I haven't done any brewing or cider making in probably 8 years (!) and decided to make a cider with my sister- and brother-in-law. I've definitely taken some shortcuts to simplify the process -- decided against doing a secondary. However, my SIL really wanted to try adding rhubarb so we made a simple syrup and basically turned the rhubarb into a sauce and added it to the primary (after 2 weeks of initial fermentation). The sugars from the rhubarb sauce kicked off yeast production, as I anticipated. However, instead of creating a bigger yeast cake layer, it produced a lot of funky looking stuff that's now floating at the top. We sanitized everything with Star San so I didn't anticipate an infection. It doesn't smell bad -- still smells like cider. Is it OK? What's happening here? Thanks in advance!
funky floating stuff in cider
- Thread starter qwist04
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I've no experience with adding rhubarb to cider, but I have made rhubarb sauce for going on toast and such and it's full of "strands". That looks fairly similar, I would guess that is rhubarb strands?
It looks like the rhubarb gave up its goodness, and now it's time to rack off it before it starts to rot. It might be very tart from the rhubarb- are you planning on sweetening later?
Yeah, am planning on adding Campden and potassium sorbate ASAP and then backsweetening with apple juice contentrate. I might leave some of it unswettened just to see how we like it (knowing that it may be too tart).
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