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apple cyser question

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H

heathd666

Worker Bee
Registered Member
Nov 3, 2013
61
0
6
Indpls In
original recipe

Honey 5 pounds SueBee white clover honey
Yeast Red Star Cote Des Blancs 3425
Apple Juice 5.5 gallons Kroger brand Apple Juice
6 Cinnemon sticks
2 tablespoons kroger brand apple pie spice
OG/SG 1.096

started with 1 gallon apple juice in fermenter
started up another 1 galllon apple juice in a stainless pot on stove brought to simmer than stirred in brown suger and honey. brought to simmer added cinnamon and spice. added to fermenter and added 3.5 gallons apple juice to equal 6 gallons. checked temperature it was 70 degrees ish. put 1 cup water in bowl and added 2 packages redstar cote des blancs yeast. used a small sanitized whisk to mix. (i know not smart i should not have used whisk) added 2 1/2 teaspoon energizer and 5 teaspoons nutrient into must and mixed well with sanitized spoon. after yeast started foaming i added to must and stirred well. i added a sterilized piece of rubber hose to part of an air lock inside water in a sterilized pepsi 2 litre bottle for an air lock. everyday i have stirred it with a sanitized degasser/ aerorator or a sanitized spoon.

my problem is i never really noticed any fermentation activity. after 5 days i added a regular air lock. its been 7 days total and i retook a gravity reading it is at 1.065. have i done something wrong? should i wait longer? should i add more yeast? (i have 2 packages lalvin d47) i started a 5 gallon batch of traditional ( nottingham ale yeast) and a 1 gallon batch of peach (wyeast 3787) on the same day as this one and there is alot of activity in both of those.

sincerely
heath delashmit
 
Keep checking it, it's down by a third already so it HAS been fermenting, some fermentations are just like that. If you get consecutive SG's that are the same, it's stopped and it's time to initiate restart protocols, although the yeast I'd try for that would be EC-1118 and I'd do an acclimated starter. I'd also suggest stirring it gently every day, keep things moving.

What temperature is your brewing space at?
 
65 degrees farenheight (guess its how you spell it) it is never the same but 65 is a average its in a dark closet.

sincerely
heath delashmit
 
I'm not familiar with the yeast but maybe it likes things a bit warmer. I wouldn't worry though, as long as the SG keeps dropping.
 
As CG said, if your SG is dropping, there is something happening.

Are you getting any degassing(fizzing) when you aerate?

65F is at the very bottom end for that yeast so it is going to ferment very slow and may not go completely dry.

Cote range is 64-86F so anything below 80 shouldn't produce much fusels.

I would try to get the temp up at least to 70F, preferably 75F.
 
I would continue to wait. In my admittedly limited experience, Cote Des Blancs ferments very slowly. It did, however, produce a very tasty mead. According to my notes, it took around seven weeks to ferment completely in the first batch I used it in, and about 6 weeks to do the job on the other batch.
 
yes when i pull the top off the fermenter bucket i have giant clear bubbles. when i aerate it its a white foam that is on top. so i should continue aerating it until the first racking than?

thanks
heath delashmit
 
Cote does Blancs will go slow at cool temps. You don't need to aerate it any more. Just close it up and swirl it at least a couple of times a day. If it seems to stop short of completion, warm it up a few degrees. It is a yeast that makes some very nice mead.

Sent from my THINGAMAJIG with WHATCHAMACALLIT
 
heathd666 said:
yes when i pull the top off the fermenter bucket i have giant clear bubbles. when i aerate it its a white foam that is on top. so i should continue aerating it until the first racking than?
Click to expand...

No, I think you are right at the 1/3 sugar break now. Once you get 1/3 of the way through, oxygen is no longer your friend.

If your OG was 1.096 (if I remember correctly), the 1/3 sugar break would be 1.064, so you're right there now. If it's dropped a little more, don't sweat it. Mead is much more resistant to oxidation than grape wine is, but it's not invincible... I've screwed up and introduced ambient atmosphere to the 1/2 sugar break without noticeable problems, but that was stupidity, not a directed, deliberate choice.

What I would do is, with the lid on the fermenter and an airlock in place, swirl the whole thing for a couple of minutes a couple of times a day. This will get the yeast back into suspension for a while without introducing oxygen... the CO2 the yeast is making constantly dilutes the oxygen (and nitrogen) in your headspace. CO2 is heavier than the ambient atmosphere, but it is not a nobel gas, so it does combine with the nitrogen/oxygen in the headspace. Little by little, it dilutes the oxygen until its not worth mentioning. As long as you've got it airlocked, nature will take care of it. And removing the lid once every day or two to check SG isn't a big issue; just don't swirl it around while open. I used to remove the airlock and snake the siphon tubing down through it to minimize oxygen, but I never noticed a difference between doing it and not, so I went for the easy way.

Rack when either your SG reaches 1.010 or less, or when the SG remains the same over 3 or 4 successive days. CDB doesn't have a problem with sitting on the lees, so that's not an issue, and you want all the yeast you can get working for you right up till it's done.

I am sure that if someone has alternative opinions, they'll chime in. I'm still an newbee, but this is what has worked for me.

Joe
ps: I am wondering if my slow-ferment issues with CDB were caused by insufficient nutrients, but I fed it the way I've fed all my batches (1 tsp or so of both energizer and nutrient per gallon of must, step fed).
 
sorry to revive this thread but real quick question, with the recipe i have listed will the cyser clear eventually? on 12 10 2013 took gravity reading it is .998. Racked Cyser on 12/14/13 to clear sediment. racked again on 2 01 2014. according to this thread

http://www.gotmead.com/forum/showthread.php?p=132606

its okay to add pectic enzyme just at 2 or 3 times the usual amount. the bottle i have of pectin enzyme says to add 1/2 tsp per gallon. is that still advisable? i dont have a problem with letting it clear over time its just seems verrry slow about it.

thanks for your time
 
ive finally managed to bottle this batch. first let me say i bottled 5 bottles of it on 3/16/14. it was semi dry to very dry. gravity was 1.008. decided to backsweetem with 2 pounds of honey on 3/24/14 and mixed well. on 4/22/14 i put carboy into fridge and let sit until 4/27/14. i degassed it with a powerdrill and a degassing rod/stick. than bottled. the gravity reading was 1.024 which meant. SG 1.096 FG 1.008 after Backsweetening 1.024. alcohol content was 11.75%. even for using the suebee honey from kroger it turned out very well i wound up with a little over 25 bottles which i gave to my friends who i had promised some to and i have 10 bottles left after drinking a few :). everyone that tried it all wanted more. so this is one ill have to try again.
 
Congrats, man. I know how that long waiting can be and wondering the whole time "is it worth it?". The answer is, thankfully, almost always 'Yes!'. Do you know, off hand, what was in the apple pie spice? I'm curious.
 
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