Contamination advice on 2 Cider brews needed!

carlreidcarlreid Member Posts: 7
Hi guys,

So far i'm still quite new to the whole cider brewing, made about 8/9 batches in total, without any hitches until now!
I have a big 5 gallon (batch 1) from one of the 'On the Rocks' kits with an added 5 litres of juice instead of water, and 1 gallon (batch 2) of pressed apple juice with yeast which I added a campden tablet to at the very beginning to kill off any natural yeast.

I've attached a couple of images of both and as you can see there seems to be a few floaters! Batch 1 seemed to have some quite thick sediment floating around, which also seemed to form a thin slimy layer. Batch 2 seems to have some sort of crystalisation I think as a fine layer on the top of the cider. They've each been going for about 3 weeks now, batch 2 was re-racked after 1 and a half weeks, and batch 1 has always been in the same bin so not sure if this affects anything.

I've re-racked batch 1 for the minute and left all the nasties behind, hoping for advice on how to proceed as i'm not sure if they are drinkable or salvagable or just need drained (really hope they aren't wasted!).








Comments

  • BUDFORCEBUDFORCE Member Posts: 275
    Does it smell strongly of vinigar?

    I am not expert as I have been lucky to date and never had a brew go bad, but take a look at the photos on this thread.

    http://homebrewonline.vanillaforums.com/discussion/987/wierd-but-cool-looking-yeast-formations#latest

    Despite how it looked, that brew was absolutely fine. You are right to be cautious but smell it and even taste a bit if you can, after 3 weeks it should smell and taste like cider, if it does, its probably ok.
    Beer League: 1. Young's - American Pale Ale 2. Bulldog Brews - Imperial Red Bad Cat 3. Young's - IPA 4. Young's - American Amber Ale 5. Bulldog Brews - Evil Dog Double IPA
  • HBO_StaffHBO_Staff Administrator Posts: 2,115
    Budforce has it covered there so all we can do is agree, the formation and layers you see are very common and we don't see anything wrong here, the main thing is that it does not smell or taste strongly of vinegar. It is as a result of the fermentation and can be dead yeast etc, this can be left behind by transferring to another vessel, or syphon around it is it is not causing an issue.

    Once the On The Rocks has fully finished fermenting and you have a constant and low hydrometer reading it can be bottled as normal. The sludge left behind in the vessel in one of the photos is very common and is best left undisturbed to make the brew as clear as possible
  • carlreidcarlreid Member Posts: 7
    Excellent, there doesn't seem to be any issues with the smell so I'll just get it bottled and left for a little conditioning. That other thread is an eye opener if that was all still perfectly drinkable!
    Thanks for the comments
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