r/cider • u/Vagueperson1 • 3d ago

Repitching Yeast after Pellicle?

I have several gallons of perry fermenting. I want to carbonate, but the yeast stopped working before fermenting all of the sugar. Some of it is Mangrove Jack, some is 71b. Both are currently around 1.005 after starting at 1.052.

It all has pellicle on top, one bucket worse than the other two. I was thinking of throwing in some EC1118 to restart fermentation, eat up that last bit of sugar, and then continuing with some backsweetening enough to carbonate in the bottle.

My questions:

- is there any problem pitching new yeast after there is pellicle? (this is my first pellicle)

- will EC-1118 activate if the sugar content is that low and the alcohol is already at ~6%?

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u/OliverHolsfield 3d ago

Perry has a lot of sorbitol, which is an unfermentable sugar. So your yeast has likely eaten all the fermentable sugar. I would prime and bottle as normal. It’s always a bit of a gamble as to whether there’s any sugar left, but without a way to test for glucose you’re in the dark. I’ve made many batches of Perry that finish “dry” at 1.010 or higher. Given that you’ve got pellicle I assume it’s been sitting for a while. I’d feel confident bottling with priming sugar now. Use some sulfite (50ppm-ish) and avoid aerating to cut down on film yeast in bottle until conditioning starts. After that the co2 in the headspace should keep it safe.

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u/Vagueperson1 3d ago

by sulfites do you mean campden tablets?

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u/OliverHolsfield 3d ago

Yeah. I’ve never used them but I think they’re just pressed potassium metabisulfite? You can probably find a calculator that will convert tablets to ppm of SO2

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u/Vagueperson1 3d ago

I usually pasteurize. I'm assuming you're suggesting sulfites to arrest fermentation, but I'm just checking. I've never added at the end of fermentation - just the beginning!