Help on Fermentation

[daveanson]

I've pressed my first batch of apples today (ever! i'm a homebrew nube). I underestimated the number of apples I needed or simply didn't press the apples enough - I'm inclined to go with the later as I managed to refine my techinque as time went on). Anyway, I've topped the barrell up with Supermarket "Apple Juice from concentrate". 20 litres apples : 3 lites of SM juice.

My original plan (going on what I've read about) was to leave it for 2/3 days to start fermenting, then seal the barrell then leave it 8 months. Now i've read more I'm getting some conflicting ideas. Whether the sugar content makes a difference I don't know but, according the new information I leave the barrel unseal for about 3 week until fermentation has stopped.

Lastly should the barrel remain air tight after fermentation start or once fermentation has finished.

I hope these aren't dumb questions but I'm a complete nube to this, and I've struggled as it is to find a recepie that make sense anyway.

Any help appreciated...

 

[chrisp]

You should leave the barrel "open" for a number of days/weeks to allow fermentation to start. If you are only doing 25 litres or so it may be a good idea to use an airlock though

We have just knocked up 270 gallons :party: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ArAfJpSVXo0

It took about 5 days for the fermentation to get going properly

Now that the cold weather is coming we plan to seal with porous bungs over winter and await the second fermentation come the spring

Let me know how yours works out and I will keep you posted on ours :

Chris

 

[evanvine]

As chrisp says, do not completely seal it else you will have pressurising problems.
Use a bubbler to release the pressure and to keep rubbish, spores and oxygen out.

 

[daveanson]

Thanks for your help and a great video chrisp. I'm making 20l so I've sealed the barrell now, but I'd left the barrel uncovered for about about 36 hours (except for some muslin to stop the flys). I hope that hasn't done too much harm.

The sudden cold spell over the last few days means the temprature where I'm keeping the barrell while it ferments is fluctuating a bit 19 - 24o.

I'm looking forward to fermentation to start now, if I'm lucky - I guess patience will pay off. Thanks again!

 

[daveanson]

OK I' ve given in. After reading up about natural brewing being "hit and miss" I got cold feet and decided to add yeast. Seems a waste to gamble with 40 litres of apple juice especially as this is my first batch. Keeping fingers crossed eh!

 

[evanvine]

OK I' ve given in. After reading up about natural brewing being "hit and miss" I got cold feet and decided to add yeast. Seems a waste to gamble with 40 litres of apple juice especially as this is my first batch. Keeping fingers crossed eh!

Can't fault you!
I might have considered putting 4ltrs in a DJ just to see if it did fire up :hmm:

 

[daveanson]

I'm going to invest in smaller DJs next time. It would have been better to use clear containers too. I can't really see what's really going on through the white plastic which I suppose is half the fun. Well as the barrel was already available it seemed a waste.

Looks like thing are working, though I'm not really sure what it should look or smell like etc :wha: , at least it's doing something :thumb:

Well it's definately fermenting now. The juice has been in the barrel for 7 days now and I added the yeast about 4 days ago. I've have at least been able see the froth build up at the top of the barrel over the last couple of days. The yeast got quite excited when I removed the cap to take and SG reading leaving a nice sludgy mess pour out (As the cap had a pressure release valve I didn't think there'd be a problem - i've read that the lid shouldn't be tightened for the first few days).

I've topped the barrel up with approximately 0.5l of Apple Juice and I've moved the barrel into the garage. It's going to be a bit cooler in there - but not too cold I hope. I will have to see what happens I suppose :pray: