New to brewing cider (advise need)

[Dave crouch]

Hi all,

I've only successfully brewed two lots of geordie larger and now brewing a mangrove jacks cider. I went through the usual ritual of sanitisation and what have you. I brought the kit from lovebrewing.co.uk and it suggested replacing the sugar with ther 1.2kg liquid light malt extract for a better flavour as was the last two brews I did. However 48 hours on and the airlock is still not bubbling and I cracked the lid open to have a peek and couldn't see any foam on top. Does cider take longer? Tia

 

[Gwen]

Hi Dave,

I am sure you will get an answer from someone far more experienced than me, but I have done several ciders with fresh apples, country wines, wine kits and ale BIAB and kits. I have found that it all is down to temperature and yeast. Some can explode with in an hour and sometimes it can take a few days before you get any activity. Just keep an eye on your temperature as the weather here in the south is cooling off an awful lot over the last few days.

 

[VW911]

You won't get anywhere as much foam on cider as beer. (Although with malt added this may be different.)
I really can't see the point of adding malt to cider. Real cider does not contain malt!
Even though you are not getting bubbles through the airlock, it may still be fermenting. A quick check with a hydrometer should confirm this...

 

[Dave crouch]

You won't get anywhere as much foam on cider as beer. (Although with malt added this may be different.)
I really can't see the point of adding malt to cider. Real cider does not contain malt!
Even though you are not getting bubbles through the airlock, it may still be fermenting. A quick check with a hydrometer should confirm this...

I only added the malt enhancer as it was a recommendation on the website. I did check after the fact to make sure I didn't miss read it but it definitely does and had the hyperlink to take me to that page. I did add a futher 250g of dextrose to it as well to try and give it a little boost in abv.

 

[VW911]

There a few kit ciders that have malt in them - I vaguely remember a Hambleton Bard kit that had it in.
Call me a cynic, but isn't the liquid malt a tad more expensive than brewing sugar??
Quite often, the instructions are generic across the range - John Bull, for example. They suggest bottling the cider at the same final gravity as their beer kits - often resulting in wildly (even dangerously so) overly carbonated bottles...

 

[Dave crouch]

There a few kit ciders that have malt in them - I vaguely remember a Hambleton Bard kit that had it in.
Call me a cynic, but isn't the liquid malt a tad more expensive than brewing sugar??
Quite often, the instructions are generic across the range - John Bull, for example. They suggest bottling the cider at the same final gravity as their beer kits - often resulting in wildly (even dangerously so) overly carbonated bottles...

Yeah its a few quid more than dextrose. It did see somewhere that you can use ordinary table sugar or even derma sugar. I just went with the recommendation on lovebrewing.com well ill take a gravity measurement tomorrow after work that'll be 72 hours by then

 

[johncrobinson]

FVs are noted for slight leakage around the lid,So you are forced to rely on the hydrometer.

Plain table sugar will ferment as good as anything at cider abvs So adding DME or Brewing sugar is not actually needed.
Using DME will change the taste slightly however.
Also if the yeast was dry pitched into the cider,It can take can take a few days to get going properly.

 

[Stevieboy]

FVs are noted for slight leakage around the lid,So you are forced to rely on the hydrometer.

Plain table sugar will ferment as good as anything at cider abvs So adding DME or Brewing sugar is not actually needed.
Using DME will change the taste slightly however.
Also if the yeast was dry pitched into the cider,It can take can take a few days to get going properly.

If you are using FV with airlock - I use vaseline all round the lid and on the airlock bung, and weigh down the lid, which minimises the "false" airlock activity due to the lid bulging slightly.

 

[Ale House Rock]

I've made MJ cider kits but supplemented with MJ Cider enhancer. I got this on Brew2Bottle. Maybe the link on lovebrewings site is linking to the wrong product in error. Anyway, like others have said, check the seal on the FV, check hydrometer and check temperature.

 

[Nidger]

You could try giving the FV a swirl.
Also works for stuck fermentation.
If all else fails chuck another yeast in.

 

[Dave crouch]

I checked the gravity just now and there is bubbles in the liquid and smells like cider. The measurement was about 10 on the hydrometer and 50% brix on my refractrometre. I did forget to mention when I drilled the hole for the rubber bung for the airlock it was slightly to big as I didn't have the correct size hole saw so I used electrical tape to make it a little bigger