One barrel is fermenting, the other not? Advice please :)

[Captainblood]

Hi, I'm new here. Need some cider advice if anyone is willing .

Last year I bought a crusher, a press, and all the gear, and made cider for the first time - all very successful.

This year, not quite so smooth

I have filled two 30L fermenters (so about 13 gallons) with apple juice. Added a sachet of cider yeast.

They frothed up, then after a couple of days I put them both under airlock, and off they went, bubbling vigorously away.
This lasted about 10 days, then one vessel stopped while the other continued fermenting for a few more days, until this too slowed to almost a standstill.

Last night, I racked off both vessels, and added sugar syrup.

Both vessels started fermenting again almost immediately.

But this morning, the same vessel that appeared to cease fermenting after only 10 days before (well, actually the same cider but now transferred into a different identical fermenter) has almost immediately stopped again. Its sibling standing next to it is merrily bubbling away.

They are literally next to each other, in the same room. It's the same juice, treated the same way, and kept at the same temperature. Yet one lot appears to be successfully fermenting whilst the other keeps coming to a standstill. Which seems a bit inexplicable...

So, cider veterans - what should I do?

1. Rack off again, blending the two lots to try to spread the evidently good fermenting properties of the second barrel into the first?
2. Add more dried yeast to the problem lot? Or is it too late for that now?
3. Some other course of action I can't think of?!

All help and advice gratefully received. It's a bit of a mystery...

Thanks in advance.

Richard

 

[Maylar]

Get a hydrometer and tell us the specific gravity of each.

 

[madscientist451]

Cider makes itself, you don't actually have to do much of anything.
Like Maylar said, find out what your gravity is. You could give the bucket a swirl to try to rouse the yeast. Letting it sit there until you get a hydrometer won't hurt anything.

 

[bucketnative]

Perhaps the barrel with the "good fermenting properties" is the one that finishes quicker?

Without a gravity reading from each, you have no idea which one is fermenting better than the other.

The only course of action that I would recommend is patience. Let them finish fermenting at their own pace.