Cider not fermenting two weeks in!

[sushidave]

Two weeks ago I juiced apples from my tree and collected 1.8 gallons in a 5 gallon brewing bucket.

I sterilised the juice with sodium metapbisulphate (2 crushed campden tablets), put the lid on and left it for 48 hours. The SG was 1.050 at that point.

I then added a yeast starter made with a packet of Young’s cider yeast. I fitted an airlock & bung to the bucket lid. Two days later patches of foam formed on the surface of the juice, it smelled ‘brewy’ but I saw no bubbles through the airlock.

Six days later there was still no bubbling. SG was 1.026, which I took to mean that sugar had reduced. I added another yeast starter (in water 40C/104F).

Five days after that I still have no bubbles through the airlock and the SG has now fallen to 1.003. Temperature has been fairly constant at 17C/62F – 19C/65F.

Can anyone tell me what might have gone wrong here? Can my brew be saved? Could it be due to pressure not building up in the large amount of headspace in the bucket? Or have I killed the yeast with the Campden tablets? Thanks for any wise words.

 

[SloeBrewer]

17C is too cold, you will get fermentation, but it will be slow. Try and raise the temp to 20C and you will see a difference.

 

[iceo]

the brew sounds fine a bit on the slow side. you cant always got be an air lock as the you might have a small leak in the fv. as the reading have gone down its fine . you could give it a very little stir to get the yeast moving then a week to finish.

then prime and bottle or rack in to a DJ/water for a few months

 

[sushidave]

That's reassuring to this newbie, thanks!

 

[twoshots]

Your gravity has been dropping so your yeast is doing its job, from 1.050 to 1.003 means the yeast MUST be happily doing there job! The lack of bubbles in an air lock is not a sign that there's a problem with fermentation, the CO2 is just finding another way out. Buckets in particular don't seal very well, whilst I fit an airlock to mine and have tried various ways to get it to seal properly I have never seen bubbles in the air lock.

Your brew is just fine :thumb: