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Have a 1 gallon batch going
Noticed potassium sorbate listed in the ingredients but its fermenting albeit slowly. Good layer of yeast in bottom of jug, used ale yeast. Should i just let this keep on plugging, or is there a definitive sign that the fermentation is done? No added sugar or other sweeteners. Any advice? Thanks
Need a little more info to give you any usefull advice. How long has it been going? Cider generally takes a lot longer than beer, and fermentation will not be as active as beer. Fermentation is done when the Hydrometer reads the same for several days. It all depends on your taste. Taste it, if you like the flavour you can add the sorbate, if you want it dryer let it keep going. If you use the sorbate you won't get a sparkling either, just a still cider. My suggestion in your case is to let it go until you get the same Hydrometer reading for several days, then bottle with 1/2 teaspoon of priming sugar per bottle to get a sparkling cider. I've heard that with Ale yeast you want to use corn sugar or dextrose, not table sugar, which is fine with wine yeast. But I'm fairly new to this myself, some more advanced brewers may tell you table sugar will work. Or even honey...yummm. I did all my ciders this year with dry wine and champainge yeasts, but I was going for dry, rockin' hooch, which I got. This however, meant I was fermenting for over three months before bottling.
Just remember, you're brewing for you and not anyone else, so brew to your taste. It's nice if other people like your cider, but if you don't what's the point? My guess is with an ale yeast you'll have a little sweetness left over, but maybe not if you didn't add anything to the primary. Good luck!
P.S. If you add the sorbate, you might want to let it sit in your fermenter for one additional day with it added before you bottle. This will give it time to do it's job, which doesn't happen instantly.
I did not have a hydrometer when i set up this batch, I sterilized all my equipment and filled my 5l jug with a gallon of cider and pitched the yeast. Its been going slowly since 3/14. I plan on just keeping an eye on it. It has about 3/8-1/2". Of yeast in the bottom. So i know its active. Other than that i dont have much more info to give. Next batch i'll get an accurate reading when i start off. The local brewing shop said to figure on a couple of months. I am not good at being patient,,, Wish me strength.
I think a few months is a little extreme, given you didn't add any additional fermentables, and are using ale yeast. If you have a hydrometer now check the gravity today, then in four or five days from now, if it's the same, you're pretty much done fermenting. If it's down to 1.010-1.000 you should be fine to bottle without having bombs. Like I said, if I were you I'd sparkle this, and leave the sorbate out, because I think of still cider more along making apple wine. The original gravity is only useful if you want a means of knowing alcohol content, which is nice, but not necessary.
You may want to rack it into a secondary to get it off the cake and let it clear a week or two before bottling, but again, that may not be needed (I'm guessing you used apple juice since fresh pressed cider is out of season) or rack it into something, wash out the cake and rack it back into your 5l jug, there will still be acive yeast floating around in the juice waiting for something to eat, and too long on the cake will make off flavors. Just remember to siphon and not pour, oxidation is not good after the orriginal pitch. Sanitize everything and you'll be fine. Cheers!
The potassium sorbate was already in the cider. It was a preservative.. I think its why my fermentation stalled. I am thinking of adding in a cup of natural apple juice which has had chopped organic raisins added to it. Boiled and steeped to rid it of any off flavors or yeasts. It should jumpstart the fermentation again
Ahhh, I misunderstood the orriginal post, I thought you were following a recepie you found that told you to add sorbate later on. This could be a problem, most everyone says never to use juice with preservative in it. That doesn't mean you can't ferment, but it's hard. The sorbate doesn't kill the yeast, what it does is prevent the yeast from reproducing, so in addition to your cup of juice you might want to pitch another package of yeast in. The yeast build up on the bottom isn't active, they are dead rememnance, though may contain some live yeast cells. I'd crack it open and taste it to see if it's turned to vinigar or not. If the yeast didn't get off to a quick enough start, bacteria may have evolved quicker than the yeast, or at the same rate. yeast makes the boose, bacteria makes the vinigar. And sanatizing isn't steralizing, you will almost never kill all the bacteria unless you soak everything in pure iodine (which makes everything taste like iodine) or heat everything up to 190* which will melt most plastic and crack most glass. The process of sanatizing is to negate the bacteria to managable/minimal levels where the yeast will be dominant enough to take over.
I have heard people say they successfully brewed with cider that had sorbate in it, check some of the older posts in this forum, pretty sure I ran into one a while ago that said he had before, but chances of success are diminished greatly. This time of year most people starting a cider are using juice (preservative free) or from concentrate, because "cider" is out of season and most of it has the preservative in it. I hope you have success, but I'd open it up and snatch some out with straw/carboy theif/siphon (sanatized, of course) and taste it to make sure you're not wasting your time waiting for cider vinager.
Here, I found this link regarding the subject.
http://www.instructables.com/id/Home-Br … A-Starter/
hope your not screwed, but at least it's only a gallon and not five.
I added in 1 cup of organic raisins soaked in 100 proof vodka to hydrate and kill off the bad things that might be in them, i added to that mixture 8-12 oz of organic apple juice. Fermentation seems to have kicked back up. Hopefully the added sugar content of the juice and the raisins will give this cider a fermentation boost. I considered adding in more yeast but bubbles were visible in the fermenter. I am confident this is going to proceed nicely.
Edit . Checked on both fermentations. Raisins floating in cider. Lots of tiny bubbles racing towards the surface. Moved fermenter back to dark corner near furnace.. Juice fermentation is gaining speed since turning temp of fridge up . All appears well.
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