Cider problems

steturbo · Oct 22, 2014

I am doing my 1st cider I have followed the instructions,

I don't know if it's normal or not for cider, but my cider has not formed much scum just a few patches of scum on top, there is bubbles coming through the air lock, it's day six, the instructions said would be ok to barrel/bottle for secondary by the 3rd day, the hydrometer has only changed from 1.044 to 1.028 in the 6 days,

Some advice please

thirstydeerbrew · Oct 22, 2014

What kind of yeast did you use?

MindenMan · Oct 22, 2014

Yeast strain, fermenting temperature, and nutrients added? In spite of what the instructions say, leave it in the primary until hydrometer reading hasn't moved for three days.

steturbo · Oct 22, 2014

The yeast I used it the packet you get with the mix the temp it between 18-22 have not added any nutrients to it, it smells like the flavour it should be, I gave it a quick stir this morning like the bloke at the home brew shop advised me to do but that's it, this is my 1st cider so I am unsure about it

JimRausch · Oct 22, 2014

Check out the cider section of the forum and you'll get a lot of good advice. But yes, cider doesn't form a good krausen layer like beer. It just bubbles slowly but steadily. It does tend to take quite abit longer to reach completion, so I would ignore those instructions that are telling you to rack it this early. I would leave it alone for at least two weeks before racking it. Depending on the yeast strain and your fermentation temperatures, the sg is likely to drop down to around 1.005 or less.

helibrewer · Oct 22, 2014

steturbo said:
I am doing my 1st cider I have followed the instructions,

I don't know if it's normal or not for cider, but my cider has not formed much scum just a few patches of scum on top, there is bubbles coming through the air lock, it's day six, the instructions said would be ok to barrel/bottle for secondary by the 3rd day, the hydrometer has only changed from 1.044 to 1.028 in the 6 days,

Some advice please

It's really hard without knowing the specific yeast strain you used. Rehydration should be done at about 104F with some yeast nutrient, then temper that by adding about 100ml of the cider every 15 minutes until it is within 15F of your main cider batch...then pitch the slurry.

Yeast nutrient is important since there is really nothing in the cider for the yeast except sugar...they need nitrogen and zinc which you get with a nutrient like Servomyces or Fermaid K.