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Yep, it just looks like the start of a robust fermentation. EC1118 is a very enthusiastic yeast and Fermaid will certainly help kick things along so that plus the honey has probably resulted in a quick start. Happy New Year from 1 Jan down here in Oz!

It is a rainy day and I was pondering the perpetual question of getting more “apple flavour” into cider, especially with store-bought juice. Here is a left-field "pointy-head" approach to it. I generally deal with any flavour issue conventionally by playing with malic acid or tannins since...

Probably not a problem. I assume you are referring to the M02 batch. What is the SG? If it is close to 1.000 then it is fully fermented already. I have had M02 stop bubbling after 7 days at 18C. At 23C which is at the upper end of the recommended temperature range it could finish even...

I don't think it stalled as such. That happens when the yeast stops working because the cider has run out of the nutrients that the yeast needs to do their work. This most commonly happens with high nutrient demand ale yeasts (particularly S04 and the like) and juice from old, over-ripe apples...

For me, the "maybe a bit too sweet" might be a bit of a clue. If there was some sweetness when you took the blueberries out, it suggests that the cider hadn't fully fermented. Just throwing some numbers together... If you started with bought juice of SG1.045 or 1.050 plus a bit of extra sugar...

The original post was about this time last year when we would normally have lots of cherries for eating at Xmas and freezing for use in apple/cherry cider in a few months when the apples were abundant (April/May down here). I did try adding 15% commercial cherry juice to the cider when...

As far as developing a formula is concerned, I would expect it to be reasonably easy to do if you “fiddle around” as you say. Early on when I was looking into pasteurising, I found that a ratio of 1:4 bottles to hot water worked. When two litres of bottles and their contents at room temperature...

Another long-winded reply! I use a large plastic bucket that lets the bottles sit below the water surface. This way I can see any bubbles rising from poorly capped bottles (rarely happens!) However, all is good… You will have generated more than enough pasteurisation units (PUs) with your...

A short time back Andrew Lea (Author of Craft Cider Making) made an observation in response to a comment from a past member of his forum who was getting back into making cider, "Yes there are still a very few of us from the old days here. But the daily traffic is not what it once was. I think...

As above, you will find that some yeasts have a reputation for leaving flavour characteristics or sweetness while others ferment robustly and "blow-off" flavour. Scott Labs have an interesting chart showing some of these characteristics for their yeasts. I have had ciders that stop before being...

Thanks for keeping us up to date. I have mentioned elsewhere that my crop of apples next Autumn (about April) will be very poor due to this year's spring Antarctic breakout with -10c frosts and strong winds that blew blossoms off the trees and froze fruit that was just forming. We are about...

Yes , @Raptor99 is right. I should have also mentioned that my initial blends usually have a pH of 4.0 or above. It is just a convenient coincidence that bringing the TA up to around 5 g/L prior to fermentation also drops the pH to somewhere in the range 3.6 to 3.8. In fact I first started...

Yep, as my cider is made from my own apples, which are mostly low acid culinary types (Red Delicious Fameuse, Granny Smith, Ballerina plus some Cox's Orange Pippin) I have to play with acidity, tannin, etc a bit. The Beverage People have a good download about this. Generally, my initial blend...

Welcome to the fun… I usually rack to secondary off the lees after the initial turbulent primary fermentation has settled, then leave it for a few weeks or even longer to clear and mature. However, this is optional. You may well find the harshness of fully fermented cider goes away after a few...

Wow... that is a lot of sugar! By my math you have 217g/L of sugar whereas cider usually starts with somewhere between 100 and 125g/L. Following is my rough stab at a recovery suggestion. Others might have a better idea... let's hope so. To get back to cider rather than rocket fuel, the whole...

Yep, it is that time of the year when carbonation and sweet cider takes peoples' interest. Have a look at my post of 25 September 2020 etc.

If you go back to the first post of this thread all will be revealed. Basically a 190F waterbath with the heat turned off, will start to cool down when the room temperature bottles are put in. At the same time, the bottles heat up as the waterbath cools down and both the waterbath and the bottle...

Interesting idea. How would it go using the lees from primary fermentation for a new batch? It always seems a pity to discard the lees. I often use S04 which results in quite compact lees (1/4" or so from a gallon) and it would be easy enough to just pour new juice on top of the lees left in the...

Fermentis don't publish the alcohol tolerance of TF6 (they do for some, but not all of their yeasts). However, they do indicate that it is a high nutrient dependent yeast. This is the case with many ale yeasts which also are high nutrient dependent. One of the characteristics of such yeasts is...

I was watching your other post with interest. Good to see you are getting some replies to this one. I think you can do what you want but it is may be a bit more complex than the “simple” solutions suggest. It sounds as though you need a non-fermentable “apple flavoured syrup”. My take on...