Forgotten year old batches of cider! Questions!

[jpb2716]

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

So here is my dilemma...on 12/21/2014 a friend of mine and I made 2 batches of cider. One was a mango cider and the other was a pear. We were making this for his wife. However, she got pregnant shortly after and obviously couldn't drink so the carboys of cider were forgotten about until I found them yesterday. Still a small bit of liquid in each airlock surprisingly. I took a sample of both and they taste pretty good! We plan to bottle both batches tomorrow.

So, should i rouse the yeast in the carboys before bottling so there will be enough yeast in suspension for carbonation?

Also, is there anything that I should be concerned about since it has sat on the yeast so long?

Thanks everyone!

 

[Jwin]

maybe add yeast at bottling, and keep the yeast cake in tact.
if the samples are good and nothing growing on them, go for it!

my .02

 

[slym2none]

I agree with the above.

 

[jpb2716]

Thanks for the responses guys. So I've never had to add yeast. How do I go about doing this? Do I add a little to each bottle? Is there a type of yeast that is best for doing this? I have some Montrachet dry wine yeast laying around if that would work.

Thanks again!

 

[Jwin]

Idk about wine yeast. Add to bottling bucket with priming sugar.

 

[jpb2716]

I just read to add 10% of whatever the original yeast pitch was. Is this good advice?

 

[slym2none]

Sounds like a plan. Go for it!

 

[SerifSansSerif]

1. BEFORE you bottle it, rack it. If you wish to, set the yeast cake aside.

2. Set aside a tiny quantity of the brew, and pitch a TINY quantity of sugar or apple juice to it.

Basically, you're getting a test sample, and the sugar should be just enough to enable a bit of fermentation.

3. Let it sit a while, and see if fermentation starts.

4.a. If it does, then you know the yeasties are still alive. Go to 6.

4.b. If not, add new yeast to your sample and see if it takes. Go to 5.

5. If the new yeast takes, go to 6, if the new yeast does not, discard the sample, and bottle as is. You just are going to have to have a still cider.

6. If it takes, then pitch it back into the racked brew, and add a little MORE sugar. Basically give it enough to get the yeast back into action and reproducing their numbers till they can do their job of priming.

THEN add your priming sugars and bottle.

 

[Jwin]

Why not just add cbc yeast to the bottling bucket?

 

[SerifSansSerif]

Why not just add cbc yeast to the bottling bucket?

For my suggestion? you COULD.... but then you can screw up a perfectly good still cider.

First of all, let's say a brew won't restart, no matter what. If you toss yeast or sugar in it you're going to screw around with the flavor and could screw up the brew. That's why I suggested a small batch.

I suggested adding sugar to your sample first because the old yeast may in fact ferment, but it just might be in suspended animation. The best yeast you can use is the ones already in the fermentation. If you add another yeast, it could change the flavor profile based on the what the yeast likes to eat besides the sugars in the brew.

If there isn't yeast present, then yes, you can add some new, but you still don't know what will happen, and you still need sugar before a yeast will work. Since there's still a chance of it not fermenting and staying still (but now with added sugar), you're still better off using a sample is better than using the whole thing.