Did My First Cider Batch Go Bad???

[applejack-frost]

Hi, I am brand new to cider making. I pressed our own apples for the cider. I added Campden and pectic enzyme and waited 24 hours and then added the EC-1118 yeast that was rehydrated. I am over 90 hours now and no bubbling in the airlock and the one batch in the photo has a lot of solids that have moved around from the bottom and have come to the top or are hovering in the middle of the jug. The other batch has sediment at the bottom and looks fairly clear. There are little bubbles on top of both batches. Did I do something wrong? Has this batch gone bad? Should I start over? Any ideas?

The first photo shows sediment on top.
The second photo shows some floating in the middle
The third photo is the clear batch but still no fermenting

 

[Nick Z]

The first photo looks like the yeast are starting to get going. 90 hours without much activity is unusual. You should be able to see the yeast going to town by now.

The second and third photos look like juice that has been treated with pectic enzyme but not fermentation has started yet.

I would pitch some additional yeast. EC-118 is pretty reliable.

The cider is not ruined. It just isn't fermenting. Pitch more yeast and it will probably get going.

 

[Tom R]

No yeast nutrient added before pitching yeast?

 

[applejack-frost]

I did add yeast nutrient (I didn't mention that in the original post). I added it with the pectic enzyme and Campden and waited the 24 hours before pitching the yeast. I just added yeast again like Nick said and we'll see what happens.

 

[applejack-frost]

Ok. I started with bubbles about an hour ago with my batch from photos 1 and 2, the one that had the floaters throughout it. There is quite the activity on top of the surface with frothy bubbles as well. My next question is, the batch in photo 3 still has no activity. There is only a very small 1mm layer of tiny bubbles around the surface and no activity in the airlock. Both these batches were done exactly the same except with a variety of apples. (the bubbling one is gold delicious and the non bubbling one is granny smith). The gold delicious gave me a brix of 11.5 ( 1.0463) and the granny smith was a brix of 12 (1.0484) I did not add any sugar.

 

[CKuhns]

For the third one.
- Shake it like you own it. (Get everything really suspended.)
- If you can bring it to a slightly warmer place in your house. (5 Deg F or so) A kitchen cabinet that has a floor vent that runs under it and vents out the toe plate works great.
- Give it a few days and see if it takes off.

 

[KeizerBrewr]

Everyone has beaten me to it. I definitely agree with @CKuhns on all was said. Sometimes those yeasties need a wake up call and a warm up to get going. I should note, I brewed a cider early this year with S-05 and there was very little visible action in the fermenter. I could only know it was doing something was the lovely smell coming from the air lock. Two weeks later I had a FG of 0.980.