Does Cider produce less Krausen than other brews ?

bullets

Mornin,

I could be worrying a little too quickly since its only been a few days.
Started my very first batch of Cider from Kit Monday night.
But not too sure if everything is working as it should.

I was getting a reading of 1.037 from the hydrometer when I added
the yeast. (from reading thought this would have been higher) This was Monday evening. Took a sample yesterday and its now reading 1.027

Tue/Wed/Thur and this morning Temp has been between 20-28 degrees.
The colour has changed from a clear orange/amber colour to a cloudy yellowish colour. I'm getting bubbles and my house smells fruity.
The bubbles I see in the wort? and they slowly rise to the surface.

The worrying thing is I'm not seeing any of this Krausen that I was expecting to develop. A tiny small amount of foamy bubbles on the surface but nothing as dramatic like I've seen on videos.

I am hoping its becuase my brewing kit is the newer design where there is a large surface area of the brew and its burping out the top of the lid rather than having the gas forced through a small tiny tube as your would if there was a bung type of airlock on top.

~B

Donny5

Don't worry, it sounds fine. Some of my beers have had majestic heads and others just a few pathetic bubbles floating on top, but as long as the gravity is going down, there's fermentation going on.

BeerNut

All sounds normal, though beware of those high temperatures.

Did you calibrate your hydrometer reading against temperature?

bullets

Still reading about the hydrometer so didn't calibrate it or take the air temperature at the time.

I had a brewers heating belt around my container as thought I had
to keep the temperature up over 20 degrees and below 30.
So it was about 24-25 this morning.

Must give the Mrs a call and ask her to plug it out.

~B

BeerNut

bullets wrote: »

Still reading about the hydrometer so didn't calibrate it or take the air temperature at the time.

It's the liquid temperature that's important. If it's above 20C the real gravity will be a point or two higher than what the hydrometer says. There's a calibration calculator here.

bullets wrote: »

thought I had
to keep the temperature up over 20 degrees and below 30.

Not sure it'll make a huge difference with cider, but with beer you don't want anything above 23 or so. 18 is ideal.

bullets

Thanks for the help and advise.
Ill check that link out when I get home (Its blocked from my work net access)

I must get a better thermometer too as I've only the el-cheapo stick on one
at the moment, so will try pick one up Sat Morning and have it ready for
when I try the Larger kit next brew.

~B

bullets

Looked like fermentation had stopped with my brew giving me 995'ish today and yesterday and no more bubble activity so I decided to bottle it.

Used milton baby bottle sterilizer to wash out the bottles and then ran them under a tap for a while. (strong stuff that my fingers are still smelling of it and I've washed my hands 3-4 times since) 500ml bottles and used two coopers carbonation drops in each. (one or two bottles failed to form a seal when putting the caps on) Screw on caps! just noticed I managed to sheer off a piece of skin under my thumb while twisting the caps on tight.

I tasted some of it and it tasted pretty rank and foul! and that was after adding the apple flavoring/sweeter very sharp so really
hoping that 2 weeks in the bottle that sharpness and pungent tang will mellow out and taste like actual cider rather than drain cleaner.

~B

oblivious

There is much less protein in the must compared to wort, so it can be less

BeerNut

bullets wrote: »

hoping that 2 weeks in the bottle that sharpness and pungent tang will mellow out and taste like actual cider rather than drain cleaner.

I've found that cider is only really drinkable after about three months and isn't at its best until six or so.