This morning, the ginger cider was blooping in its neat little two-bubble airlock. Makes a GREAT sound. Bloop.
The cherry cider, not so much.
This friday/saturday I'll make a quality decision -- toss anything that isn't blooping (or hasn't changed gravity; sometimes they convert w/o bloop?), or if the ginger smells or tastes funny it goes too. I don't know if it's yeast yeasting, or ginger decaying in that tub.
Saturday, I remake and repitch anything that got tossed. I could repitch these existing batches, but I don't want to. It's embarassing enough that they didn't take very well, I don't want to beat a dead horse and get weird flavors; I can afford the hit.
Next time - no campden tablets, I'll just boil the honey and sugars and let the pasteurized juices stand on their own. I'll also be more careful about sanitizer residues, temperatures, yeast wake-up times, and so forth. Usually, even if you do a dozen things a little wrong (I pitched into 90ºF wort once, no problem) you still get LIFE. I've never had a dead batch before... so I blame campden.
Who needs sulfates anyway?
On the front of alive or dead, had the first private dance lesson of the year, went back over some Cha figures; it was nice to be dancing again! Also, got some actual work done at work yesterday, the brain is functioning again.