DevonCiderLad
New Member
Hi, I'm new to the site, and I'm doing baby's first home fermentation. First, a little background on me - I'm 25 and employed at a UK cider factory in the quality control lab. I've never done homebrew before, but obviously have decent knowledge and understanding of process in the industrial cider business.
Now, my brew. I pressed around 180kg of mixed eating and cooking apples last saturday, and produced some beautiful juice which was relatively high in acid (around 5.5g/l malic). My yield was around 100 litres, which I put into 3x25L plastic containers "acquired" from work, and 5x5L demijohns. I added 2 punnets of crushed blackberries to one demijohn, and 2 punnets of crushed strawberries to another.
After 3 days I added a quarter-tsp of rehydrated yeast to each demijohn, except one which I'm allowing to ferment naturally, and a full tsp to the containers. I also sieved out the pulp from the fruity fermentations, and moved them all from the conservatory (about 5 degrees c) to my ensuite bathroom (20-25 degrees). Starting SGs ranged from 1.044 to 1.049, and they've been fermenting for around 4 full days, some quite violently! I added a small amount of yeast nutrient last night, and took samples to test SG (the advantages of a job in the industry!), but haven't got around to it yet.
The question I have is regarding racking. Should I rack my cider while it's fermenting? Some of them, especially the fruit ones, have an inch of sediment already, and I'm worried that it will cause the fermentation to go acetic or indolic, or just plain rotten. The yeast I have used is Lalvin EC-1118 and the nutrient is Fermavin Fermaid K.
Thanks in advance for your help. I'll upload photographs when I get the chance to connect my phone up.
Now, my brew. I pressed around 180kg of mixed eating and cooking apples last saturday, and produced some beautiful juice which was relatively high in acid (around 5.5g/l malic). My yield was around 100 litres, which I put into 3x25L plastic containers "acquired" from work, and 5x5L demijohns. I added 2 punnets of crushed blackberries to one demijohn, and 2 punnets of crushed strawberries to another.
After 3 days I added a quarter-tsp of rehydrated yeast to each demijohn, except one which I'm allowing to ferment naturally, and a full tsp to the containers. I also sieved out the pulp from the fruity fermentations, and moved them all from the conservatory (about 5 degrees c) to my ensuite bathroom (20-25 degrees). Starting SGs ranged from 1.044 to 1.049, and they've been fermenting for around 4 full days, some quite violently! I added a small amount of yeast nutrient last night, and took samples to test SG (the advantages of a job in the industry!), but haven't got around to it yet.
The question I have is regarding racking. Should I rack my cider while it's fermenting? Some of them, especially the fruit ones, have an inch of sediment already, and I'm worried that it will cause the fermentation to go acetic or indolic, or just plain rotten. The yeast I have used is Lalvin EC-1118 and the nutrient is Fermavin Fermaid K.
Thanks in advance for your help. I'll upload photographs when I get the chance to connect my phone up.
