Bad vial of WLP775?

[cinderbike]

I made a starter of White Labs english cider yeast and pitched it into my cider about 2 1/2 weeks ago. OG 1.054. Measured it this morning: 1.038!

It's fermenting, but it is so SLOW. I've got it in the middle of the temp range for the yeast, but I cannot understand what is causing such a SLOW ferment. The cider is fresh pressed, non-pasteurized, no sorbate, k-meta, etc. I tasted a small sample when measuring the SG and it didn't taste soured or anything.

I'd rather not have to spend another $7 on another vial, so if anyone has any suggestions to potentially speed up the ferment without ruining the final product (so many yeasts seem to make cheap, wine tasting cider), let me know.

 

[cinderbike]

I'm not usually one to bump my own topics, but nothing? Guess this must be a rare occurrence.

 

[Rhoobarb]

Rouse the yeast and maybe up the temp 2-3 degrees.

 

[cinderbike]

Yeah, I tried shaking them awake before, and it's been warmer the last few days and the gravity hasn't dropped in the past 3 days now. I think I'll just repitch.

 

[Calder]

Did you aerate the juice (shake the hell out of it to get air dissolved in it)?

 

[Hex]

What type of juice were you using? did it have preservatives?

 

[cinderbike]

I answered that in the original post. It's fresh juice, no preservatives/pasteurization/anything.

I used a little bit of unfermented juice I had left over and made a starter with some S-04 to restart it, since it seems to have stuck. There is some small bubbling from the juice which may be fermentation but I think it is outgassing, as there is NO foam/krausen/large bubbles at all, and it looks like a majority of the yeast is sitting on the bottom of the carboy doing nothing. I racked it off the lees and repitched with a half-gallon starter, but it is still doing nothing. The yeast dropped to the bottom like a rock, and hasn't done anything in 36 hours.

The only thing I can think is that the place I bought it lied, and it was sorbated or something. But if that is the case, I don't think it would have fermented at all.

And yes, I aerated it.

 

[jamesjensen1068]

What about adding some yeast nutrient to it? I'm making a hard cider and the only thing I did different than you was add yeast nutrient. Hope this helps.

Cheers

 

[cinderbike]

Already did, a couple of times. The gravity is still dropping, albeit slowly, as it's down to 1.033, so the yeast is still alive.

 

[bolts]

I used WLP775 last year, similar circumstances except it was UV pasteurized. It was a long slow ferment. This year I used Fermaid-K and DAP.

 

[Hex]

I'd like to add that I have now made three batches of cider with WLP775 (two this year, one last year) and never had the troubles like yours. After three weeks, my first batch this year is down to 1.002 from 1.060, the second is down to 1.012 from 1.050 in just a day over a week, and these two were with pasteurized cider from Whole Foods, 100% cider. Aeration was only from cider dropping from the neck to the bottom of the carboy, and no nutes, fermentation temp 68 deg. F.

 

[cinderbike]

Hrm. The only real thing me or my friends can figure out is that the orchard lied about the juice being preservative-free.