Slight sour/rancid flavor in cider
 

Hi all, this is my second batch of cider I have ever made with the same juice. It is Publix brand - pasturized & filtered. Ingredients are apple juice (not from concentrate), malic acid. That's it. I have used nottingham yeast to ferment and both times it got to about 1000, or just a tad under. My question is:

Why does the cider have a slight rancid/sour flavor to it. I can do dry... I like dry, but this is not just a dry cider. Can anyone help me out in identifying this flavor and how to prevent it?

I appreciate the help. Thanks

Is the flavor sulfur-like at all?

Doesn't taste sulfur like. More like if the apple was over-ripe - starting to spoil.

I may be mistaken and just don't know what sulfur tastes like, but I know what sulfur smells like. It doesn't taste like that smell.

Thanks

anyone have any thoughts? Thanks

What's the pH like? Could account for the taste.

Sulfur tastes pretty much like you'd expect.

I know Malic Acid is naturally produced by apples, but is it listed as a separate ingredient in the ingredients list? Doesn't malic acid produce the sour flavors in fruit?

Maybe it just needs some additional time to mellow out the sour-ness.

I know that sour off-flavors in beer are usually a result of unwanted bacteria strains (lactobacillus, etc.) getting into your wort. Double check your sanitation regimen if you can't figure out any other cause. In my battles with the sours, the bacteria were getting in through tap water. So, I pre-boil all of my tap water, including top off water, at 180*f for a good 20 minutes just to be safe.

I too have a 1gl batch I just bottled that had a slight sour/off taste to it. It's an apple blackberry cider I did with coto de blanc and let it ferment dry. As I'm a noob and its my first run at a dry cider, not sure what to expect but going to let it sit in the bottles for awhile and see how it turns out. My only real concern is that I used real blackberries and hoping I sanitized them well enough:/

Malic was probably added to the juice post pressing which is why it's listed separately. Actually, I was thinking more along the lines of a lack of malic acid, IMO most drinking juice is lacking in the appropriate acidity for cider.

aiptasia, I was thinking along the same lines too. Some infections can make ciders smell like overripe fruit.