Forgot the Campden..

[kketterer]

Hi guys,

I have been pressing my own cider for a few years now. I have a cider grinder/Press mill. I pressed 10 Gallons about 3 weeks ago. I added 1 Tsb. to each 5 gallons of cider,it sat out about 48 Hours. Then it was placed in the fridge for about two weeks. ( I was waiting for out of stock enginlsh cider yeast) None the less, I racked to a new primary warmed it up, pitched the yeast and its fermenting now... I just was reading through my notes and realized I never added Camden tabs to kill the wild yeast. SG was 1.20 (Seems a bit high)

Any thoughts?

 

[CodyA]

Added one Tsp. of what exactly?

 

[Guthdog]

I did the same thing a couple of weeks ago with some unpasteurized sweet cider from our local tourist trap/cider press area near Sacramento. Used an SO4 and some yeast nutrient but forgot to add Campden, (first time using unpasteurized).

People responding to my post as well as my own follow-on research indicates that you are most likely going to be just fine, (mine came out great btw, though I still have to backsweeten it). There are a ton of folks on the forum who make a point of only using the yeast that God stuck to the apples and they're raving about it, (in fact they're raving about it in some new posts today).

I think the main thing you lose is the predictability that comes with killing everything off before introducing pedigree yeast. According to the forums, we could be missing a lot by not rolling the dice with the natural yeasts.

 

[dinnerstick]

1.200?? don't think so... normal range is ~1.030 to 1.060
i wouldn't worry about it anyways

 

[CodyA]

I did the same thing a couple of weeks ago with some unpasteurized sweet cider from our local tourist trap/cider press area near Sacramento. Used an SO4 and some yeast nutrient but forgot to add Campden, (first time using unpasteurized).

People responding to my post as well as my own follow-on research indicates that you are most likely going to be just fine, (mine came out great btw, though I still have to backsweeten it). There are a ton of folks on the forum who make a point of only using the yeast that God stuck to the apples and they're raving about it, (in fact they're raving about it in some new posts today).

I think the main thing you lose is the predictability that comes with killing everything off before introducing pedigree yeast. According to the forums, we could be missing a lot by not rolling the dice with the natural yeasts.

Only problem is, it all depends on where you live. I have also heard of natural yeast leaving pretty off flavors, and even really low ABV tolerances (nothing above 4%). If I can find someone on here from the Albuquerque area having good results with wild yeast, I'll give it a try. Maybe I'll even grow a pair some day and experiment myself.

 

[Guthdog]

Only problem is, it all depends on where you live. I have also heard of natural yeast leaving pretty off flavors, and even really low ABV tolerances (nothing above 4%). If I can find someone on here from the Albuquerque area having good results with wild yeast, I'll give it a try. Maybe I'll even grow a pair some day and experiment myself.

Hard to pull the trigger on risking cider at $6.00/gallon isn't it? Maybe it would be easier if I didn't make pearls when I walk...