BeerKillLogic
Well-Known Member
Good day to all!
So here's the deal. I'm on my 3rd batch of cider. Prior to this one I have only done dry ciders and bottle conditioned.
This time I wanted to aim for a semi-sweet to sweet cider. My procedure is as follows.
4 1/2 gallons store bought cider
brown sugar
yeast nutes
safale-05.
OG 1.054
FG .998
I left this in primary for 5 weeks. I then added Potassium sorbate and metabisulfite as directed on the package and allowed them to do their thang for approx 48 hours.
I took a second empty carboy, poured in1/2 gallon of the original unfermented cider to sweeten, and racked my fermented treated cider on top of this.
FG after back sweetening now was 1.010
I stuck it in the closet and allowed to clear/condition for 2-3 weeks. During this time there was ZERO activitiy as far as the airlock is concerned, and it cleared brilliantly.
I wanted to take a sample for tasting as well as confirm my FG. This time my FG showed 1.007! Some how it had dropped a few points. I planned to take another reading in a couple days to see if it changed even more.
I took the 1.007 reading on a friday. By saturday night I noticed white foam, almost a thin krausen like foam forming around the surface. Prior to this was perfectly still.
By sunday it was a much thicker foam with big bubbles, rather than tight little ones to form the krausen like beer. Also at this time the airlock was rocking away again and the cider is no longer clear
How could this be? Did some how the original pitched yeast become active again, or does it sound more like an introduction of some sort of wild yeast or bacteria?
Either way, I thought the pot. sorbate/meta would keep ANYTHING from fermenting the left over sugars?
Can I treat the cider once again or will this be too much. Such as, re-backsweeten and treat with sorbate/meta?
I seriously tried to keep this short. Thanks in advance for your help!
So here's the deal. I'm on my 3rd batch of cider. Prior to this one I have only done dry ciders and bottle conditioned.
This time I wanted to aim for a semi-sweet to sweet cider. My procedure is as follows.
4 1/2 gallons store bought cider
brown sugar
yeast nutes
safale-05.
OG 1.054
FG .998
I left this in primary for 5 weeks. I then added Potassium sorbate and metabisulfite as directed on the package and allowed them to do their thang for approx 48 hours.
I took a second empty carboy, poured in1/2 gallon of the original unfermented cider to sweeten, and racked my fermented treated cider on top of this.
FG after back sweetening now was 1.010
I stuck it in the closet and allowed to clear/condition for 2-3 weeks. During this time there was ZERO activitiy as far as the airlock is concerned, and it cleared brilliantly.
I wanted to take a sample for tasting as well as confirm my FG. This time my FG showed 1.007! Some how it had dropped a few points. I planned to take another reading in a couple days to see if it changed even more.
I took the 1.007 reading on a friday. By saturday night I noticed white foam, almost a thin krausen like foam forming around the surface. Prior to this was perfectly still.
By sunday it was a much thicker foam with big bubbles, rather than tight little ones to form the krausen like beer. Also at this time the airlock was rocking away again and the cider is no longer clear
How could this be? Did some how the original pitched yeast become active again, or does it sound more like an introduction of some sort of wild yeast or bacteria?
Either way, I thought the pot. sorbate/meta would keep ANYTHING from fermenting the left over sugars?
Can I treat the cider once again or will this be too much. Such as, re-backsweeten and treat with sorbate/meta?
I seriously tried to keep this short. Thanks in advance for your help!