I removed some liquid, leaving about 3-4" of room on Monday. The shower stall still seemed a bit cool (about 55) Tuesday afternoon, so I moved it to a hidden corner of our dining room where it seems to be about 60-62 degrees.
A nice ring of froth began to form by Tuesday night, but there was still no action in the airlock. This morning, the froth ring had doubled in size, but still no bubbling.
This afternoon around 2:00, I noticed the bubbling in the airlock for the first time, but it must have been at a clip of over 5 minutes inbetween, because I got tired of watching it. The center of the ring also seemed to be developing some sort of “scum”.
As I post this, the froth ring is about 3" thick, the scum plug taking up about 1" of that. The airlock is bubbling more frequently, about 90 seconds apart. I’ve also noticed little bits of what I assume to be yeast rising to the top.
Does this progress seem fast, slow, about normal? What about that scum plug, should I be worried about that?
The color is still the same as when I started, still a nice cloudy caramel brown.
It’s been just over two weeks, and the bubbling has slowed to about one every 6-7 seconds from about 1 second apart over the last 10-12 days. The color is much lighter, but it’s still cloudy.
Do I wait for the bubbling to stop completely before I rack it? I’ve heard that racking may start another round of fermentation, so I was planning on doing that into another carboy, putting a fresh plug and airlock on it, and letting it sit for another week or so before bottling.
Would this also be the time to add the stuff that clarifies the cider?
If you are patient, clarifiers aren’t needed. Let the yeast settle naturally. Racking may kick fermentation up a notch, so give it a try. No bottling until you have seen zero action in the airlock for a week!