Cider not fermenting?

[tallmikeG]

About a week (and a half) ago, I purchased 5.5 gallons of fresh pasteurized apple cider from a local orchard and threw it all into a 6.5 gallon glass carboy with a few campden tablets. after waiting 24 hours, i pitched a vial of British Cider yeast. three days later, there was still no activity so i pitched a bit of rehydrated packet yeast to see if the yeast was the problem. Two full days after that there was still no activity. Figuring the cider was lacking fermentables, i tossed about 1.5 pints of quality maple syrup into the carboy, and managed to get some very slow bubbling from the airlock and a thin layer of krausen.

now for my questions:
1. after spending a week in the carboy without activity, do you think the cider has gone bad?
2. with very little activity happening at the moment, should i add more sugar/honey/syrup to speed the process?

any tips/suggestions would be appreciated! thanks in advance!

[sullydavid]

Have you tried taking a gravity reading? I am a notorious bubble watcher and was a little concerned when I made my cider (only one attempt so far). I saw very little bubble activity, but the fermentation was going on. Was much slower than my average beer's but it did happen.

[tallmikeG]

i've been really horrible about taking gravity readings lately...a habit i should definitely get into now that i'm comfortable with the brewing process. i'll take a reading when i get home. your slow bubbling experience puts my mind at ease (a bit)! thanks, sullydavid!

[YamahaXS]

tallmike,

I noticed my Ciders were very slow to start (about a week to get up to full steam). Compared to beer anyways... My guess is that you have fermentation going, and that you should worry about it too much more. If you wanted you could add some more sugars, BUT certainly your cider has fermentables. The only way it wouldn't would be if your supplier had harvested his fruit too early and the starches hadn't been fully converted. I doubt that a professional cider maker would do this. The fresh cider wouldn't taste right.

You should expect your FG to be at 1.000 or 1.001 as apples usualy ferment all the way out. Excepting that you haven't boosted the abv beyond the yeasts tolerance.

IMO, just wait, don't do anything else. :)

good luck.
YamahaXS

[tallmikeG]

thanks for the reassurance, YamahaXS. I'll do just that!

[mortong]

Two things I'd recommend adding that I put into mine, with good results:

1. Yeast nutrients
2. Pectic enzyme

From what I understand there are plenty of fermentables in cider, but it lacks some key nutrients yeast needs to ferment.

The enzyme releases more juice and flavor (and possibly fermentables?)

I paid about $1.50 each for both of these, with enough to last a number of batches.

Geoff