My first cider brew...help

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bennywilliams

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Hi Guys,

Im new to this site and to cider making, coming from herefordshire i thought I ought to give it a try finally. Anyway, using a batch of apples from my garden tree, I have accumulated about 15 litres of cider which is now in its 3rd week in airtight bottles with an airlock (3 x 5ltr bottles). Everything was going fine, to the book so to say, sediment has gone to the bottom, cider clearing nicely and this weekend I am due to transfer them to little glass cider bottles with a pinch of sugar to store and drink in a month.

Today though I have noticed that 2 of the batches have developed a very fine layer of white...'scum'...strands linked together which look like mould of some kind. There is no green or blue which is probably good but I am obviously concerned as to what to do now?? Various other sites have a cavalier attitude to moulds but this being my first attempt I didn't want poison anyone or myself. Can anybody offer some advice on this for me? After all the effort and the success leading up to this point I would be devastated to fail!!

Ben
 
Hi Benny, welcome to the forum. Your white stuff could be a number of things, but as I'm not a cider maker I'll leave it up to those who are.
 
If you're lucky it's a malolactic secondary ferment. If you can post a link to a pic, there are people here who could say yes or no.
 
sounds like malolactic fermentation to me - if everything was scrupulously clean, it probably is, and you should be ok.
if you're ok oppening one bottle early, do that and see if it smells or tastes ruddy awful or like vinegar.
if it just tastes a bit 'farmyardy' then it's ok.
 
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