First cider // safcider experience

[mrsducky]

Hi! First cider brew, and using safcider. I saw a few people had asked about it, so hoping to add another datapoint.

1 gall store brand juice
Safcider yeast
Yeast nutrient (1 tsp)
Acid blend

Nothing fancy for the first time. Rehydrated the yeast in a pint of boiled warm water with nutrient for a bit. I'm not entirely sure what to look for - I think I should have proofed it a bit as a starter instead. Next time I'll do that.

OG 1.047

2-3 hours in, no krausen or major activity but I can see a few very small bubbles here and there.

I had ordered a new bung for my second carboy as I have my other airlock on a batch of hefeweizen at the moment. The new bung did. Not. Fit! Too stiff to squeeze into the neck and stay put -- so I had to improvise. Unfortunately I am not certain this hacky setup is airtight so it may be harder to tell when it's done bubbling... will find out either way!

View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1501818034.311808.jpg

 

[mrsducky]

Update - day 2, bubbled up quite nicely and looked a lot like a freshly poured soda (small bubbles rising from the liquid). Day three, morning - bubbling has leveled off, still steady and definitely fermenting, but not pushing sanitizer out of the airlock anymore.

Also -- ETA I was expecting to see some kind of krausen or yeast detritus at the top, but it's very clean so far. First real cider experience so maybe I'm totally off base expecting that???

 

[MarkKF]

I've used safcider and never had a lot of foaming. I usually only get that if there is fruit floating in my juice.

 

[mrsducky]

Cider finished at 1.000 on the nose. Really clean taste - the juice was nothing special so I wasn't expecting a revelation but it was fine, and the leftover yeast smelled sweet in the fermenter. Would use it again.

I carbed this batch with corn sugar; next batch I'll try again but sweeten. I don't think it needed carbonation, actually.