Apple cider Mash

freebird1965

How long does it take  for the yeast to start working .  It has been over 24 hours since I put it in and no activity.

NormandieStill

What yeast? And how much? What was your SG? What temperature was the wash? Did you rehydrate the yeast? Did you aerate the wash? Are there preservatives in the wash? And most importantly of all... how have you determined that there's no activity?"I have a potstill that smears like a fresh plowed coon on the highway" - Jimbo
A little spoon feeding *For New & Novice Distillers

freebird1965

The mass consisted of 4 gallons of Apple cider no preservatives. 6 pounds of sugar. Headed to 160ﾟ. Let cool down to 75ﾟ then hydrated 2 and a 1/2 teaspoons of Red star distillers  Yeast. The reason why I feel there's no activity is because it's not foaming up and the airlock is not bubbling.

freebird1965

I did not test the SG because I do not have a refractometer.

rubberduck71

Can you take a pH reading?  Sugar washes tend to crash HARD in first 24 hrs.  If it's below 3.0, the yeast tend to go into hibernation.There are two times of year:  FOOTBALL SEASON and... Waiting For Football Season

freebird1965

I don't have any way to check the PH. I've never run into an issue before but this is my 1st Apple mash. I've run several  Corn whiskey mashes, and the only other mash that I've run was watermelon which was awesome.Thank you for your responses.

NZChris

The majority of us here don't have refractometers.  I suggest that you use a hydrometer, as most of us do.  It is an important tool for newbies who are unsure of how their ferments are progressing, and especially important if something is going wrong and you are asking for help.
PH papers are cheap and if something goes wrong and you ask for help, you will be asked what the pH is.
Seals leak, so an airlock not bubbling isn't an indication of a stuck ferment.

NormandieStill

6 pounds of sugar for 4 gallons of liquid gets you about 1.067 as an OG assuming that the apple juice contributed nothing at all. The fresh pressed juice that I got this year was at around 1.05 so that puts you up at around 1.12. That's not a guaranteed yeast-killing SG, but it's pretty damn high. Why did you decide to add sugar? This might not make the yeast too happy and means you might need to overpitch the yeast the compensate. Rehydration should have given them a fighting chance. If you didn't aerate the wash then you probably cooked a lot of the oxygen out when you heated it up (why did you heat it up? To dissolved the sugar?) and without oxygen the yeast can't reproduce at the start meaning that it's just the yeast cells you put in that will go to work.
If you search the forum you'll find a couple of threads on making apple brandy. The common theme is not adding sugar because you're just diluting the (already fairly subtle) apple flavour.
Finally, this is not a mash, it's a wash. A mash involves holding malted grains at a certain temperature to convert the starch into fermentable sugars. You started with fermentable sugars."I have a potstill that smears like a fresh plowed coon on the highway" - Jimbo
A little spoon feeding *For New & Novice Distillers

freebird1965

Thank you for the information I have ordered a hydrometer to  Test SGI also ordered a ph meter. The reason why I added sugar is because I got the recipe from claw hammer. Their recipe for brandy is 4 to 6 pounds of sugar. I've never done an Apple before. I have done several corn mashes all came out great I also did a watermelon mash.

NormandieStill

Yeah. Clawhammer's recipes seem to tend towards the high ABV in order to get excitingly high proof out of the spout. You'll find that the recipes here on HD (start with those in Tried and True) err on the side of low(er)-abv washes to produce highly flavourful drinks. Apple brandy comes from apples, not sugar. The more sugar you add, the less apple there is in the product. A simple way to think of it, is to think about proofing down at the end. Imagine that after 2 distillations you finished up with a bottle-proof product (~40%). And now imagine that after 2 distillations you ended up with ~80% abv. In order to bottle that product you're going to have to dilute it 1:1. Which just diluted the flavour 1:1. If you want to make more product, then you need to make more wash. Adding sugar at the start is just committing to adding water at the end."I have a potstill that smears like a fresh plowed coon on the highway" - Jimbo
A little spoon feeding *For New & Novice Distillers