My cider

[d510addict]

Heres my Apfelwein with nottingham instead of montrachet.

This is 1 week after starting the ferment will that krausen ever go down.......its making me want homemade bread darnit.

 

[smokinghole]

I used nottingham in my graff and it did go down. It's been almost two weeks now and there is nothing but a few bubbles floating around at the top. I'll check it on Saturday and it may get bottled.

 

[gratus fermentatio]

Good things come to those who wait.

 

[fineexampl]

i did a cider about a week and half ago. 2.5gal of sweet apple cider, 2.5gal of apple-cranberry cider, 1lb of dark brown sugar, 4 cinnamon sticks (whole). I pitched a very healthy portion of Windsor yeast. first 2 days it actively fermented and i figured that would be it, so i ignored the suds. MISTAKE! It spewed right out the airlock over everything in the closet. lol No worries though.

Oh and to answer your question, in my experience with a semi-similar project, my foam has yet to go down completely. Just an opening in the middle with pretty active fermentation.

my SG was 1.061 and tested night before last at 1.022 or thereabouts.

edit: all my cider was locally grown and no additives.

 

[Kauai_Kahuna]

Depending on your temperature, I think it will be around 2 weeks for it to drop, then another week of very small bubbles slowly moving up.
--Check it out with a flashlight at night, kind of cool.--
Then another week of really tiny bubbles just slowly streaming around.
-- Don Ho - .....
Then around two weeks for it to slowly clearing, bubbles going around in circles, starting from the top to the bottom. (Please don't do a post of: WTF is this?)

Hopefully someone warned you ciders take a lot longer than a beer.

 

[d510addict]

15 days in and that yeast cake still isn't showing signs of dropping and my Apfelwein is still sweet gonna go buy a hydro and check it in 2 more weeks.

 

[d510addict]

It seems like this yeast separated and contained itself from the cider.......been exactly like it is in the pic for 10 days at least and is showing no sign of dropping.......there still is some c02 production but this doesn't tell me anything.

 

[Teromous]

It's a top fermenting yeast so that's no big worry. At the end, it does slow down so it's probably trying to put in the last effort to eat whatever sugar is left. You can cold crash it to preserve some flavor and clear up the cider a bit before aging.

 

[d510addict]

Grr yeast cake still showing no signs of dropping, was really hoping this would be ready by new years but I guess it won't be.

 

[CvilleKevin]

What does the hydro say? You can always cold crash it if the taste is good and sg is where you want it. New Years is plenty of time if you have a keg and cold crash.

I've got 4 ale yeast keg batches that I started on 11/24. They have been fermenting at 60 degrees and are currently all between 1.015 and 1.020. They have anywhere from a few days to a week to go before crashing.

If your ferment is not as far along you can always move it someplace warmer which will speed things up, although generally the cooler and slower the better.

 

[smokinghole]

I don't know what you're doing but my batches have not held a krausen like that for more than three days. They continue to happily ferment but it's just little bubble towns on the surface vs the krausen.

 

[d510addict]

Ya IDK what it is either............this stuff formed at like day 2 or 3 and hasnt gone away since. Ive swirled it several times only for the yeast to resettle on top like that again. I think ill hit a brew shop up tomorrow and get a hydrometer and check things out.

 

[d510addict]

Say this is fully attenuated(spelling?) but that yeasty stuff on top never drops can I use gelatin along with longish cool crash to clear the beer up?

 

[d510addict]

As of the 19th it is dropping and is starting to look like it may be clearing.

 

[khiddy]

Grr yeast cake still showing no signs of dropping, was really hoping this would be ready by new years but I guess it won't be.

Did you say that you started this batch a week before you posted the pic? So, in other words, you began the batch on Thanksgiving weekend?

If so, then, sorry dude, you're not gonna be drinking this by New Years. Apfelwein is a solid six-week ferment and clear, then you let it sit for another month-to-six-weeks before drinking. It NEEDS the time to settle down and get less "hot".

I have a batch I started on 11/18, and it's still cloudy. I don't expect to be kegging it until at least 1/18, and then it will be a month or more before I drink it.

This stuff really takes time.

 

[d510addict]

Ehhhhh well by the end of December it will have been 5 weeks, it its not a steady grav reading and clearing by then ill leave it be........doesn't need to be super clear. Worse comes to worse Ill bottle my 2 gallon batches which are abit older. A few bottles of "hot" cider won't bother me a bit, from the tastings ive had of each they are quite drinkable to me.

Plus the notty yeast to my understanding wont dry nearly as much or leave as many off flavors as montrachet or other champaign yeasts.

 

[pincy]

Oh, you can be sure the nottingham will dry that right out.

If I were you, I'd add a couple cans of juice concentrate, bottle, then do a dishwasher-pasteurize after a couple days of carbing. You'll still have some sugars and you'll have it nice and carbed too. I've also found that the dishwasher-pasteurization method mellows young cider out quite a bit, too.

 

[d510addict]

Well I just checked the hydro on all 3 of my ciders and they seem to be done, its hard to tell if its an accurate reading though. Anyone my 2 1 gallon experiments should be done for sure so I'm throwing them in the fridge for a few days.

I'm going to try and take another reading on the apfelwein I dont think I added enough water in the tube as it looks like this is down near 990 which I somehow don't trust.

 

[KeithinSB]

you can test your hydrometer by filling your test tube with water. It should read 1.000.