I just tasted my first batch of cider, and I was disappointed to discover it tastes sour and weird and generally not good.
For the back story: I started with 5 gallons of store-bought preservative-free apple juice, added 2 cups brown sugar and a bit of yeast nutrient (I wanted to make SURE my yeast thrived because I'm a nervous first-timer), then 2 packets of whatever generic beer yeast that came with my "homebrew starter kit" (didn't want to go buy any special new yeast since this is my first try and basically just a learning experience)
I kept it in primary fermenter bucket for almost two weeks until bubbles stopped. Then, I racked it into a plastic carboy for secondary fermentation. At that time, it tasted and smelled really alcoholic, but still relatively normal tasting, like a dry English cider, but yeastier, probably due to me accidentally stirring up some dead yeast gunk from the bottom of the bucket. It stayed there at around 60 degrees for about six weeks. I meant to bottle sooner but I've been busy.
So now, I go and taste it and it is sour and not good. It doesn't even taste like it was once apple juice at all. It's almost like a dry white wine taste.
The gravity reading now is almost exactly 1.000. I didn't know enough to measure gravity starting out, but I attempted to recreate it and got around 1.055.
I kind of figured out what to do as I went here and now understand where I made mistakes, so if it can't be saved it's not a total loss, but is there anyway I can make this drinkable?
For the back story: I started with 5 gallons of store-bought preservative-free apple juice, added 2 cups brown sugar and a bit of yeast nutrient (I wanted to make SURE my yeast thrived because I'm a nervous first-timer), then 2 packets of whatever generic beer yeast that came with my "homebrew starter kit" (didn't want to go buy any special new yeast since this is my first try and basically just a learning experience)
I kept it in primary fermenter bucket for almost two weeks until bubbles stopped. Then, I racked it into a plastic carboy for secondary fermentation. At that time, it tasted and smelled really alcoholic, but still relatively normal tasting, like a dry English cider, but yeastier, probably due to me accidentally stirring up some dead yeast gunk from the bottom of the bucket. It stayed there at around 60 degrees for about six weeks. I meant to bottle sooner but I've been busy.
So now, I go and taste it and it is sour and not good. It doesn't even taste like it was once apple juice at all. It's almost like a dry white wine taste.
The gravity reading now is almost exactly 1.000. I didn't know enough to measure gravity starting out, but I attempted to recreate it and got around 1.055.
I kind of figured out what to do as I went here and now understand where I made mistakes, so if it can't be saved it's not a total loss, but is there anyway I can make this drinkable?
