Apple wine not cider

Ive recently bottled my cider and after a taste test it is more like a dry wine not cider. Where did I go wrong with it? I used champaigne yeast if that makes a difference. I added the yeast to my last 2 batches yesterday, is there something I should do differently this time to get more of a cider taste not wine? I also added sugar when I bottled it for carbonation but there were no bubbles when I opened it. The weather is starting to get pretty cool of a night, could this be stopping it getting bubbles?

If you use a wine yeast, your cider will taste like wine. I prefer ale yeasts in my cider. They tend to not attenuate as well, as don't have the vinous flavor you get from wine yeasts.

Nateo said:

If you use a wine yeast, your cider will taste like wine. I prefer ale yeasts in my cider. They tend to not attenuate as well, as don't have the vinous flavor you get from wine yeasts.

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In my experience, another cause of apple wine, instead of cider, is adding sugar. When you add sugar, you boost the ABV but thin the already thin body and give it a "wine" character.

Often, the best cider is simply fermented juice (cider). Adding sugar tends to give it a very "winy" finish.

thanks. Yeah Ill try different yeast next time and other then sugar when bottling to carbonate I didnt add any. I'll just keep experimenting till I get the taste Im after. thank you

I made a beer recently. It was fermented with wine yeast. It tastes exactly like. . . yep, wine. Yooper is right about adding not adding extra sugar. If I want a cider, I just use apple juice. If I want an applewine, I'll bump up the gravity.

Were you expecting the cider to be somewhat sweet after fermentation? If so the type of yeast is not the cause. The yeast ferments all available sugar until there is none left. You need to either stop fermentation early out add back sugar or apple juice after fermentation. Either way you need to also disable the yeast somehow.

D

@dmulligan -- Not all yeast will ferment out all of the way. Ale (beer) yeasts will leave a greater amount of residual sugars then wine or cider yeasts

dmulligan said:

Were you expecting the cider to be somewhat sweet after fermentation? If so the type of yeast is not the cause. The yeast ferments all available sugar until there is none left. You need to either stop fermentation early out add back sugar or apple juice after fermentation. Either way you need to also disable the yeast somehow.

D

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I knew it would taste dry with no sweetness but there is no apple taste whatsoever. It smells like cheap wine and tastes like cheap wine. I have 2 more batches fermenting at the moment and was hoping there is something I can do to make them a little more drinkable.

Do a search for "Backsweeten Apfelwein". There are definitely some suggestions around the forums. I personally enjoy the dryness of Apfelwein so I've never done it myself so I can't speak to what method is best but theres definitely some options out there.

I realize now that you are bottling and not kegging and force carbing which is going to make back sweetening a more difficult task.
What if you racked it onto a bed of fresh cut apples in another carboy for say 3 days to a week? I feel like this would extract some apple flavor without giving the yeast easy access to more sugar to chomp through. Its an idea anyways... I'd do some research to make sure its not a BAD idea.
If it were me here's how I think I'd do it:
Rack from primary into a secondary vessel with apple in it.
Keep the secondary fermenter stored in a cool place (spare fridge maybe?). Colder temps would help keep the yeast dormant and means that they wouldn't be chewing through the sugar as vigorously.
After a few days, rack the cider off of the fruit into a new carboy and let it sit for a while longer to make sure that any sugars that were picked up from the apples ferment out so you don't end up with bottle bombs.

Again, I have no idea what sort of results that process would produce but it seems like it should, if nothing else, add a bit more apple flavor which might help compensate for the dry/wine like character. All that being said, all of the temperature fluctuation might make the yeast unhappy and produce some other undesirable flavors. You'd definitely be best served doing a test run with a small sample before messing with the whole batch.

If all else fails (or sounds like too much work)... RDWHAHB! Since your current bottles aren't carbed I'd say that you're likely drinking this too soon. Collectively, HBT has brewed over 22,000 gallons of EdWort's Apfelwein (which has a very similar character to what you are describing) and word on the street is that it only gets better as it gets older. Though I wouldn't know, I can't get a keg of that stuff to last more than a month in my house.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f25/man-i-love-apfelwein-14860/

i make all of my ciders to be 7% abv so i always bump the SG with sugar, but i stop my fermentation early (S.G.=.010-.015) to preserve apple flavor and to cut down on aging time. i also add around 48OZ (4 cans) of apple concentrate for every 5 gal after fermentation to combat wine taste and bring out the apple flavor. it works grate but you have to remember to pasteurize after its finished carbing or the bottles will blow.

if you do it this way the type of yeast dosnt matter to much, but i prefer safail s-04 fermented at 58F-60F.