Help! Does mould = ruined cider?

[G-Town Brewer]

Hi

Having laboriously juiced several kilos of apples last weekend I managed to get around 2 gallons of juice using my Phillips juicer. Added 2 crushed campden tabs to the juice and left for around 36 hours before pitching the yeast.

However, there is now a mouldy crust on the top of the fermenting juice. Is this normal or does this mean that the batch is ruined. I did notice that some of the apples had specks in them and although I did my best to ditch the dodgy ones, one or two maybe made it through quality control. So maybe the mashed grubs have turned the juice?

I made a batch last year and didn't have mould and the cider turned out perfect. I'm thinking this may have been beginners luck!!!

 

[Archtronics]

Does it look like this

If so that's completely normal and should die down after a few days.

Mark

 

[G-Town Brewer]

No it looks like this...

 

[Archtronics]

That most certainly is a problem and I am sorry to say probably ruined it.

If you are desperate to save it you could try removing the mould racking off to another fv, re adding campden tablets and starting again. however I wouldn't hold to much hope for it.

Mark

 

[G-Town Brewer]

OK thanks. Gutted.

Any ideas what may have caused this? Or is that a "how long is a piece of string" question?

Cheers

Terry

 

[graysalchemy]

Did it start fermenting? Was it in a demijohn under an airlock? Once fermentation starts the co2 tyends to protect it from aerial infection and by the sounds of it you treated it with campden tablets so that should have got rid of natural nasties in the juice. So I would say fermentation may not have got going quick enough and it picked up an aerial infection.

What ever the cause of it I would chuck it and put it down to experience.

 

[HLA91]

The general rule of thumb is 1 CT per gallon which you have done. Some people use more than 1 depending on what the must is so maybe next time add 3, also the effect of CT is mostly over after 24h, and some people say to pitch yeast 12 hours after the CT so your 36h gap might be an influence.

Boiling the juice might be an option as well but as someone pointed out to me when discussing boiling water sanitising must ingredients, that boiling water will cool down slowly and if there are any residual bacteria around that must will at one point hit that bacteria's optimum temp.

 

[G-Town Brewer]

I put the juice in a fermenting bin this time. Last time I did it it went straight into demijohns, but found that the juice was heavily sedimented, so thought I'd try in F bin instead.

My mate still has plenty of apples on his tree so may give it another go.

Will try pitching yeast earlier this time.

Cheers for the info guys.

 

[G-Town Brewer]

What do you think about the possible inclusion of grubs?

I cannot be sure that maybe one or two made it through the juicer. I'm sure this is case in traditionally cider made using windfalls though.

 

[muddy90]

There's a lot of talk on here about how many ct's to put in, washing apples in So2 (?) etc etc.
Tbh, I didn't even wash my apples in water let alone anything else :shock: & my natural brew had no ct's & prob had the odd bug etc. It's fizzing away nicely & bubbling every 10sec. I put it in a 30l bin with airlock within 2hrs.
The other I added 1ct per gallon & yeast after 24hrs. That's doing the same.
I had a really good talk with the girl that runs the cider museum where I pressed mine & she said if your apples are quite acid you don't really need ct's! Personal preference I guess. I'm no expert, just going by what i'm being told.
Shame about your mould, give it anouther go. :

 

[user 1290]

Boiling the juice might be an option as well but as someone pointed out to me when discussing boiling water sanitising must ingredients, that boiling water will cool down slowly and if there are any residual bacteria around that must will at one point hit that bacteria's optimum temp.

It's not necessary to actually boil it - 20 mins at 75 deg C will pasteurise it and I do this with virtually all my juice so it's preserved for either drinking or blending with other varieties that ripen at different times. You can always tip it out the bottles staight into a fermenter as soon as it's cool enough. The process tends to force all the sediment up to the top and out of the bottle neck so if using stuff from a juicer be ready to top up from one of the other bottles if you intend saving the juice.


Although I use presses for juicing apples, we do have an aluminium Phillips juicer that's used for making juice drinks for my daughter and I put some apples through it just to see how well it worked. It seemed very wasteful compared to pressing and the juice had a thick creamy crust full of air floating on top in addition to the heavy sediment in the juice beneath. So what I'm wondering is whether any nasties were able to survive in that crust above the sulphited liquid beneath, or did you manage to skim it all off?