Okay so what gives?? I have 4 1-gallon batches of cider that all stopped around 1.020. Please help!
Here's my process:
Ingredients:
(4) 1-gallon unfiltered Organic Whole Foods Cider (pasteurized) in glass jugs
(4) 1-packet of yeast (s04 - ec1118 - nottingham - saison) (which I prepared a starter 2 hours before by adding warm cider+yeast+sugar+yeast nutrient)
(4) .5 cups or so of raw turbinado or dark brown sugar
This is a simple and straight-forward cider no pectic enzyme or campden tablets to start.
I began by adding the sugar to the cider which brought the OG's up to around 1.070 and then I pitched the yeast and shook the jugs to get some O2 in there before adding the sanitized airlocks.
I used 4 different strains of yeast (one per batch) and pitched them (once they were happy and foamy) to the cider which I left in the original jugs because I read that the jugs are already clean and this should not affect the yeast at all. This was on Jan 3rd.
Within a couple of hours the airlocks were bubbling happily, the krausen was forming and I was well on my way to a great fermentation.
Side note: The ambient temp was 63 - 68 degrees.
The airlocks bubbled strongly until Jan 8th and then began to slow.
On Jan 10th the gravity came in around 1.025 for all 4 batches and I added a pinch of yeast energizer and gently swished the jugs to see if I could rouse the yeast on the bottom.
The bubbling fully subsided on Jan 13th and the gravity came in at 1.020 - 1.022 so I decided to let it sit for another week, which brings us to today.
All batches according to my refractometer (which I made sure was calibrated with distilled water) are still at 1.020 - 1.022 and the ciders taste slightly sweet but yeasty with a stinky tartness and little apple flavor except for the saison one which is very fruity and pretty mellow.
So what gives? At least shouldn't the batch with the Ec1118 be a lot lower? Did I not have enough O2 to start off with?
Here's my process:
Ingredients:
(4) 1-gallon unfiltered Organic Whole Foods Cider (pasteurized) in glass jugs
(4) 1-packet of yeast (s04 - ec1118 - nottingham - saison) (which I prepared a starter 2 hours before by adding warm cider+yeast+sugar+yeast nutrient)
(4) .5 cups or so of raw turbinado or dark brown sugar
This is a simple and straight-forward cider no pectic enzyme or campden tablets to start.
I began by adding the sugar to the cider which brought the OG's up to around 1.070 and then I pitched the yeast and shook the jugs to get some O2 in there before adding the sanitized airlocks.
I used 4 different strains of yeast (one per batch) and pitched them (once they were happy and foamy) to the cider which I left in the original jugs because I read that the jugs are already clean and this should not affect the yeast at all. This was on Jan 3rd.
Within a couple of hours the airlocks were bubbling happily, the krausen was forming and I was well on my way to a great fermentation.
Side note: The ambient temp was 63 - 68 degrees.
The airlocks bubbled strongly until Jan 8th and then began to slow.
On Jan 10th the gravity came in around 1.025 for all 4 batches and I added a pinch of yeast energizer and gently swished the jugs to see if I could rouse the yeast on the bottom.
The bubbling fully subsided on Jan 13th and the gravity came in at 1.020 - 1.022 so I decided to let it sit for another week, which brings us to today.
All batches according to my refractometer (which I made sure was calibrated with distilled water) are still at 1.020 - 1.022 and the ciders taste slightly sweet but yeasty with a stinky tartness and little apple flavor except for the saison one which is very fruity and pretty mellow.
So what gives? At least shouldn't the batch with the Ec1118 be a lot lower? Did I not have enough O2 to start off with?
