Puzzled about my Cyser...

I'm having a minor puzzler with a 1 gallon Cyser and I'm stumped as to how to fix it (if it even needs fixing) The fermentation seems to have dropped off drastically over the last couple of days. Anyone have an idea or maybe some advice I can use here?

3.0 lbs of clover honey
1 stick of cinnamon
EC-1118
1/2 tsp DAP

19 July
Rehydrated and pitched my yeast.
S.G: 1.140

20 July
20 blips per minute

24 July
6 blips per minute (Placed jug into a water bath to cool it down to help fermentation)
S.G: 1.030

25 July
5 blips per minute (siphoned off some of the must and mixed in 0.5 lbs of honey)

26 July
3-4 blips per minute or less...
I'm still seeing bubbles in the must rising to the surface, but they're smaller than before and the overall fermentation seems to have stalled out on me at this point.
I tried adding 1/3 tsp of Fermaid today and agitated the must for a few minutes just to try doing something, but it doesn't seem to have made a difference yet.

My JAO and my Mesquite meads are both doing great, but this one is a puzzler. I haven't done a cyser before so I'm open to suggestions. Maybe I should just leave it alone for a couple of weeks then rack it off to secondary?

Thanks in advance for the help everyone.
:cheers:
Sandman

Sandman said:

19 July
Rehydrated and pitched my yeast.
S.G: 1.140

24 July
6 blips per minute (Placed jug into a water bath to cool it down to help fermentation)
S.G: 1.030

25 July
5 blips per minute (siphoned off some of the must and mixed in 0.5 lbs of honey)

Click to expand...

The apple juice I used was 100% natural with no additives. I don't have a pH testing kit yet. :confused1:

Maybe it IS just about finished. It has definitely slowed down to a crawl now as far as fermentation rate. I've got other carboys going right now as well so I'm going to leave this one alone and just see what happens. I'll check it again when it's time to rack my 5G of Mesquite Mead to secondary.

Hi Angus,

It was running btwn 76-80 before. Now I've got it down to 70-72 just by placing it in a tub of water. Minimal air movement lets it leech off some of the ambient heat in my brewing area.

I'm in the Phoenix area these days so heat can be an issue at times. My big batch of Mesquite mead is still kicking along well and my JAO is still slogging along as is it's won't as well.

Specific Gravity today is 1.060

It's a bit higher than it was the other day but I added half a pound of honey after that reading. I degassed it a bit this evening and set it aside again. I'll know in a few hours if it's completely stopped fermenting or not. It's possible it just stalled out on me. I pulled it from the water bath and I'm going to let it sit for a while to see what happens.

Since I used EC-1118 on this batch I figured it would pretty much run itself dry. It was slowing down significantly before I put it in the water bath originally. I thought it might have been too hot for it so I was trying to cool it down to the low 70's.

::On a side note, I made an awesome discovery this afternoon:: There's a Trader Joe's within driving distance from me out here. In fact, there are 3 of them in the area. A lot has changed since I left for Kuwait 17 months ago. (most of it good) ;D

It's sure good to be home again.

::Note:: 7/29 I took a good look at this one last night and it's still got a significant amount of bubbles rising to the top. They're just a lot smaller now than they were before. I'm going to conclude that this one is just fine and that it's just nearing racking time. I'll give it another few days then check it again. The EC-1118 was just such a monster fermenter that it took me surprise.

I ended up throwing some tart cherry juice and some rehydrated montmorency cherries into this one to juice it a bit. I was also curious whether or not it would kick up a secondary fermentation for a bit. It didn't. :laughing7:

What it did do though is keep sneaking along at a slow ferment until it dropped to a specific gravity of about 1.050

I make it at about 12% abv.

I sulfited and sorbated this one about two weeks ago and am planning on bottling it this coming weekend.

I'll give it a taste test at that point and post the final results.