple cider from a farm here in Maine. I made this batch with Lalvin yeast, a campden tablet, and pectic enzyme. I started the batch on 10/3/23 and it's been fermenting at ~66 degrees since. The cider is cloudy and yellow, it almost looks like orange juice, but appears to be actively fermenting. There is also some sediment build up in empty space (see photos). I sanitized everything using Star San but I'm worried it may be contaminated. Can someone tell me if this is typical for this stage in the fermentation process?

 

[AzOr]

Looks perfectly fine. Most likely what you are seeing is yeast in suspension. Cider can take a while to ferment and to drop clear. Give it another week or two and start taking some gravity readings.

If you have a suspicion that it’s infected, take a whiff. A little sulfur smell is normal (especially if you didn’t use dap or nutrients). If so, it’ll clear up in time.

 

[lumpher]

After 6 days, yes, that's completely normal. Most likely it will start clearing in a week or so.

 

[Hoppy2bmerry]

It looks fine. One very important ingredient that I’ve never seen in a recipe is patience once the yeast are finished converting that sugar it will start to clear, but what appears clear to our eye still contains enough yeast if you wish to carbonate your bottled cider.