I primarily homebrew beer but have done cider in the past and followed this same routine with different yeast strains and have had no issue.
I picked up 5 gallons of unpasturized cider last week and threw in 7 campden tablets (recommended 1-1.5 per gallon). I waited 24 hours then added pectin and then added yeast an hour after. I'm going for something a bit more funky and am using a saccharomyces strain from Imperial Yeast. My experience with their yeasts for my beer has always been that it takes off instantly. After 24 hours of pitching the yeast I saw no visible fermentation and added some yeast nutrients.
36 hours after pitching the yeast, still no fermentation was visible and a gravity reading confirmed no changes. I went back to the homebrew store and bought another pack of the yeast and re-pitched figuring maybe I didn't wait long enough for the campden tablets and surely this had been long enough for things to dissipate. It is now almost 24 hours after pitching that second pack of yeast and still no activity or change in gravity.
Am I just being impatient here or is there something wrong with my process? Is it possible that this yeast strain is just not compatible with the apple juice? I added a yeast energizer to the carboy this morning as well in hopes to jump start things further.
I picked up 5 gallons of unpasturized cider last week and threw in 7 campden tablets (recommended 1-1.5 per gallon). I waited 24 hours then added pectin and then added yeast an hour after. I'm going for something a bit more funky and am using a saccharomyces strain from Imperial Yeast. My experience with their yeasts for my beer has always been that it takes off instantly. After 24 hours of pitching the yeast I saw no visible fermentation and added some yeast nutrients.
36 hours after pitching the yeast, still no fermentation was visible and a gravity reading confirmed no changes. I went back to the homebrew store and bought another pack of the yeast and re-pitched figuring maybe I didn't wait long enough for the campden tablets and surely this had been long enough for things to dissipate. It is now almost 24 hours after pitching that second pack of yeast and still no activity or change in gravity.
Am I just being impatient here or is there something wrong with my process? Is it possible that this yeast strain is just not compatible with the apple juice? I added a yeast energizer to the carboy this morning as well in hopes to jump start things further.