elkdictation
New Member
Hello, this is my second time homebrewing cider. My yeasts seem to have given up, and I've tried all the advice I could find on this forum and elsewhere, so I come to tell you my cider's tale in the hope of getting a better understanding of what might be going on!
My friend has a number of old apple trees in his yard. Around December I ran the apples through a home tabletop juicer, then hand squeezed the pulp through a fine gauze. I did two batches from the same orchard, pressed a few weeks apart, 12 and 8 liters. A few years ago we made wild-yeast cider with different apples and proper equipment, and I loved the results, so decided to try wild yeast fermentation here as well.
I racked both ciders twice. By early February, after around six weeks of fermentation, the 12l one stopped at SG 1.0200, the 8l at 1.0078. I let them sit some more, but after a month in my 59 degree F cellar, neither had moved a wink.
I thought the cellar might be a bit cold, but bringing the cider upstairs and indoors into 69F temperature made no difference.
I have learned on this forum that old unfertilized apples -- the type in my friend's yard -- can be lacking in YAN and nutrients. I added a very small amount of Servomyces nutrients. I read around and found guides specifying ppm, and calculated it out roughly to dipping the tail of a spoon into the nutrients and adding that to the 12l batch. It made no difference.
I tested the PH - again, don't remember the exact value, but nothing unexpected from what I could find online.
Finally I brought a jar of the cider upstairs and added coobra cider yeast to it. It fermented for a bit, then stopped at 1.0193.
At this point I'm rather out of ideas. Is it possible I simply didn't add enough yeast to the sample? Maybe the countertop juicer pulverized too many seeds, and added enough cyanide to the mix to kill yeast? My carboys are not very full, maybe too much surface area and oxygen spoiled the process?
I should add that both taste absolutely delicious. I was really hoping for sparkling cider though and not apple wine!
My friend has a number of old apple trees in his yard. Around December I ran the apples through a home tabletop juicer, then hand squeezed the pulp through a fine gauze. I did two batches from the same orchard, pressed a few weeks apart, 12 and 8 liters. A few years ago we made wild-yeast cider with different apples and proper equipment, and I loved the results, so decided to try wild yeast fermentation here as well.
I racked both ciders twice. By early February, after around six weeks of fermentation, the 12l one stopped at SG 1.0200, the 8l at 1.0078. I let them sit some more, but after a month in my 59 degree F cellar, neither had moved a wink.
I thought the cellar might be a bit cold, but bringing the cider upstairs and indoors into 69F temperature made no difference.
I have learned on this forum that old unfertilized apples -- the type in my friend's yard -- can be lacking in YAN and nutrients. I added a very small amount of Servomyces nutrients. I read around and found guides specifying ppm, and calculated it out roughly to dipping the tail of a spoon into the nutrients and adding that to the 12l batch. It made no difference.
I tested the PH - again, don't remember the exact value, but nothing unexpected from what I could find online.
Finally I brought a jar of the cider upstairs and added coobra cider yeast to it. It fermented for a bit, then stopped at 1.0193.
At this point I'm rather out of ideas. Is it possible I simply didn't add enough yeast to the sample? Maybe the countertop juicer pulverized too many seeds, and added enough cyanide to the mix to kill yeast? My carboys are not very full, maybe too much surface area and oxygen spoiled the process?
I should add that both taste absolutely delicious. I was really hoping for sparkling cider though and not apple wine!
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