Yeast Stuck

[davidat]

Had a brew of 5gl fresh apple juice in for 3 weeks on primary Vintners CL23 and nutrient (68-71f)

When stopped @ 0.996 Racked into secondary on 2.2LBs brown suger. Should of added in primary I guess. A good surge of the old yeast came through but now 4 days later sitting at 64-66f the yeast has not kicked off again and the gravity is still at the same when adding the suger (1.014). Was wanting it down to at least 1.000.

Any ideas? Vintners say generally 68 - 75 but they also say CL23 can go as low as 46f.

Maybe I should get it back up to 71 or would more nutrient be a help? Did'nt want to repitch and add a bucket load more stuff at the bottom but gotta get it going again some how.

Cheers
Dave.

 

[oldmate]

Do you have any idea what % ABV that strain of yeast can ferment to? You may have reached it's limit. If you haven't, dissolve a small amount (1 teaspoon or whatever the packet says) of nutrient in some warm water and add it to the cider.

 

[davidat]

The yeast maker talks about >68f when pitching so have lifted the temp to 70f and it's started happily bubbling away out of the air lock so looks like she has kicked off again.

I should of thought of that, since it's been in primary for over 3 weeks the yeast would of slowed right down, so getting it back to reccomended pitching temp has rekindled the the buggers and off they have gone.

To answer your question CL23 dies out about 18% so I am way off that sitting around 7.5% max when this second ferment has been completed and thats only if I can get it down to .996 again.

Planning on dropping 50gms of Gobblers Bourbon chips in for a few days after this second ferm is done then a back sweeten with Agave and pasturise in the bottle with the stove stop method. Yum can taste it from here. Already has a real dark tingle to it from the 2.2lbs of dark brown sugar.

 

[oldmate]

Where abouts are you getting the agave from? (also from Sydney)

 

[gratus fermentatio]

Did you add any yeast nutrient/energizer? What's the PH?

 

[davidat]

Hi Old mate.

Agave you can get from health food shops or the supermarket under imported foods. I get mine which is a 100% blue agave from an importer.

Hi gratus '
As mentioned in first post I used CL23 and Nutrient.
It's happily kicked off as mentioned and now after 3 days has gone down 10 points, only 3-4 more and it should stop ahaon. Will be putting my bourbon chips in there today and check again in 4 days.