Hi there,
Been reading quite a lot on this forum for the past year but never posted. But now I am in need of some advice.
I've made my first cider last October, with the apples I could find this late in the season (My grinder and press took longer to build than expected). It was mostly Cortland apples, some Spartans and a bit of Empires. I grinded and pressed the apples, sulphited the juice and the next day I pitched some EC-1118 yeast. No other additions to the juice.
Fermentation went well. Racked to secondary after 1 month and bottled with carbonation drops after an additional month and a half.
Now here's the problem, it is 7 months later now. I cracked open a bottle last weekend. The smell was great, colour is a clear golden yellow, carbonation was perfect, but it has very little taste ...and I mean VERY little.
So my question is, would ageing it longer actually bring back some of the apple flavours?
...or could there be something I could improve on for next fall's batch? Different yeast? Different apples? Bulk ageing longer?
Thanks for your help!
Max
Been reading quite a lot on this forum for the past year but never posted. But now I am in need of some advice.
I've made my first cider last October, with the apples I could find this late in the season (My grinder and press took longer to build than expected). It was mostly Cortland apples, some Spartans and a bit of Empires. I grinded and pressed the apples, sulphited the juice and the next day I pitched some EC-1118 yeast. No other additions to the juice.
Fermentation went well. Racked to secondary after 1 month and bottled with carbonation drops after an additional month and a half.
Now here's the problem, it is 7 months later now. I cracked open a bottle last weekend. The smell was great, colour is a clear golden yellow, carbonation was perfect, but it has very little taste ...and I mean VERY little.
So my question is, would ageing it longer actually bring back some of the apple flavours?
...or could there be something I could improve on for next fall's batch? Different yeast? Different apples? Bulk ageing longer?
Thanks for your help!
Max