Re-pitching yeast: please help

[NoFiller]

I started my first cider 10 days ago and nothing has happened. No foam, no airlock action, no change in SG. I tasted it this morning and it tastes like apple juice, so no bad bugs.

I added 100 ppm k-metasulphate and felt it for 24hr before pitching in 2 packets of champagne yeast (EC1118), and pectin enzyme. The room is between 62-70F. The yeast was not refrigerated, but it did foam up a lot when I mixed it with warm water.

Everyone's saying that the yeast will be fine if you leave it, but in this case i think it's time to give up and re-pitch. My questions are:

1. Should I try to buy the same type of yeast again, or will anything do?
2. Do I need to do anything to the cider, like aerate it?
3. Any ideas on what went wrong, so I can avoid making the same mistake in the future?

 

[Yooper]

I have a couple of questions- one is "What was in the juice you bought"? Do you have a list of ingredients?

It should be fermenting now, although 100 ppm is a bit dose of kmeta. You can try stirring it up like crazy, since much of the so2 will disapate and adding more champagne yeast after that. It sounds like either you had bad yeast, or your juice had some sort of preservatives in it.

 

[NoFiller]

I got the juice straight from the apples with my own two hands, so that's not the problem, haha.

I got the 100ppm from this site: http://www.cider.org.uk/sulphite.html

There's a lot of sediment on the bottom, should I stir that up as well, or try to leave it.. I guess it doesn't matter.

 

[NoFiller]

Thanks YooperBrew! It's been 36hrs and there are definite signs of life. I stirred it up like you said and added some more of the same yeast (from a different store).

I wonder what happened before. How easy is it to kill yeast?

 

[Yooper]

Thanks YooperBrew! It's been 36hrs and there are definite signs of life. I stirred it up like you said and added some more of the same yeast (from a different store).

I wonder what happened before. How easy is it to kill yeast?

It's not easy to kill them- but maybe the package froze before you even bought it. It's hard to tell why that happened, but at least it is going now!

 

[gregbathurst]

Yeast packets don't last forever, especially if stored badly. I guess it could also have been a bad batch. 100ppm is a lot of camden, the amount you need depends on the pH. Maybe you should invest in a pH meter next time, they are helpful and add to the fun.