tenchu_11

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Hello people, I just finished brewing my cider, it's sitting in a carboy being aged. It started at 1.049 and finished at 1.008, with the help of Nottingham ale yeast. I tasted it it yesterday as I was transferring it to the secondary and it just tasted like very weak apple juice really not much of a taste to it. I siphoned some into a glass to get an acquired taste but still lacked much flavor...I added sugar to the glass made it more palatable but still lacked a strong apple flavor i was hoping for. I was thinking of putting sticks of cinamon and stuff like that to kick up the taste I do plan to carbonate it so It might taste better than flat...any tips? Fyi sorry if its poorly written...i'm over indulging in my home made mead and hefeweizen thanks

CandleWineProject

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Wow, my first reaction was that you added sugar to cause a week flavor, but obviously you didn't with an OG of 1.049 with maybe 6%. Second thought is, grape wines don't taste like grapes, so apple cider shouldn't have to taste like apple, yet people expect it to.

If you want more apple flavor, back sweeten it with apple juice. If you do that, though, don't add any priming sugar when you go to carbonate.

BaronIV

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if you backsweeten with apple juice you can't carbonate unless you keg....

Edcculus

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I've basically come to terms that I can make only decent cider with store juice. My goal this fall is to visit some apple orchards in the area and do what I can to get a blend geared more toward fermenting, not just drinking. Most store juice, and even a lot of unfiltered juice has a ton of sugar, but not much of anything else.

I agree with Candle Wine too. Cider is going to taste like apples in the same way wines taste like grapes, or mead tastes like honey. Also, are you planning on carbonating the cider? I find carbonation brings a lot to ciders made with store juice.

RandallT

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Tenchu,
I just started a new batch yesterday with a couple of cinnamon sticks thrown in just for gigs. I figure apples and cinnamon...like a horse and carriage.

CandleWineProject

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I have no first hand experience with this, but some people on the forums say cinnamon causes problems due to the oils.

Edcculus

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Hmm, guess I could see that. FWIW, I put 2 sticks in a batch of Apple Wine I did a few years back. I racked off the lees after a few weeks, then added the cinnamon sticks in my last few weeks of aging. Wasn't my favorite thing in the world, but it did add a lot of cinnamon flavor.

tenchu_11

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I guess the lack of apple flavor is what people call "dry"? I could see how having it carbonated give it a nice little bitter and sweet tasty "snap" to the tongue, not very tasty flat.

CandleWineProject

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No, "dry" is the opposite of "sweet", not flavor. It is the lack of sugar. Since you said you had 1.008, you are at the high end of "semi-dry."

tenchu_11

Recipes 

i'd hate to taste real dry my cider dosn't taste as sweet as i thought it would of. I guess i was spoiled by commercial hard ciders such as hornsbys..i expected it to taste something like that. Then again the carbonation might give it a snap