Cider troubles

[JuiceyJay]

Haven't posted in a while, and this is not close to my first batch of cider but I'm having some trouble with a current batch of cider.
I used 5 gallons of cider, half a cup of white and half a cup of brown sugar, along with 1/4 cup of raw honey.

I pitched a pack of wyeast sweet mead/cider yeast and had zero airlock activity (I know, not a bad indicator necessarily. I took a hydrometer reading 2 weeks later and it read the exact same reading.

I figured the yeast just didn't take off so I pitched a pack of brewers best cider yeast and waited another 2-3 weeks and I checked the SG tonight and it was the same! But this time I had seen some airlock activity.
I feel like my two options are just to toss the cider and start over...OR...pitch some us-05 and cross my fingers
Any input or suggestions?
It's right around 1.070 ish

 

[Yooper]

What did you use for your juice? Was it with preservatives? If so, it may never ferment.

 

[JuiceyJay]

What did you use for your juice? Was it with preservatives? If so, it may never ferment.

no, it was with "ryans cider" it's from a town called hood river here in oregon. it has no preservatives, its really good stuff.

 

[beerlover77]

Does the juice smell/taste ok still? A couple weeks of sitting around is a long time.
If it seems ok you could re hydrate your US-05 and slowly add juice to it to create a strong starter and see if that gets it going? I would consider using a wine yeast nutrient as well.

 

[JuiceyJay]

Yeah, surprisingly enough it still smells ok, haven't been brave enough to taste it.

I think it may have been too cold for that yeast now that I think about it.
We generally keep the house on the cool side, but it's been in a corner that's typically a lot cooler than the other parts of the house. I moved it into a warmer part of the house to see if it comes to life. If it doesn't I may just start all over from the beginning

 

[JimRausch]

I had a similar problem earlier in the fall with a batch of cider. Pitched 1 packet dry Munton's Gold in a 2 G batch and set the bucket in the corner. Paid no attention to it as is customary until 2 weeks later, checked the SG which was the same as original- Damn! Checked the label, one gallon of the original was fresh pressed, but the other gallon was sorbated. Pitched 2 more packets dry, and the SG dropped slowly- 5 points in a week. So I reconstituted 1 G of frozen apple juice concentrate, and pitched 1 pint slurry of WY1007 that I had just taken from a completed batch of Altbier. Let that ferment for 2 days, then added it all to the original. That finally did it. But the final batch tastes like apple juice from the fajc, instead of my nice fresh pressed cider. Oh well.......

 

[Drewed]

I know I’m late to the party here, but I have never had good luck with wyeast sweet mead/cider yeast. No problems with other wyeast, just that particular strain. Twice I’ve used it, once in mead and once in cider, and both times I had to repitch with other yeast to get them going.

 

[dmtaylor]

I know I’m late to the party here, but I have never had good luck with wyeast sweet mead/cider yeast. No problems with other wyeast, just that particular strain. Twice I’ve used it, once in mead and once in cider, and both times I had to repitch with other yeast to get them going.

I've found it to be an excellent yeast, for meads especially.