Cider brewing problem.

[Ciderguy1523]

Okay so I used lite brown sugar and last time I used it i put a piece of bread to help it not dry out. Well I took out the bread an took out the sugar that I needed and I didn't realize but a few tiny bits of bread were in there and now it's in the car boy. Is this a problem ?

 

[Twitched]

did you boil the brown sugar, in some liquid, before adding it to the carboy?

 

[Ciderguy1523]

No I've never done that.

 

[Ciderguy1523]

Well this is my 2nd batch

 

[Randzor]

its bread... it will probably just fall to the bottom... but it is possible that you may get an infection off it...

 

[Ciderguy1523]

How will I know if I do get an infection ? And how bad is it ?

 

[Randzor]

It has lots of pores.... Its not a forsure thing... I'd let it ferment and see how it goes. but then i'm not a super santized person, I'll rinse everything with cleaner but i won't have a towel out just sanitized to lay my equipment on.

 

[Ciderguy1523]

Anyone else see a problem with it ?

 

[Dereq]

Being new to brewing myself, one of the things I learned quickly was to relax and not fret too much about little things that go wrong during the process that are no longer really in your control. For example, I had a terrible brewing day a few weeks back where everything seemingly went wrong. First it was a leaking wort chiller I didn't notice dripping who knows what into my wort. In a blind panic, I grabbed a seemingly clean dish towel from the kitchen to wrap at the leak until I could find a screwdriver to tighten the fasteners. Then I accidentally dropped part of the towel into the wort, realizing my wife used this to wipe down the kitchen counter the night before. I thought it was a disaster and thought for sure I would see an infection not long after racking it in the primary. Now almost three weeks later and a healthy fermentation, the beer looks healthy, smells great, and tastes delicious.

I know it's not the same as beer, but I guess the point is just to think positive thoughts and see how it plays out. I've read a lot of horror stories on this board that had happy endings.

 

[Ciderguy1523]

Okay cool thanks. Thing is I'm not home. And I won't be home for two weeks so I wanted to start brewing so when I get back I can put it in to secondary. So I have no idea what it is doing.

 

[TopherM]

Quick point of semantics, you don't "brew" a cider. Brewing is the part in beer and tea where you are physically extracting flavor from the substrate in water. Cider is just fermented juice, like wine.

Anyway, I make a lot of ciders and have never heard of the bread with brown sugar thing. Where did you get your info on that process? I can't think of a good reason why that would even work.

Also, why did you add the brown sugar in the first place if you didn't want to dry out the beer? Were you going for a caramel/molasses flavor?

If you can describe what you were trying to accomplish, I think I can probably give you a much better procedure than the one you used this time.

 

[Dereq]

Quick point of semantics, you don't "brew" a cider. Brewing is the part in beer and tea where you are physically extracting flavor from the substrate in water. Cider is just fermented juice, like wine.



Anyway, I make a lot of ciders and have never heard of the bread with brown sugar thing. Where did you get your info on that process? I can't think of a good reason why that would even work.



Also, why did you add the brown sugar in the first place if you didn't want to dry out the beer? Were you going for a caramel/molasses flavor?



If you can describe what you were trying to accomplish, I think I can probably give you a much better procedure than the one you used this time.

The idea of a slice of bread in a sealed container of brown sugar is to lend the bread's moisture to the sugar to keep it from drying out and keeping its shelf life. It's a prett common practice. I'm sure this sugar wasn't intended for cider in the first place, but a new bag would be a good idea for next time and save some worry.

 

[Ciderguy1523]

Yeah the bread was to keep the sugar from drying out.