Cider to vinegar

So- had a three gallon batch of cider I bottled last week. Fermented out all the way after a few months and tasted great. My dad took a few bottles home and tried one last night. It tasted like vinegar. So- I opened one too. Vinegar!!!!

I sanitized bottles just like I do with my beers. Used star San.

The ABV is 8%...... Thought that would have killed anything during transfer to bottle bucket...... What happened? I've made lots of cider, but have never had this happen....

The microb reaponsable actually converts the alcohol to the vinegear molecule so it has a very high alcohol tolerance. Make sure there are no fruit flies around your equipment as they tend to have the bacteria on them.

Hmmm.


Weird thing is that I did two , three gallon batches.

One batch was orchard cider with cinnamon and clove and it taste the same as bottleing day.. The one that went bad was store AJ with cin,clove, and Granny Smith apples....

Did you put the granny smithapples in the must or Cider directly?

I had them in primary for a few weeks, transferred to secondary for a weeks, the bottled.

When I made apple wine it would get vingeary sometimes from the apple skins if I tried adding them after the open air fermentation. You could try sanatizing the outsides of the apple like you would your equipment before adding them.

I had them in the freezer for several days before adding.

I'd think that the microbe is probably immune to freeze deaths, as we have vinegar in the northern climates but I don't know for sure.