First Cider brew problems

[MarkinFrance]

Hi everyone.... I've picked a first (modest) crop of cider apples from a new cider orchard (Somerset and west country varieties) of 60 trees planted 8 years ago here in France!.... It looked like it was going to be a good year, but a very dry July, August and September meant that there was little juice in the apples.

Something is not right with my brew.... I started primary fermentation in a covered bucket and the head of the yeast rose magnificently.... After about 7 days it stopped and the head collapsed so I siphoned off the juice into demi-johns and fitted air locks.... but after 5 days there has been no further fermentation whatsoever.... the liquid is just sat there!

Can someone offer any advice as to what maybe happening.... I'd hate to lose this first brew as getting the juice was hard work.

Thank you.

Mark

 

[bucketnative]

Patience, fermentation may still be occurring, just in a less visible way. Did you take a gravity reading when you transferred to the demijohns? Were you using wild yeast?

 

[bernardsmith]

Hiya MarkinFrance - and welcome. Sometimes when folk transfer a wine (or cider) from the primary they leave behind the vast majority of yeast cells, so racking too early off the yeast creates the situation you may be in... You want to rack not when a wine or cider "looks" done... but when almost all the sugar has been converted to alcohol and CO2. And you can know that only by taking a reading of the specific gravity of the liquor you have. What is the current gravity of the cider? Perhaps all activity has ceased because there is no sugar left for the yeast to turn into alcohol..

 

[MarkinFrance]

Hi, Thank you for your replies.... the yeast was a specialist cider yeast "Mangrove Jacks MO2".... The SGs are all about 1000 - 1010.... My gut instinct is telling me that the sugar levels are low.
I did use slightly more yeast than was necessary, so maybe all the sugar has been absorbed.....
The cider is very dark with, dare I say a very slight vinegar taste.
Help !

 

[MarkinFrance]

Any thoughts?

 

[bucketnative]

Patience. Most ciders taste "not good" after only two weeks in the fermenter. My normal process is to allow the cider to sit in the primary fermenter for up to 4 weeks, then transfer to secondary (with very little headspace... you want as little oxygen available as possible) to clarify and age (perhaps another month). Then I'll bottle it (sometimes using priming sugar to carbonate... sometimes still), and it will be in the bottles another month before I drink it. It is really almost three months before I even expect to taste "good cider". The flavor is changing at each step. Patience.

 

[ericbw]

If it's done fermenting, it can still develop flavor as it ages - with as little air touching it as possible.