M2 yeast help (Scott Labs)

[Corey Fish]

So I'm technically making cider and not wine but since I'm using a wine yeast and it's not all that common, I thought I'd post here:

I'm doing a rose style cider which I've posted about elsewhere. Here's the process:

7 gallons apple juice, Brix 12 which I chaptalized with 2 pounds turbinado sugar to 15
Grain bag in the must containing 4 pounds pinot noir grapes (frozen) and 50g hibiscus petals (dry)

Pitched 7 campden tablets, pH 3.4. 12 hours later added pectic enzyme (3/4 tsp per gallon)
12 hours after that (24h since sulfite) I pitched 1g/gallon M2 yeast, dry. I did get this by mail and it had warmed to room temp before pitching.

So far, no signs of fermentation (smell, bubbles, krausen, grain bag floating to the top of the fermenter), cloudiness (in fact the top of the fermenter was starting to clear). This is at 36H post pitch.

I did another 3 gallon batch of cider, brix 11, same pH and sulfite/pectic ratio and timing. I used the same yeast from the same vial at the same rate (1g per gallon) and it's developed a nice layer of bubbles and krausen.

Before work this AM I gave the batch that appeared not to have started a stir and added the recommended dose of Fermaid O.

I realize now they recommend pitching a rehydrated yeast but it appears one batch seemed not to mind. Do I:

1. Wait for 24 hours or so? More?
2. Collect some volume of juice from the batch that's started and pitch that?

Thanks in advance!

 

[Corey Fish]

OK, I think we're good. Last night there was still no fermentation activity so I added a heating pad on low, wrapped the fermenter in two towels and this AM (60H post pitch) there is krausen starting to form and the grain bag with the grapes and petals has floated to the top.

Yeesh. Here's my hypothesis: Ambient temp outside when we were destemming the frozen grapes was probably 55 degrees. By adding 4 pounds of ice (frozen grapes) to the must, this would put the temp of the must at 49 degrees for a 7 gallon batch (assuming my thermodynamics are reasonably accurate--it's been a minute since physics class).

The operating temp for M2 goes down to 59 degrees C. In a basement with ambient temp of 60-65 degrees, maybe it's not unreasonable to assume that it was simply a must temp issue causing delayed start to ferment. Adding a small amount of heat probably helped get things going.

I believe the reason the smaller batch with same yeast started sooner was due to the fact that it was only 3 gallons, and no cold fruit added.

Learning point: Don't add frozen s*** to the must, warm it up first!!

The good news is that the lower temp helped slow growth of spoilage organisms so hopefully the yeast will still out compete any nasties that are in there.

I hope this helps someone learn!

-Corey