Beer Forum

I've had 2 gallons of cider in the fermenter for 4 weeks. I took a gravity reading yesterday to check how close it was to being done, and found the gravity to be 1048. The cider was sweet, smelled fine with just a hint of fermenting tang and had lots of very small bubbles in the hydro sample. No sign, smell or taste of infection.

I stirred the crap out of it with my racking cane, replaced the airlock with a freshly cleaned and sanitized one and left it alone. By midnight the airlock was bubbling once every 3 seconds, and this morning has slowed to once every 9-11 seconds.

Should I let the cider ferment? I'm pretty sure the White Labs English Cider yeast got too cold and fell to the bottom. I had the fermentor wrapped in Warm Window insulation and mildly heated to 62-65 in my basement early during the fermentation, but saw very little airlock activity. At the time I assumed that it was because I was fermenting 2 gallons in a 6 gallon fermenter.

I've never made cider before and I've never used this yeast, so I'm a bit unsure of how to proceed. I did make a starter overnight on the yeast, and I'm using unpasteurized, preservative free, organic cider.

I would let it go a couple more days. 62-65 sounds good. Air lock activity once every 9-11 seconds should be ok especially with that much dead space. Take another hydro reading when things slow to once every 60 seconds.
Hope this helps.

Thanks. I wasn't sure if I should be concerned about autolysis at this point. I figure it must not be dead if it's just now starting up again, but will it be ok for several more weeks? Should I wait until the airlock activity slows and rack to secondary?

Yeah you should be fine letting it sit a couple more weeks. I would rack to secondary though as I've found ciders are a little touchier about picking up off flavors in the long haul.

Im just about ready to keg my cider right now. I started it in the '06 season. I let it do the initial ferm, then after a couple months when its really slowed down, rack to secondary. The its been in my cool basement since. Now its nice and clear and ready to go. I say make sure you let the yeast do its thing then after your sure its mostly done, then transfer.

-Crut

BTW, welcome TBN forums!

Thanks, it's been a week and i'm still getting bubbles every 15 seconds, so I'm not transferring in the mean time. I think I'll condition it in a 3 gallon carboy for 4-8 weeks after the airlock activity stops just to make sure. The nice thing about this is that my huby readily agreed to the addition of more fermenters since our current one is tied up.

Another supportive, brewing spouse! You are among the few... Are you the primary brewer, while your husband does all the cleaning? (Just say yes, even if it is not true). We have to make Badrock jealous somehow.

Welcome to the madness!


Mylo

I think it's ruined and should be shipped to me for immediate disposal.


Travis