Cider tastes crap! advise please?

Hi I'm steve and new to this home brewing thing. Saw a kit for sale and decided to give it a go. But it's turned out absolutely terrrible!

Sorry! you probably get alot of messages from new ppl with similar questions however I'm going to ask anyway bacause if you dont ask you dont get.



I've followed the instrucitons on the cider kit to the letter.

I added all the right ammounts of sugar and water and left it for the stated times. After the first 7 days of fermenting it smelt absolutely stunning, as cider should! Then as the instructions stated I syphoned it into a 5 gal pressure barrel, added the extra sugar and have left it for 3 weeks, as advised in the indstructions.

Now came the tasting, I had a mate around to sample it and we were both very excited to see how it had turned out. However, it smelt (and tasted) absolutely foul. It tastes as though it's gone off. and looks very watery and pale. Very bitter taste to it and an oddly cloudy look to it. we both literally only took a sip of it and were gagging to throw up/

Now as I sed i'm new to this so do you thinkg its something major I've done wrong of have I just left it for too long or is it just a case of trial and error with these kits?

Any advise anyone could give me would be very much appreciated as I wouldnt mind givign it another go before christmas



Smitherz

If you provide us with more information we could be more help. What kit? What was your fermenting vessel, secondary conditioning vessel (5 gal pressure barrel) what was it?

Most importantly what did you use to clean and sanitize. I have not made cider yet but have been reading about it allot. A cloudy cider can be from the type of yeast and or not enough time in the secondary (if you move it from the primary).

Hope that helps a little

Did you wait for the gravity to reach approx. 1.000? Did you observe that the brew was reasonably clear? I'm guessing you've left way too much yeast in there. If you siphon the liquid to the secondary make sure it's fairly clear, the end product will be all the clearer for it.

Apfelwein or cider could easily go for 3 weeks primary and then another 4 or 5 in the secondary.

I recently made a 14% abv cider using applejuice and sugar. I left it in the primary for 6 weeks, it was clear after about 3 weeks. (It's now in the secondary for fear of autolysis of the yeast.) It will be in the sec. for a few months (!!!) before I deem it consumable. Lower alcohol may need less time but 4 weeks total is rediculous. 3 weeks primary and 1 week secondary would have made more sense anyway.

I leave my ciders alone for a minimum of a month before messing with them. In my limited cider experience, it takes much longer to ferment and age than beer.

i think it's just not done yet, cider can take a long time. and it'l have some bad flavors and smells about halfway though fermentation.

i've only made 2 small batches of cider, but they took about a month to stop fermenting. i'd put your cider into something with an airlock, not a preassure barrel, or just stick an airlock on whatever it's in (if you can) and wait several more weeks, maybe give it a total of 1 month-ish from when you added the priming sugar. then move it back to whatever you're pressurizing it in and add a bit more sugar, assuming whatever yeast you're using can still carbonate it.

i'm still pretty new at this tho, might wanna see what some more experienced brewers have to say before jumping on my advice.

dude, i strongly suggest you'd take a look at the cider forum on this website!

Thanks for the fast responce guys.


The kit I used was youngs uBrew Brew Buddy 40pint Cider kit
I used A Youngs 5Gal Fermenting Buket (with a snap on lid)
and a Youngs 5Gal Pressure barrel. All been cleaned with VWP steriliser.
The yeast and nutrient came with the kit.

As I'm new to this I followed the instructions biblically. Added the conentrate, water, 1kg sugar and the yeast and nutrient.
Left it for a week in the primary bucket then syphoned it into the pressure barrel and added the extra sugar. the instructions said that it would be ready in 4 days but for a better taste leave it for 2-3 weeks which I done.


Do you think it's worth leaving or should I just srap it and start again?


I'm having a read of the cider forums as I write this, I wonder if an admin could move this thread into that section

What did you use to sanitize the pressure barrel with before you racked the cider into it? How much sugar did you put in the pressure barrel? Was the sugar to increase the alcohol or carbonate the cider in the pressure barrel? Can you post your recipe here please? It sounds like the kit is trying to take a 4 month project and get it done in a few weeks?

lapaglia said:

What did you use to sanitize the pressure barrel with before you racked the cider into it? How much sugar did you put in the pressure barrel? Was the sugar to increase the alcohol or carbonate the cider in the pressure barrel? Can you post your recipe here please? It sounds like the kit is trying to take a 4 month project and get it done in a few weeks?

Click to expand...

i used VWP steriliser to clean the pressure barrel, think it was about 150grams of sugar added into the pressure barrel to carbonate(I presume) (cant find the instructions that came with the kit now). The recipe was basically the apple juice conentrate, yeast and nutrient that came with the kit. then 1kg of granulated sugar and made up to 5 gals with water (some warm water firstly then made up to 5 gals with cold)

Thats all, I havent added anyting except for what it says in the kit instructions. (maybe i should have lol)

I've been making cider for a couple of years now. Here is the key, patience, patience, patience. Cider goes from near awful to magnificent in about a YEAR!! If your thinking this will taste like a commercially available product you are gravely mistaken, it will be very dry and a bit bitter, definitely an acquired taste. Leave that stuff in the secondary for a month or more, leave it until it clears. It will, eventually and you could also crash cool it to remove more, just place it somewhere cool, 40F ish, for a day or two before bottling. As suggested earlier check out the cider forum for more info!!!

my cider i bottled last night tasted so bad i wonder if i will ever drink it! it's not spoiled, just sucks all of the saliva out of your mouth. picture a dry ass chardonay, times ten.

i started at 1.064, juice only, no sugar. pitched premier cuvee champagne yeast, and it finished @ .998. it's clear as can be....just tastes like ass... lol

i was hopin to drink by x mas, but might need another year!