My 3rd cider batch

[sirmichael]

Today I made my 3rd batch of cider. I dissolved the brown sugar and enzyme in 3/4 of a gallon of cider. Pour it and the rest of the cider into the carboy and added the yeast nutrient and yeast. Gave it a good long shake and threw on the air lock.

The plan is to let it ferment dry and back sweeten with juice concentrate. I'm trying to locate a cherry pomegranate concentrate (got the idea from another thread here) but I'm having difficulty finding it. I may do an apple raspberry or cranberry concentrate if I can't find the pomegranate.

OG was 1.066

5 gallons of Tree Top apple cider
2.5 pounds of brown sugar
5 tsp of pectic enzyme
1 tsp of yeast nutrient
Wyeast 4766 cider yeast

 

[sirmichael]

So I was getting a little concerned last night when after three days the was no airlock activity and no visible bubbles coming up the carboy like in my other ciders. But I woke up this morning and it looked like this.

So I quickly threw some one step in a growler, sanitized some tubing and put on my first blow off tub.

The blow off tube in the growler is happily bubbling away.

 

[overpunch]

Very nice! Cherry pomegranate concentrate sounds delicious! I was planning on back-sweetening my next batch with some cherry or black currant concentrate before kegging. I'll be interested to know how yours turns out.

My basic cider recipe is very similar to yours. I've had good luck with fermentation starting the same day, but usually it takes off in a couple days after pitching.

 

[sirmichael]

I think part of my problem was I didn't smack my smack pack early enough. But oh well. It's going well now.

 

[HAREEBROWNBEEST]

I had the same issue with mine not starting and was worried, but two days later it to took off