6 gallon cider bubbled for 5 days, stopped and now going again

[egagne]

My 6 gallon carboy of cider bubbled through blow off for 5 days fine then stopped, may have gone 15 hrs before noticed. I put a wire around neck of carboy to tighten blowoff tube, now bubbling fine. May this have caused any problems. First time cider maker. Thanks everyone for any advice

 

[brianwadley]

My 6 gallon carboy of cider bubbled through blow off for 5 days fine then stopped, may have gone 15 hrs before noticed. I put a wire around neck of carboy to tighten blowoff tube, now bubbling fine. May this have caused any problems. First time cider maker. Thanks everyone for any advice

You are probably fine. The chances of contamination sounds very low and you either had gas escaping from the loose plug or had a short break in fermentation. I would check sg three days in a row to see if the reading holds level...after you no longer see bubbles. If the reading stays the same, then primary fermentation is done and you can bottle and condition or rack into a secondary batch vessel and condition to "age" before bottling.

If you don't have a hydrometer, just assume that no bubbling within 10 minutes is probably close enough to done. When I was new, I didn't have the tools or patience to watch longer than ten minutes and never had any real problems.