What horrible thing have I created?

[frozennorth]

My wife and I tried an experiment. We took two, one gallon containers of Tree Top cider, added 1/8 cup of brown sugar to one, none in the other. We then added 1/5 of a slap pack of Wyeast Cider yeast to both gallons. A stopper and air lock were put on both bottles and we waited. Nothing happened for 36 hours. When I got home from work I had two blown stoppers, krauesen( does that apply the same with cider?) pouring out across the counter. I cleaned, re-sterilized, and replaced the stoppers and air locks, after pouring out a bit of cider. Tonight, two weeks later, we poured a glass. It foamed highly and smells very sour. Like the post says, what have I created? I am scared of it!

 

[podz]

Cider does a rise and fall one-day krausen, usually starting after one day.

Foaming?

 

[Paps]

Does it smell like it's still fermenting?
I've had ciders show airlock activity well beyond 3 weeks in primary.
I often use tree-top as well but i do add considerably more sugar than you have here. Also i use lalvin EC-1118 yeast if that is any interest to you.
Krausen can last for days in ciders and i too have had to clean off an airlock or two allthough none that i recall have completely blown off.
If your cider is infected, it wont be anything that can kill you. Certain things cannot live in alcohol. But keep in mind that if it was making enough CO2 to blow off the airlock it was probably also producing enough to keep any bugs out as well. Have a taste.....if it tastes `yeasty` then i'd say it's not done fermenting.

 

[frozennorth]

Sorry, not foaming, but highly carbonated. Why would it be carbonated? It has a very sour taste, not like yeast, but like a sour beer, vinegary.

My wife has corrected me, it was in for three weeks. No air lock activity in at least a week and a half. My fear is that I blew off most of the yeast and have produced a vinegar.

 

[podz]

Sorry, not foaming, but highly carbonated. Why would it be carbonated? It has a very sour taste, not like yeast, but like a sour beer, vinegary.

My wife has corrected me, it was in for three weeks. No air lock activity in at least a week and a half. My fear is that I blew off most of the yeast and have produced a vinegar.

High carbonation, in and of itself, can give a very sour taste. In most languages, the word for carbon dioxide is "carbon-sour".

My guess is that it just needs to be degassed.

Producing vinegar on accident is about as likely as being hit by a lightning bolt, despite the FUD that a lot of people parrot on about.

 

[frozennorth]

If the airlock is in place, why, or even how, would it carbonate? That is one of the things that I really can not figure out.

 

[podz]

If the airlock is in place, why, or even how, would it carbonate? That is one of the things that I really can not figure out.

Yeast produces gas during fermentation. For example, you can draw beer out of a fermenter's spigot right after fermentation has finished and it already has a head.

 

[chevalcider]

I've been a member of this forum for a little over a year now. I just started my second year of cider. I believe the carbonation question has been answered...it just CO2 that hasn't off gassed yet...or perhaps the cider is still fermenting a little. I will now give you the advice that I've seen a lot of others give over the past year....wait! Now that I have been sampling my cider over the course of a year I have noticed that it keeps on getting better with age. What I felt like pouring down the drain just a month ofter fermenting I am now enjoying immensely.

So let me reiterate, WAIT!!!! You won't regret it.

 

[frozennorth]

Thank you all for your help. I shall wait and see what happens.

 

[oljimmy]

Store-bought apple juice usually has a moderate amount of sugar and lots of malic acid. The sugar "balances" the acid on the palate so it is less noticeable. The simple story is that fermentation has removed the sugar and left the acid, hence the vinegary taste and smell. I remember being shocked by my first ciders in precisely this way.

Also, there is a tone of active yeast in your liquid... drinking it at this early stage can lead to... unpleasant gastro-intestinal events.

 

[Parsnip]

My cider turned out for the worse and I also dont know what I created.

The airlock stopped bubbling after a week because it was ready and the yeast was dead. It was all dead because I put way too much sugar in initially, 10Kg for 50 litres of real apple juice. I tasted it as I transferred it over to a secondary and it was like drinking a cross between wine and some apple schnaps/spirit hybrid. 1 pint of it and i was well on my way. The taste isn't the best, tasting thick and heavy and the morning after didnt feel like it should, a strange hang over kind of feeling that was.... different, with a bad lingering after taste.

I bottled it anyways in the hope it will improve over time.