I purchased some delicious locally grown and pressed apple cider. It was UV ray pasteurized and seemed perfect for fermenting so I said what the hell. I must admit ive never seen a krausen that looked like this before. I pitched a sachet of cellar science Nectar dry yeast with some yeast nutrient.
Any experienced cider makers seen something like this before.
Fermentation started rocking at about 36 hours
Perfectly normal.
Yeah looks normal
Tastes great, gonna keg it and let it condition for a bit
I’ve been making cider off-and-on the past year so not a seasoned veteran by any means, but your krausen looks pretty normal to what I’ve seen. I’ve had some fermentation produce a lot of krausen, and other not so much.
The two batches in the pic below were both pitched at the same time. OG boost with table sugar on the left, Agave syrup on the right (I couldn’t detect any flavor differences). Both batches tasted fine despite the krausen difference.
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Thanks! I just kegged it last night now ill bulk age it, its about 7 percent but still has some apple flavor and aroma and is tart, very pleased with it. Have you noticed a difference in taste after a littlr age?
Absolutely! The type of yeast makes quite a difference as well. I was using Cider House Select yeast for most of last year. Cider tasted slightly “barfy” the first week off the rack. A month later it was better, and three months later the off flavor was gone with just delicious cider left behind. I’ve been told this is due to infection, but also told it wouldn’t clear up over time so I don’t know what’s going on there. I suspect the table sugar has wild stuff in it that’s competing with the yeast and I should probably pastuerize it before adding to the cider. This might solve the problem.
I saw a youtube video earlier this year where they used S04 in their cider. I thought cider needed specific yeast but guess not. I had some S04 in the freezer and gave it a try. Wow, what a difference! The cider is nearly drinkable right off the cake. Very little detectable off-flavor. I’ve aged some S04 out a couple weeks and it just gets better. Last week I tried some Kviek. It’s super clear. Going to try that this Friday with some friends.
Cider definitely benefits from aging. How long might depend on your process.
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I find that most of mine improve markedly after a year.
Very nice, I pitched a sachet of nectar from cellar sciences. It says it has a english parent gene wise but who knows. Im very satisfied so far with this. It was just 5 gallons of UV ray pasteurized cider from the local orchard and a pack of yeast. Almost seems like cheating compared to brewing beer lol
It does! I don’t know how much of the cider experimentation knowledge can be transferred to home brewing, but I’ve found it a cheap way to experiment with yeast anyhow. I also tried a couple cider batches dry hopped with (1/4oz per gallon) of Ekuanot and then another with Amarillo. They were both mighty different flavors and aromas. It got me thinking about contact time for dry hopping and not just the amount of hops being added. I’ve read about that before but couldn’t find a feasible way to apply it in some regular, experimental fashion when a batch of beer takes me six weeks to go through.
Thanks for the info! I’ve heard about Côte des Blancs and needing to cut off fermentation early. It’s intriguing. I’ve got some WY 1450 sitting in the fridge right now. It’s such an oddly fragrant variety of yeast I’m curious about what it might be like in some cider.
Never tried before, you sparked my interest.
Lets see what happens
Keep us updated
Will do.
Ferment 3 weeks, bottle condition/carb 3 weeks.
Poured a little out to leave room for fermentation.
Top of apple juice container is tapered, so oxygen exposure is limited, from there anyway.
I “accidentally” used 1450 for cidermamfew years ago, when we’d pressed apples and I realized all I had around was a 1450 slurry. Made the best cider I’d made in 20 years. Now, its all I use for cider.
Thanks for sharing those. This explains why the ciders and cysers I’ve made with 71B lean towards insipid - it eats up malic acid. I use D47 now, and I’ve definitely noticed that I don’t need to add acid as much, or as often, to my finished ciders.
Incidentailly, I’m giving some teabags https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0734ZP46W/ a try for dry hopping. I tried just cinching the string tight, but should have tied it around the top of the bag too. Got some hop matter leaking out. Might be a bigger issue if the hops expand a lot. But, as you say, let’s see what happens 
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Thanks Denny! Good to know (cheers to happy accidents). I’m definitely doing this now!
Squirted star-san in balloon, squeezed out.
Poked hole once with pin completely through balloon.
That would be two small pin holes once inflated.
Package said balloon was 1 foot inflated.
Perfect size, some looked too small or big.
Fit tight over bottle neck, secured with rubber band to be safe.
Poured too much juice out.
Perfectly balanced pressure, enough to slightly inflate balloon.
About 1/2 inch of foam subsided, but can see movement inside bottle.
Now the wait.
