First Cider nothing happening....

[Stevec118]

Ok. Well I picked up my fresh bucket of pressed cider from the LHBS.

First. I added the correct amount of Campden tablets to kill the wild yeast (crushed) and pectin enzyme.

Waited 24 hours and pitched my White labs 774 cider yeast and added the correct amount of yeast nutrient. ( the must was around 70 degrees) I added the yeast then air raided it. OG was 1.045.

I woke up this morning to check activity and nothing. It's been about 14hrs. The airlock isn't bubbling at all and there is no yeast cake on top of the must.

Is this normal? Took the yeast out of the fridge 4hrs prior was it to cold?

Any advice?

Thanks
Steve

 

[BalloonGuy]

Be patient. I just made a cider a couple of weeks ago. It was a long and slow ferment. The primary was just over 2 weeks.
Good luck.

 

[Stevec118]

Thanks. I've never seen anything take this long to be actice. I guess I will just wait and be patient.

 

[Stevec118]

Going on 24hrs and no sign of active fermentation. Should I be concerned?

 

[Electrake]

I don't have anything useful to say, and for that I'm sorry. But the images "air raided" put into my head are just amazing.

 

[Yooper]

Going on 24hrs and no sign of active fermentation. Should I be concerned?

Are you certain that they didn't use sorbate or benzoate? In some states, it's illegal to sell fresh cider (unpasteurized) without sorbate or benzoate I believe.

You can take an SG reading to ensure no fermentation has begun at all before taking action, as sometimes a low OG cider will not show much activity.

 

[Stevec118]

It only took 48 hrs. Woke up this morning and noticed the airlock bubbling every 5-10 seconds. I guess it just took a while for the yeast to wake up.

 

[zippy84]

Nice! Good old reassuring bubbling!

 

[madscientist451]

I like run cider yeast in the low 60's, also I did some tests and you don't need campden tablets if you have a healthy pitch of yeast.
Did you use WL 775? (not 774 above?) Anyway the 775 can be reused for many generations, and makes a dry cider. Let it age for a while after its done. The dry cider works good (for me) when I want to add
fruit in secondary. This week I put 8 month old cider made with 775 on sour cherries and have another carboy with Rhubarb.

 

[Stevec118]

I like run cider yeast in the low 60's, also I did some tests and you don't need campden tablets if you have a healthy pitch of yeast.
Did you use WL 775? (not 774 above?) Anyway the 775 can be reused for many generations, and makes a dry cider. Let it age for a while after its done. The dry cider works good (for me) when I want to add
fruit in secondary. This week I put 8 month old cider made with 775 on sour cherries and have another carboy with Rhubarb.

Yeah it was actually 775. I have it at about 70-75 degrees right now. I'm planning on moving it to my basement where the temp's are 60-70 degrees. I was thinking 2 weeks primary and 2-3 weeks secondary depending on clarity and taste and another 3 weeks for bottle conditioning. Any advice on back sweetening? If my cider isn't sweet enough or to watery is there something that works well to give it some extra pep?

 

[william_shakes_beer]

Take a look at the caramel apple cider thread. I have done that several times. In a nutshell, you backsweeten at bottling with a syrup made of cinnamon, brown sugar and frozen apple juice concentrate. Although some consider it sacralige to introduce apple flavor in a dry cider, I like it and say phfffffft.

 

[madscientist451]

I recently blended an 8 month old dry cider made with WL 775 with
Old orchard frozen apple cherry concentrate and it came out pretty good. I put 100 ml of the frozen concentrate in a 750 ml wine bottle and filled with the finished cider, chilled and drank it on 4th of July.
Use more or less depending on how much sweetness and flavor you want from the concentrate.
I've done the same with Welch's white grape peach, and want to try raspberry but the store was out of it.
I put my finished cider in 1 gallon jugs and then blend with different things as I drink it. You can also chop up rhubarb (freeze then heat to kill any bacteria/yeast) and let the cider sit on that.
Your "bottle conditioning" of 3 weeks is a bit too short for my taste, maybe it will be fine for you. Young cider has a raw flavor that improves over time. If you make another batch you may want to try your basement temps from the onset and see how it comes out.