Cider Going Bad At 1st Fermentation

[willpower]

Hi all.
For the 3rd time now my cider is going bad at the first fermentation stage.
I wash the plastic keg with a capfull of bleach and plenty of hot water.
I use fresh apples.
I use the correct proportion of wine yeast as sold and recomended by brewcraft here in Melbourne.

The cider develops a huge amount of sediment and does not bubble through the one way valve like the working batches did.

Can anyone shed some light on this for me?
Thanks.
Will.

 

[loikar]

Hi all.
For the 3rd time now my cider is going bad at the first fermentation stage.
I wash the plastic keg with a capfull of bleach and plenty of hot water.
I use fresh apples.
I use the correct proportion of wine yeast as sold and recomended by brewcraft here in Melbourne.

The cider develops a huge amount of sediment and does not bubble through the one way valve like the working batches did.

Can anyone shed some light on this for me?
Thanks.
Will.

Going Bad?
Infection, sour, bitter, like drinking bad breath?

How are you preparing your apples?

 

[brettprevans]

R u washing that bleech out? Massive multiple rinses. Christ I hope so.
Yup we need more derails on what bad means
Brewcraft are idiots. Check ahb for aporopriate details
What else r u putting into fermentor

 

[Greg.L]

Problems in primary are not usually due to sanitation or cleaning. How did you juice your apples? If you used a kitchen juicer that may explain a lot of sediment. If you rehydrated the yeast it should start working soon, you just need a little patience.

Greg

 

[pk.sax]

Run a google search on 'airlock not bubbling'

 

[manticle]

Hi all.
For the 3rd time now my cider is going bad at the first fermentation stage.
I wash the plastic keg with a capfull of bleach and plenty of hot water.
I use fresh apples.
I use the correct proportion of wine yeast as sold and recomended by brewcraft here in Melbourne.

The cider develops a huge amount of sediment and does not bubble through the one way valve like the working batches did.

Can anyone shed some light on this for me?
Thanks.
Will.

If you are using fresh apples, you can let the juice sit for a night or 2 to develop a crust on top. Rack from under this into a new vessel then add your yeast to the new container. This aids clarification in the final product.

Bubbling through the airlock means very little. Ciders tend to have a less vigorous fermentation than beer so it may be fermenting fine and you just don't think it is. Measure the gravity before adding the yeast, then again a few days later to see if the yeast is working. Be patient and ferment on the cooler side.

 

[willpower]

If you are using fresh apples, you can let the juice sit for a night or 2 to develop a crust on top. Rack from under this into a new vessel then add your yeast to the new container. This aids clarification in the final product.

Bubbling through the airlock means very little. Ciders tend to have a less vigorous fermentation than beer so it may be fermenting fine and you just don't think it is. Measure the gravity before adding the yeast, then again a few days later to see if the yeast is working. Be patient and ferment on the cooler side.

Hi all. thanks for the replies.
As I said the symptoms mainly are the massive amount of sediment. I think its called "Lee" is that right?
Looking from the outside of the keg in it looks quite cloudy. I know my good batches never looked like this.

I think the yeast might be the problem as its the only thing I have changed. I was previously using champagne yeast.

I wash the apples in hot water then use a breville juicer.

I do wash the keg very well and I'm satisfied that it has no bleach left in it.

I'll keep this batch going for another week or so. Been 1 week now inside in Melbourne weather. Approx 19 degrees all the time.

Thanks.

 

[ekul]

Something that i've noticed with cider(not that i've made many!) is that they sometimes give off a rotten egg smell. The ciders that smelt like that turned out fine though.

 

[willpower]

Something that i've noticed with cider(not that i've made many!) is that they sometimes give off a rotten egg smell. The ciders that smelt like that turned out fine though.

Yes it has a bit of that

 

[brettprevans]

Problems in primary are not usually due to sanitation or cleaning. How did you juice your apples? If you used a kitchen juicer that may explain a lot of sediment. If you rehydrated the yeast it should start working soon, you just need a little patience.

Greg

really? you better tell all those people with primary infections that they dont really have infections.


back to OP

sounds like you should just let it run. hard to tell what final result is going to be just by looking (in fact id say its impossible). let her go and see how it turns out.

on the weekend I did another quick batch of cider for summer - dumped 50L of juice (80% apple 20% apple blackberry) into fermentor, with 150g lactose, DAP, and slowly adding 2kg of sugar. some nice D47 champaigne yeast and ill be happy in a few weeks. mind you its mainly for xmas and my sisters xmas present, so im hoping to ferment and bottle carb in under 3 weeks. that will be challanging and pushing things (im in the long slow ferment school of brewing). and im wonering how 2L PET juice bottle go. cant be any worse than Bribie's 2L crown cola PETs!


good luck with your cider. just keep at it.

 

[Greg.L]

really? you better tell all those people with primary infections that they dont really have infections.

I'm not sure what infections you are talking about. In my experience problems in primary are usually due to stressed yeast/nutrient issues, overheating or overpitching/underpitching yeast, or oxidation at the end of primary. Infection problems usually happen in secondary when the yeast has stopped its vigorous fermentation. Thats when the other nasty microbes get working.

"infections" is the excuse people use when they have a problem with their process but want to blame something else.