Cider with Safale US-04 not working

[Varnas]

Hi!

I pressed on 22. sept 24 liters apple juice, pasteurized it.
I let it sit until 25. sept then added Safale US-04 yeast, now it's 29. sept and still no activity. I guess something is not OK?
Any suggestions?

I didn't add any extra sugars or anything else extra. SG was 1.044.

 

[Thunder_Chicken]

Cider ferments are much slower than ale ferments, particularly using ale yeast. They don't krausen very much and give of CO2 at a pretty slow rate.

If you are measuring "activity" by how much your airlock bubbles, know that that is a useless indicator of fermentation. If you have a tiny leak around the airlock, no gas goes through the airlock. Also, your airlock will bubble even if you put it on a completely empty carboy and then place it in the sun (gas in the carboy warms up and expands, pushed out of the airlock).

Check the gravity with a hydrometer - the only real measure of fermentation is how much sugar is being turned into alcohol and CO2. This is especially important with ciders as the last 10 points or so will come off very slowly. If you bottle early at 1.010, thinking the ferment has ended, you will get bottle bombs. Gravity for this cider should end up at 1.000 or lower, but it may take several weeks to get there.

 

[Varnas]

Thank You for answer. The airlock seemed to be not too tight yes, that might me the reason why it's not bubbling.
I'll measure the SG today and will see, if that's the case.

 

[ROLLTIDE]

I like using Safale S-04 for my ciders as well. At the height of fermentation, there is only airlock movement every 7 seconds or so and in a week it has only gone down around .020. I like this yeast because I can ferment in a spare closet with no extra cooling and have a great finished product. Also, with the slow fermenting there is a larger window to stop the fermenting process if you like it a little sweeter and less dry.

 

[ROLLTIDE]

And, this time I also went without adding extra sugar on the front end to try to avoid the "wine taste " my swmbo hates so much....we'll see how that goes.

 

[sok454]

My cider was going to slow at first as well. But after about 2 weeks it was down to about 1.012. Haven't check it for 8 days since so I think I will check it this week. Like the guys said very little if any Krausen. The color of mine has changed over time as evertyhing settles. Smells good.

 

[Varnas]

Ok, checked the reading, its from 1.044 to 1.032 with five days. I guess not the fastest fermantation, but seems it is ok.

 

[Thunder_Chicken]

Yep, that's about right. Park it for a few more weeks and then check it again. You're making cider

 

[WVMJ]

Are you guys adding any yeast nutrients? Thanks, WVMJ

 

[sok454]

This was the first recipe I had used nutrients. Based on what others had said about maybe needing some extra kick.

 

[ROLLTIDE]

My lhbs hasn't had any nutriment in awhile so my last batch I boiled,mashed and strained some raisins. This works well in a pinch. My current batch I did not add anything and it seems to be doing okay. I will know more tomorrow after stabilizing and my caramel cinnamon syrup is mixed in. Final fermentation time will be two weeks three days with an OG of 1.055 and an FG of 1.010. I can say that it was extremely tart before backsweetening.