First time at making Hard Cider, had good Bloop Bloop Bloop on all three gallon jugs, for the first 4 or 5 days then it went to one every 45/60 second mark. I racked into another jug and then I have yet to seen any action in the airlocks in the past two days. The cider is clearing up nice, but no Bloop Bloop Bloop. Is something wrong and also, how long should it sit like this?
Thanks
why did you rack it? What yeast did you use? You need to leave pretty much any fermented beverage on the yeast for longer than 5 days for fermentation to complete.
Also, airlock activitiy does not equal fermentation activity. Although those bubbles make us feel good, they really don’t mean a whole lot (it can be a lot of things other than fermentation activity).
I think it was a good idea to rack, as it will slow the fermentation and inhibit it from fermenting to bone dryness. However Pietro is right about the Bloop Bloop. Bubbling means very little if anything. Your cider is most certainly still fermenting. It is just happening so very slowly and not generating a lot of CO2 at the moment. The only way to know for sure when fermentation is complete is to watch for when the yeast all settles out and leaves the cider very clear, then check the specific gravity, then wait another week, then check gravity a second time. If the gravity doesn’t change at all, fermentation is complete. If it does, then wait another week and check again. Repeat until the gravity stops changing. Typically for cider this will happen when specific gravity reaches 0.995 to 1.000, but you might get a few extra points out of it if you’re lucky, maybe 1.005. That would be great luck as then the cider won’t be dry as a bone but still slightly sweet which is what you want.
Thanks for the comments - I used D47 in two jugs and EC1118 in the last jug. Also I used dark brown sugar in one jug and light in the other two. I noted this morning that two of the jugs are really clearing up nicely, the other one, the one I used EC1118 is not:
• Used Santa Cruz Organic Apple Juice (3 quarts).
• Added Kroger’s Frozen concentrate Apple juice (Approx 3/8 cup)
• Added just shy of ¼ cup of Brown Sugar
• Added Yeast nutrient (3/4 tea)
• Added Pectin Enzyme
• Did not shake jug prior to adding yeast.
• Used Yeast Lalvin EC 1118 (wine Yeast), pitched on top of jug only
Sounds like a good recipe. I haven’t used those yeasts so I cannot comment further, except to say that it sounds like the D47 might be pretty close to ready to check gravity, while the EC1118 is probably not ready yet.
