Cedar Rapids Brewing Society

Found some pressed cider nearing the expiration date for next to nothing. Warmed up a gallon and dissolved a pound of brown and white sugar. Added 4 more gallons and pitched two packets of premier cuvée wine yeast. 2 days and not a sign of krausen and I'm bummed. Never made a cider, just went off a video I saw in a search and mimicked his methods.

Yeast was bought from Joe Tuesday night and pitched within an hour. Do I add more yeast? Go with an ale yeast?


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Did you check the gravity? Cider doesn't always form a krausen because there isn't much foam-positive protein.

Yes and it was 1.068 and checked again this morning and it's still the same.


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I'd just dump in a vial of ale yeast.

I have a vial of WL-099 for a barley wine I could dump.


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I've been using s-04 for most of my ciders. They do not form krausen. They also take 3+ weeks to finish fermenting out.

Adding nutrient(DAP) may help reduce any awful odors that may come out of the airlock also ( http://www.cider.org.uk/nitro.htm )

Also, was this verified to have no preservatives in it beyond malic/ascorbic acids? Any sorbate/benzonate/*sulfite will prevent fermentation.

andrewmaixner wrote: Also, was this verified to have no preservatives in it beyond malic/ascorbic acids? Any sorbate/benzonate will prevent fermentation.

No preservatives that I saw, but I will check tonight to make sure. It was in the cooler by the fresh fruits not on the shelf next to the other juices.


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Fine print 0.1% potassium sorbate to preserve freshness. [emoji26]


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That just stops reproduction (or growth as some may perfer)... if you pitch enough it may be okay?

2 packs of wine yeast and WLP099 and still nada. I may call it later this weekend


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That sucks.
Fortunately the cheep apple juices (Aldi, Walmart) tend to have no preservatives, and although not quite as good as from-scratch cider, they are cheep, easy, and fast -- from store to glass in 1 month easily, at your chosen level of sweetness, if you keg. Just add 1-2 Lb brown sugar, nutrient, O2 and a packet of ale yeast.

May try to siphon this out and dump another brand in the yeast and it should take off. Still not giving up on this


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