Fermentation Question

[Sourz4life]

So I've done a few cider so far, and haven't had any issues and may not now. So far I've used Nottingham for my ciders. I made a kiwi apple cider this weekend and it came in at a OG of 1.062. Pitched the S-04 after rehydrating. It did form a bit of a krausen, but I noticed there really isn't much activity in the blow tube, although I can see the yeasties doing their thing. My question is, is it normal for there to be very little activity in the airlock on some ciders. With my Nottingham they've been very active so I was curious. And if so, what is the reason for this?

 

[Kerrbrewer]

I believe S04 is a whitbread strain. Ive never used S04 but have recently done a porter and an amber with the wyeast strain. My porter had a similar gravity to your cider and was a low key ferment compared to what im used to. Look for a stopper leak, if not just let it go IMHO.

 

[eigua]

So I've done a few cider so far, and haven't had any issues and may not now. So far I've used Nottingham for my ciders. I made a kiwi apple cider this weekend and it came in at a OG of 1.062. Pitched the S-04 after rehydrating. It did form a bit of a krausen, but I noticed there really isn't much activity in the blow tube, although I can see the yeasties doing their thing. My question is, is it normal for there to be very little activity in the airlock on some ciders. With my Nottingham they've been very active so I was curious. And if so, what is the reason for this?

I've used S04 for beer, apple cider, raisin "cider", and ginger beer. In the apple cider and ginger beer, it has proven to be a super slow fermenter. My apple cider @1.060 took 38 days. My ginger beer @1.072 is still bubbling away 52 days later. And by bubbling, I mean the little bubbles rising in the fermenter, not the airlock/tube. The airlock bubble rate is very, very slow. The raisin cider was 26 days @1.072. When pitched into malt however, it bubbles and foams up like a volcano, shooting beer out the blowoff tube every time. My last batch was 21 days in the primary, but I think I let it sit longer than it needed to.

 

[Sourz4life]

I've used it in a few of my beer brews and I tend to hit FG in 2 weeks which is what threw me off since there was so much activity in my malts with S-04

 

[Maylar]

I've had S-04 take 3 weeks to get from 1.050 to 1.008 and another 3 weeks to go dry.

 

[Sourz4life]

I'm stopping it at 1.016 to retain some of the sweetness and from going above 6% ABV. I may be kegging it as well, depending on if I free one of my kegs up here soon.