jmiracle
Well-Known Member
Hi guys, I attempted to make a batch of Edwort's except with cider instead of juice. It was pasteurized unfiltered cider from a local apple farm. I'm thinking I might have a stuck fermentation but I wanted to get some other opinions if possible. I made it on Monday, I had a problem where I got impatient (always a killer I know).
What happened was, the cider had been kept in a cooler, and rather than let it warm up to room temp I decided to heat a couple gallons in the brewpot and mix it with the cold. After dumping in the cider I realized that I wasn't going to be boiling anything and had forgotten to sanitize the brewpot. So I decided to heat the 2 gallons up to pasteurization temp and cool it back down in an ice bath. This was successful and I ended up with a batch of cider and corn sugar at about 75 F. At this point I added the yeast which was rehydrated Red Star Pasteur Champagne yeast (all the LHBS had available). I kind of forgot to vigorously oxygenate.
I had no activity for the first 24 hours, over the next two days I vigourously shook the carboy several times. The only thing now is there is a very small ring of bubbles at the top of the carboy and I've never had the airlock bubble that I can see. I'm not sure if it's fermenting or it's stuck. Is it common to not have airlock bubbles? Does anyone know what this yeast looks like when fermenting, should I expect a krausen or airlock activity? Should I repitch do you think? It's now at about 100 hours since pitching. Do you think my antics with heating and cooling the cider had anything to do with it? Any help would be appreciated, thanks a million! Also for information I'm using a 5gallon glass carboy with a carboy cap and one-piece airlock filled with cheap vodka.
What happened was, the cider had been kept in a cooler, and rather than let it warm up to room temp I decided to heat a couple gallons in the brewpot and mix it with the cold. After dumping in the cider I realized that I wasn't going to be boiling anything and had forgotten to sanitize the brewpot. So I decided to heat the 2 gallons up to pasteurization temp and cool it back down in an ice bath. This was successful and I ended up with a batch of cider and corn sugar at about 75 F. At this point I added the yeast which was rehydrated Red Star Pasteur Champagne yeast (all the LHBS had available). I kind of forgot to vigorously oxygenate.
I had no activity for the first 24 hours, over the next two days I vigourously shook the carboy several times. The only thing now is there is a very small ring of bubbles at the top of the carboy and I've never had the airlock bubble that I can see. I'm not sure if it's fermenting or it's stuck. Is it common to not have airlock bubbles? Does anyone know what this yeast looks like when fermenting, should I expect a krausen or airlock activity? Should I repitch do you think? It's now at about 100 hours since pitching. Do you think my antics with heating and cooling the cider had anything to do with it? Any help would be appreciated, thanks a million! Also for information I'm using a 5gallon glass carboy with a carboy cap and one-piece airlock filled with cheap vodka.