Red Star P. Cuvee

I just pitched some cider with P Cuvee I had leftover from October (about six months). The package was open but wrapped in a rubber band, and was not refrigerated, just room temp in a cabinet. I re-hydrated in luke-hot water for about 20 minutes before pitching, there was a little bit of 'activity' before pitching. I noticed on the package, it says after opening, use within a month and keep refrigerated. I broke both of those rules. Do I need to buy more yeast and re-pitch? Only time will tell, ultimately, but just for the sake of talking about homebrewing and yeast, what say you?

I also sprinkled a little bit of Lalvin EC-1118 I had opened a couple of months ago, sprinkled right into the cider, just a little.

I've also got some fleishmann's on deck. Fleishmann's is a work horse.

luke warm is waaaaaaay too hot for most yeasties. you may have killed them or stressed them. i doubt you killed all of them. just remember they like it at 70 - I think the P. Cuvee can go higher though.

remember you are 98.6F so anything hotter than that is over 100F. who knows what temp the water was at...

Proof instructions say between 100 and 105 on the packet.

Any dry yeast that was opened more than a month ago is probably no good, so you shouldn't expect anything out of it. Even closed with a rubber band, once the air got to it at the first opening, its days were numbered. The moisture in the air somehow causes the cells to take up some of the moisture and lowers the viability greatly.

oh well at least you had it at the right temp then.

I could add some WD40 and a pinch of duct tape and see what happens.

Fletch78 said:

I could add some WD40 and a pinch of duct tape and see what happens.

Click to expand...

That is what I'd do....................................

Update- Krausen and bubbles.

It's been sitting under the house at an even 60 degrees since pitching it.

I'm surprised. I thought it wouldn't take off because the yeast wouldn't be viable and I didn't have it at the proper starting temp (70+ to kick off primary) and I didn't make a starter, just proofed it. Not only that, but I still only used about 1/4 of the yeast packet.

Who knew?

Ideally I would take better care, but I bought this cider for the jug, just 'getting rid' of the cider inside it.


For notation purposes: SG of this cider was 1.057

Coming along nicely.

No... this isn't a Cure video... this is under my house...

For future reference, the Red Star Premier Cuvee that had been opened for six months and stored in the cabinet with a rubber band fermented this cider from 1.057 to 1.000 in 6 days at room temp in the low 70's. I ended up bringing it inside from the picture for most of the fermentation because we had our last cold snap.