damdaman
Well-Known Member
Here's the deal, I'm trying to make a med-high alcoholic, semi-dry to dry cider. I used 3 gallons of Santa Cruz organic apple juice combined with 1.5 lbs of brown cane sugar dissolved in a couple cups of boiling water. I had picked up Red Star champagne yeast as I heard this is a good cider yeast.
A couple hours before pitching I combined 1 packet with about a cup of warm water and a little sugar to act as a mini-starter (or so I hoped). It bubbled up nicely and looked good and active, but when I went to pitch, the bubbling had died down and it looked like gunky water.
I'm worried I left it in there too long without any food and the yeast have died off. I pitched it anyway and will obviously keep my eye on it for signs of active fermentation over the next 24 hours, but here's my questions...
1) would it do any harm to pitch another packet of yeast just in case? if the first one was fine and I pitch another will this lead to bad results, or just a quicker fermentation?
2) given that I want a pretty dry cider and I added sugar to the juice, is there a risk that there will be some active yeast left in there that ferment the juice but not as much as I want? i.e. I'll see signs of active fermentation but when it's all done it's a lot sweeter than I wanted? would it be too late to pitch another packet of yeast to "finish it off" at this point?
Thanks for any tips.
A couple hours before pitching I combined 1 packet with about a cup of warm water and a little sugar to act as a mini-starter (or so I hoped). It bubbled up nicely and looked good and active, but when I went to pitch, the bubbling had died down and it looked like gunky water.
I'm worried I left it in there too long without any food and the yeast have died off. I pitched it anyway and will obviously keep my eye on it for signs of active fermentation over the next 24 hours, but here's my questions...
1) would it do any harm to pitch another packet of yeast just in case? if the first one was fine and I pitch another will this lead to bad results, or just a quicker fermentation?
2) given that I want a pretty dry cider and I added sugar to the juice, is there a risk that there will be some active yeast left in there that ferment the juice but not as much as I want? i.e. I'll see signs of active fermentation but when it's all done it's a lot sweeter than I wanted? would it be too late to pitch another packet of yeast to "finish it off" at this point?
Thanks for any tips.