Does cider "krausen" like homebrew beer?

[jestmaty]

Long story short, the owner of the local homebrew supply store asked me to make this asap for a party in 11 days.



It is supposed to ferment for a minimum of 6 days if I keep the temp close to 80*F. Even then, if I bottle it, it will be only be carbing up for 5 days, so I'm not expecting much.

I primarily ferment my 5 gallon batches of beer in a 6.5 gallon better bottle and that's all I have. So now, the bb is full of 6 gallons of freshly pitched cider.... only about 2-3 inches of headspace.

Am I going to have sticky cider all over my kitchen by leaving so little room? About 1/2 the time I ferment my beers, they climb out the airlock. I've started to play it safe by rigging a blow off tube ALL THE TIME.

To recap, will this thing krausen like beer? BTW, I know krausen isn't a verb but I made it one

 

[jestmaty]

forgot to add, I've been homebrewing for just about 2 years, actually made 40 batches from April 6th 2012 till April 7th of this year. So, well over 50 batches of just about every kind of beer.

Never, ever made cider before.. pretty much mixed up a juice concentrate, 3liters of boiling water, 2.2lbs of corn sugar, and topped it up to the 6 gallon mark after pitching yeast and some kind of sweetener.

I keep my fermentation chest at about 65*F and that's a tad too cold for this... it likes it in the higher 70's to ferment quickly and we need this quickly. So it's sitting on a stable barstool with a dark towel draped over it to keep light out

The temp hasn't changed since I pitched an hour and a half ago and I swear I see a bubble every minute or so in the airlock. Prolly going to rig up a blow off tube to play it safe.

 

[malador]

I've done about 6-10 batches of hard cider, never more than half an inch of krausen. But i've never had any of them finish fermenting in under two weeks either.

 

[jestmaty]

Thanks...

I really like the owner, and he's new to this type of business by his own admission. But, when he called this evening and asked me to make this, (no charge for the 'kit' or corn sugar) for the 1 yr anniversary gathering which is Sunday the 28th, I figured no way it would be ready or even taste good in 11 days.

I'll just revisit the cider with a hydrometer next Wed pm and see if it's reached it's fg..