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Most types of yeast are your friends and many types of bacteria are your enemies. Contrary to some opinions, sulfite in recommended doses does not kill yeast, it halts their reproduction long enough for commercial yeast to get established and out compete it. Sulfite does kill bacteria which...

If you add un-sulfited fresh juice, you risk introducing bacteria that will ruin your fermenting cider. Properly sulfited juice will not be a problem Any wild yeast will be stunned then outgunned by the ale yeast.

Yup, 61 deg is a pretty cold start for any yeast, particularly commercial yeast. Yeast start growing in aerobic conditions, then when the oxygen is used up it's metabolism changes so it can grow under anaerobic conditions. That first stage is brief but its length is determined by the oxygen...

Sulfite will not kill commercial yeast and probably won't kill the wild yeast either. The wild yeast can take up to one year to ferment your juice. The commercial yeast can rip through all the sugar in a few weeks or even less if the temp is high enough. If you have the patience to do a wild...

If it was going slow in the bottle for four weeks putting it in the fridge stopped it in its tracks. Bucketnative has it right. Add yeast along with your priming sugar then bottle and store above 65 deg for a month or even more. The cooler the bottles are during bottle conditioning the longer...

Yeast need oxygen in their first growth phase. Be sure you have stirred the yeast in well and for the first day or so you can give the new ferment a good stir now and then. You will get a quicker and more reliable start at 75 deg. Once you are sure fermentation is underway (unmistakable) get...

If you just pressed it, I would say probably not. If it has gone through the turbulent phase of fermentation (commonly referred to as "primary"), it might be sick or about to be sick because it is more than ready to go into a carboy so you can protect it from undesirable yeasts, mold, and...

Probably another un-named seedling instead of a named cultivar intentionally planted by someone. Apple identification is a fool's errand. I tried to identify many of the apples both cultivated and wild in my neighborhood and got tentative IDs on about 10% of them. Now I focus on what kind...

You should use the refrigerated juice to top up your jugs to match Maylar's examples. Keep headspace to a minimum. If the jug is too full however, you may find your fermenting must pukes into the fermentation lock. If that happens, remove a little must, sanitize your fermentation lock and...

That sounds like a dicey move. That fresh juice is going to ferment in your bottles and if you blend in too much, you will be building bombs. If you are sure you want to do this, you must test the SG of your blend before you bottle. First, know your bottles! I use champagne bottles which...

Nice pictures and it looks like fun.

Hey DMF, I live in MA and like to gather mushrooms, fly fish for bass in the salt marshes, discover lost apple trees, and make cider. I know exactly what those little cherry bombs are. I harvest them in a couple of places on the South Shore each year and ferment them. My best patch is an...

I have an update on my 2017 crop (pictures of trees in bloom on an earlier post). The squirrels ate all of my Northern Spy apples when they were the size of walnuts. Despite shooting several with my pellet gun, these tree rats won but not without some casualties. Now the tree pictured in...

Way to go Torontoblue! Nice clarity. Patience is a virtue in cider making and you have it. My advice is to draw 1 liter from both and make 50 ml mixtures to taste your blend before you commit to just blending 50-50. You may find that you want to create a blend and two pure varietals...

EC-1118 is perfect for making a very dry cider. Since it doesn't need much nitrogen, it will ferment every milligram of sugar in your must. It can also strip every bit of flavor. The result can frequently taste more like prosecco than cider. I use it only to bottle condition after fermenting...

Yep, Home Depot buckets work fine. Be sure to wash them well then sanitize with StarSan or something similar. Be sure to buy bucket lids too. They come in handy. Buy one of those handy Ferrari Automatic Bottle Fillers online or in just about any brew supply store. Put it in your first...

Fermenting apple juice can give off a wide range of aromas. Carbon dixoide is not one of them since it is an odorless gas (to humans). Are you smelling yeast, sulfur, mold, or just the great smell of fermenting cider? Why degas anyway? CO2 is your friend. It protects cider from O2 which...

I think pigroaster has it nailed by replacing the O2 with CO2 you don't need to worry about the headspace. You could do the same thing with a bike tire inflation kit and some plastic tubing. Here is what I have in mind though I'm not suggesting you buy it from Amazon. You can get one of these...

There are good things and bad things about using a garbage disposal but overall, it can work pretty well. Cons Apples must be chopped to fit the opening which adds a step unless your apples are small. Pulp can be hard to press because it is fine and escapes through the press cloth...

I see that superkleer is "is made up of 50ml Chitosan and 15ml Kieselsol". Chitosan is made from crab and or shrimp shells. Keisesol is super fine silica suspended in water. Keiselsol has a negative charge so by putting it in your batch, anything with a positive charge will stick to it and...