Hard cider mirky cloudy yellow

[Digger1966]

New to home brewing. This is my fifth batch and it’s throwing me for a loop. Completely sanitized everything with star San. Used 5 gallons fresh squeezed apple cider (hydrometer showed approximately 9.5 percent when done) and added potassium metabisulfite to kill off the wild yeast for 48 hrs. Added pectin enzyme and cider house select yeast then airlocked it. The only thing I did different was us a new pectic enzyme from amazon called LD Carlson pectic enzyme. It burped and fermented as normal but has not clarified to the Golden color it did before as the pectic enzyme dropped the pectin out during fermentation. It has been 7 weeks now. Three weeks longer than all other batches. I have a cloudy mirky yellow brew with some bubbles still coming to the surface. Normal layer of pectin dropped to the bottom. I opened it and added more pectic enzyme three weeks ago and still no change. I’m lost so any newbie tips if this can be saved or pitch it.

 

[S-Met]

I'm assuming it's your first time with fresh pressed juice?

Just give it time. Lots of time.

 

[doublejef]

Pectic enzyme doesn't work once there is alcool.
Time will probably doing the job and if not you can add gelatine or drink it cloudy.

 

[Digger1966]

This is my fifth batch with fresh but doublejef I appreciate your info on the pectic enzyme. I do remember now that I added what I had left of the enzyme then when the new enzyme arrived I added the balance of it to the fermenting brew. What is gelatine? I’ll have to research it.

 

[S-Met]

Gelatin, knox, unflavored jello. Some people will add to beer or cider before cold crashing to help clarify. The jello helps bind with some of floaties and "clear or clarify" the beer/cider/wine.

Personally, I don't always add. Usually time clears things up just fine and most ciders/wines really benefit from patience.

 

[Yooper]

If you put the carboy someplace cold (not freezing, but say around 40), it should clear faster. Cold stabilization is really common for wines and ciders.

 

[Digger1966]

Thank you. All batches are worth saving.

 

[DaveC73]

I'm new to brewing/vintning and have come to realize that Bacchus is a quirky guy already. I made a batch of pineapple wine back in June and racked into two 1 gallon jugs for secondary. One jug was crystal clear after one month with no additional racking/fining/etc. The other jug was still as cloudy as the day it was put into secondary up until two weeks ago. Same wine. Same treatments. No idea.

I finally put the second jug into the fridge two weeks ago. Three days later there was a thick layer of yeast on the bottom of the jug. But, the wine went from cloudy to hazy. Apparently chilling the wine can cause "chill haze" (protein precipitation). After a little research I added a small amount of dissolved gelatin to the jug. I'm happy to report that one week later the jug is now crystal clear and ready for bottling!

So, if you haven't already, maybe:

1) put the batch somewhere cold like yooper suggested and wait a week
2) if not showing progress after a week (or still hazy despite yeast falling to bottom of jug) add a little dissolved gelatin and wait another week

That's all the wisdom this noob has to share. Good luck!

 

[Farside]

Looks like it might be the beginnings of a malolactic fermentation. If you start seeing clumps floating around in the carboy don't panic.

I'd leave it alone. Not do anything. Just give it a month or two to let it work itself out.