Cider - Terrified of Terrior

[BrewFrau]

Hi - I joined specifically to ask cider experts whether a wild fermented cider I have in a fermenter is "safe" to drink.

Here's the short version - I have about 3ish gallons of cider that has been fermenting on wild yeast from the orchard. It had a rather dubious start - see details below. It has cleared nicely but has this greyish whitish crud floating on the top. Is this worth bothering with any further or should I just dump it in the compost pile?

Here is the long version: We have a small orchard and a 19th century cider press so we usually press 30-40 gallons of cider a season. Most of our friends take it home and drink it sweet but I ferment mine. This year the juice had an OG of 1.055.

One of our friend abandoned a four gallon carboy of un treated cider in our garage. After a month of being abandoned, without an airlock" and knowing that it was no longer going to be fit to drink as "sweet cider" I decided to rack it off the crud into a fermenter to see what would happen. It spent its first month from mid October to mid-November abandoned in my garage without an airlock, just a foilcover, at ambient temps of 40-60 degrees F on very roughly strained juice, bits of apple flesh floating on the bottom. After I racked it, and put an airlock on it, it spent another month in the basement from mid-November to mid-December at a fairly steady 65ish degree temps. Once moved basement it took-off. It never formed krausen but got very light colored and had a very active airlock. And this batch never produced the rhino farts that I got from the ciders treated with sulfites generated on Nottingham and Cotes du Blanc yeasts.

Once my little terrior test settled down in mid-December I racked it again. Since it was the Christmas season I didn't have time for bottling. Also - I was little scared of it. It has been lurking in the dark recesses of the basement and now that mid-winter doldrums have set in I have decided I have to deal with this scary little experiment. I am not sure what to do with it.

There is a layer of greyish white crud floating on top. It doesn't sink nor does it stink. Just sits there and I am not sure how to deal with it. I haven't tried it and I am not sure I should. There doesn't seem to be hardly any lees on the bottom just mostly this crud happily floating on the top. What should I do with it? Is it even worth spending any more time on this? Is this just going to taste like vinegar?

If you think its worth pursuing this, should I just try to rack the cider out from under the crud?

Then what? Should I bottle it still or should I condition it? My go to priming ratio is 1 oz corn sugar/gallon, should I try it on this stuff or is this going to be so sour there is no saving it?

Any advice is most appreciated.

 

[Birrofilo]

There probably is a scoby sitting on the top, and what you have is presumably a kombucha.

Humanity struggled a lot to obtain valid and effective poisons from plants and animals. Never I read valid poisons having being obtained from spontaneously fermented cider

If I were you, I would take the scoby away, take a glass of it and sniff it accurately. If you smell vinegar or vomit or used diaper, then I think you can discard it without tasting it.

If it doesn't have any suspicious stink, then I would just sip a little quantity of it and see what it tastes. It is probably tart but it might be complex and interesting. You might have a sour beer, some kind of a saison or a lambic, or just something weird but drinkable. Certain sour beers are surprising, why not a sour cider?

The most likely outcome is that it is good for your salad, though, for excess acidity. You might have a very good cider vinegar.

Have a shot of gin* in any case to clean and sanitize your mouth after that, just in case...

* you can alternatively or concurrently use whisky, vodka, grappa, tequila, rum etc.

 

[BrewFrau]

There probably is a scoby sitting on the top, and what you have is presumably a kombucha.

Humanity struggled a lot to obtain valid and effective poisons from plants and animals. Never I read valid poisons having being obtained from spontaneously fermented cider

If I were you, I would take the scoby away, take a glass of it and sniff it accurately. If you smell vinegar or vomit or used diaper, then I think you can discard it without tasting it.

If it doesn't have any suspicious stink, then I would just sip a little quantity of it and see what it tastes. It is probably tart but it might be complex and interesting. You might have a sour beer, some kind of a saison or a lambic, or just something weird but drinkable. Certain sour beers are surprising.

The most likely outcome is that it is good for your salad, though, for excess acidity.

Have a shot of gin* in any case to clean and sanitize your mouth after that, just in case...

* you can alternatively or concurrently use whisky, vodka, grappa, tequila, rum etc.

Thanks - I can always use apple cider vinegar for making my German potato salad

 

[BrewFrau]

Ok - dug out a stainless steel straw and got up the courage to give it a try - it was very nice! Not terribly sour. In fact I think my treated cider made on Nottingham ale yeast is more sour and dry than the wild ferment.

And now that I got a good look at the crud on top I can see that it is a well formed yeast colony. It has formed a mat that is dry on top and looks exactly like instant bread yeast, fascinating.

Since it has an OG of only 1.055 it will make for a very light wine so I think I'll prime it and bottle. That way I can do a head to head comparison between the orchard terroir cider and Nottingham cider I made this fall.

Thanks for the support.

 

[Transamguy77]

I have let fresh pressed cider ferment, it’s usually to dry for me. There is a yeast on the apple skins that will usually take off if the juice is untreated or dosed heavily with your yeast of choice. Glad it worked out.