I think something is wrong with my cider, how stupid was I?

So I decided I wanted to brew some cider and so I made two different batches; the first one isn't a problem, 22L of local pressed cider, 3lbs raw cane sugar, and 550ml of maple syrup mixed and pithed with EC1118. I'm hoping this one will be rather high in alcohol due to all the sugar and so far it's been bubbling away nicely, I can see bubbles rising through the wort at ridiculous rates and the airlock is going at about 2/sec.

It is my other cider which has me worried, I just threw 22L of fresh cider into a carboy with a pack of SafAle S-04 and covered it with a damp cloth (hoping to get some wild yeast in there to add a little bit of a traditional taste to it). And this is where I think it went wrong, is it likely that this method allowed for some undesirable bacteria to get in there? It showed no visible fermentation after 7 days (threw energizer and a starter in there to see if the fermentation was stuck to no avail) and is stuck on par with the ambient room temperature (19/20 degrees Celcius). It also smells extremely vinegary. I'm adding a pack of EC1118 and throwing on an airlock today to see if I can get any fermentation. Am I worrying for nothing or is there likely something wrong?

 

you know, i had one of my three turn vinegar. if it is slow to ferment i think the vinegar bacteria (whatever they're called) start to grab onto the sugar. that is what happened to mine -- it took forever to get going. hey, vinegar is still useful though.

 

Cider should begin fermenting immediately after a pitch. Letting unpastuerized cider sit allows the orchard and wild bacteria to take hold. You're probably getting vinegar.

My recommendation is to brew up the strongest, most viable starter you can and pitch immediately. Then stabilize as soon as the fermentation stops in order to kill off the bacteria. You've already accomplished the "country taste".

You'll have a still cider at this point. You could leave as is, force carb or bottle carb by pitching a new starter at bottling.

 

I'll definitely hit it with a starter and see if it gets going but depending on the final product I might not bother carbing it, if I do it'll have to be bottle carb so I'll keep that in mind about adding a starter.