Stuck Fermentation Hard apple Cider

[Figgy15]

Hello my fellow Brewers. Need you advice yet again. I made a 5 gallon hard Apple cider that had an OG of 1.083 (added caramel sugar and caramel squares). I pitched 1 packet of Us-04. Fermentation was busy the last few days so I decided to take a reading yesterday. Gravity was at 1.050. Since then I'm getting very slow bubbling and the carboy temp has dropped to 66 which normally tells me the activity is very slow. So, my question is should I pitch another US-04? If I do should I make a yeast starter with Apple Juice or DME? As always I appreciate and value anyone's advice.

 

[Newsman]

Try rousing the yeast a bit. Also add some yeast nutrient and maybe warm up the fermenter a bit. Then leave it alone.

 

[Figgy15]

Try rousing the yeast a bit. Also add some yeast nutrient and maybe warm up the fermenter a bit. Then leave it alone.

When you mean rousing I'm guessing you mean shake it up a bit right. I've never had to do that before. How would you do it? I have a big mouth bubbler and using a blowoff tube not an airlock.

 

[Newsman]

You could lift it slightly and give it some rapid twisting back & forth. I'd also suggest adding a bit of yeast nutrient. If nothing else, dropping powdered nutrient in will help extract dissolved CO2 and stir things up in the process.

 

[Figgy15]

Followed your advice yesterday and this morning there does seem to be more activity! Hopefully that did the trick. If activity slows down again should I keep adding more nutrient?

 

[bucketnative]

If you look over in the cider forum, you will see that cider requires much more patience than the average beer recipe. I usually let mine ferment in primary for at least three weeks. That's at about 65F room temperature. Especially if you used no yeast nutrient, cider fermentation can take a long(ish) time.

Take a look at some of the post regarding fermentation time, and you'll get a feel for what's normal or not. Sounds to me like yours is normal.