lutherieguy
New Member
Hi everyone This is my first post after much lurking and learning. Just an interested hobbyist from the frozen north dipping his toes into fermenting meads and cider so far. Thanks for all the great resources here.
I have a mystery for the great minds of the forum, that has me disappointed twice now after wasting two back to back 3 gallon cider batches. The recipe (per gallon) is one gallon pasteurized juice with no preservatives, a pound of brown sugar one cinnamon sick, 10 raisins, and three cloves. Around day 8-10 ferment slows and grows cloudy and bad tasting like you chewed a multi vitamin with slight alcohol taste. I used the same recipe in glass 1 gallon jar with no issues. The ONLY difference between the jar and the 3 gallon Fastferment conical batches that failed is that I used 3/4 teaspoon of DAP for the entire 3 gallons (not much right?) Mixed in with the warmed juice then added to entire ferment and mixed before pitching yeast (Lalvin-118). The first 8 days were amazing. and bubbling like crazy about 12 hours after pitching right up to 8-10 days where bubbles slowed and cloudiness started to become apparent. Is this the little bit of DAP screwing with stuff? Definitely not using it on my third batch but so many other recipes called for it esp with store bought juice and no fruit, that I thought why not? Is there something else it could be? I added more yeast - nothing. Tried a little Fermaid 0 as a last ditch hail Mary and that made it more vile LOL The ******** Fastferment conical fermenter piece of garbage valve will be replaced with stainless in a day or two for the next batch as it has broken repeatedly testing my stretched patience and cider budget. This first 'big' run of cider has been a huge waste so far but I am determined to work it out if I can. I have a 5 gallon Fermzilla fermenter on the way for beer but I like the 3 gallon cider batches if I can make this Fastferment conical work!
Anyway that is what I am working on. Happy Easter to those who celebrate and happy holiday to the rest!
I have a mystery for the great minds of the forum, that has me disappointed twice now after wasting two back to back 3 gallon cider batches. The recipe (per gallon) is one gallon pasteurized juice with no preservatives, a pound of brown sugar one cinnamon sick, 10 raisins, and three cloves. Around day 8-10 ferment slows and grows cloudy and bad tasting like you chewed a multi vitamin with slight alcohol taste. I used the same recipe in glass 1 gallon jar with no issues. The ONLY difference between the jar and the 3 gallon Fastferment conical batches that failed is that I used 3/4 teaspoon of DAP for the entire 3 gallons (not much right?) Mixed in with the warmed juice then added to entire ferment and mixed before pitching yeast (Lalvin-118). The first 8 days were amazing. and bubbling like crazy about 12 hours after pitching right up to 8-10 days where bubbles slowed and cloudiness started to become apparent. Is this the little bit of DAP screwing with stuff? Definitely not using it on my third batch but so many other recipes called for it esp with store bought juice and no fruit, that I thought why not? Is there something else it could be? I added more yeast - nothing. Tried a little Fermaid 0 as a last ditch hail Mary and that made it more vile LOL The ******** Fastferment conical fermenter piece of garbage valve will be replaced with stainless in a day or two for the next batch as it has broken repeatedly testing my stretched patience and cider budget. This first 'big' run of cider has been a huge waste so far but I am determined to work it out if I can. I have a 5 gallon Fermzilla fermenter on the way for beer but I like the 3 gallon cider batches if I can make this Fastferment conical work!
Anyway that is what I am working on. Happy Easter to those who celebrate and happy holiday to the rest!