No gravity change.

[zaptop]

I'm starting to get really frustrated now.

Me and some friends are trying to make some cider, but we got some serious problems with the fermentation.

It bubbles like hell from the air-lock, and we can see lots of bubbles rising to the surface. It also smells like alcohole.

When it started to bubble the gravity 1.052 and after more than a week with intense bubbling it's only 1.046!

Why is it going so damn slow? Shall we add more yeast?

 

[Bensiff]

Could be an underpitch of yeast, low ferment temps, insufficient nutrients for the yeast...really could be a lot of things. Provide more details of your cider so we can help dial into the culprit.

 

[zaptop]

Could be an underpitch of yeast, low ferment temps, insufficient nutrients for the yeast...really could be a lot of things. Provide more details of your cider so we can help dial into the culprit.

No yeast nutrient added, just 12 g of yeast to 60 liters! Could it be too small amount of yeast?

 

[Calder]

That is way too little yeast for that volume ~15 USG.

Apple juice is also lacking in a lot of nutrients required by yeast that are present in beer wort.

I think your yeast are done.

Did you aerate.

If it were me, I think I'd pitch a few more packs, aerate, and find some nutrient to add too.

 

[Bensiff]

That is roughly one thirdly a quarter the yeast you would want to pitch for that gravity. Under pitching means the yeast will have to go through a lot of reproduction cycles to get the cell count up. That in of itself causes off flavors. Compound that by the lack of nutrients in apple juice as Calder stated and the yeast are going to be highly stressed due to nutrient deficiency and may very well stall or die off. I would add sufficient yeast and yeast nutrient to try and save it. If you are really enterprising I would even consider cold crashing it to get the yeast to drop out. Rack it off that yeast and then add a healthy yeast pitch and nutrients so the stressed yeast don't ruin the party. Also the sooner you do something the better the chances of having a favorable outcome.

 

[day_trippr]

[...]It bubbles like hell from the air-lock, and we can see lots of bubbles rising to the surface. It also smells like alcohole.

When it started to bubble the gravity 1.052 and after more than a week with intense bubbling it's only 1.046![...]

What device are you using to measure the gravity?

Cheers!

 

[zaptop]

What device are you using to measure the gravity?

Cheers!

I use a hydrometer

 

[zaptop]

That is roughly one thirdly a quarter the yeast you would want to pitch for that gravity. Under pitching means the yeast will have to go through a lot of reproduction cycles to get the cell count up. That in of itself causes off flavors. Compound that by the lack of nutrients in apple juice as Calder stated and the yeast are going to be highly stressed due to nutrient deficiency and may very well stall or die off. I would add sufficient yeast and yeast nutrient to try and save it. If you are really enterprising I would even consider cold crashing it to get the yeast to drop out. Rack it off that yeast and then add a healthy yeast pitch and nutrients so the stressed yeast don't ruin the party. Also the sooner you do something the better the chances of having a favorable outcome.

Thanks for the reply!

I will add two more packets of yeast today but sadly I don't have any nutrients

Hard time getting stuff like that out here!

Could it work without yeast nutrient aswell?

 

[zaptop]

I added 24 grams of yeast and I could see a change already in 20 min. The airlock bubbled faster and we could see loooots of more bubbles rising to the surface.

But the day after(today) it has begun to slow down again! Why is that?

 

[day_trippr]

If you just sprinkled dry yeast on top of the beer, you introduced two packages worth of nucleation sites...

Cheers!

 

[SmokeyMcBong]

raisins and/or boiled bread yeast can be used as a substitute for yeast nutrient...

 

[zaptop]

If you just sprinkled dry yeast on top of the beer, you introduced two packages worth of nucleation sites...

Cheers!

I rehydrated the yeast ofcourse

 

[Yooper]

I added 24 grams of yeast and I could see a change already in 20 min. The airlock bubbled faster and we could see loooots of more bubbles rising to the surface.

But the day after(today) it has begun to slow down again! Why is that?

What is the current SG? It could have simply finished up.

 

[zaptop]

What is the current SG? It could have simply finished up.

1.046, it's not finished yet