Intro/third time's the charm

Hi all I've just recently taken an interest in brewing, cider specifically, and my luck's been spotty so far...

first try, I followed a recipe I found on instructables.... using walmart apple juice, plain white sugar and champagne yeast. Came out VERY dry and tart, a hair yeasty, but drinkable. And with an alcohol content that sorta snuck up on you.

Second, I used the same recipe, only with dextrose and US-05 Ale yeast (my basic recipe is 2 cups of sugar to a gallon of juice, and until my most recent try I mostly "eyeballed" the yeast). Well, I got impatient and thought I'd be all clever and cold crash it.... came out REALLY yeasty, unpleasantly so. So I think I learned my lesson there.

So I'm on my third try. Used the same basic proportions (I'm going with this as kind of a "control recipe"), but measured out my yeast this time (I've been getting the feeling I was adding to much).... 1/2 teaspoon US-05 ale yeast, with a teaspoon of yeast nutrient for good measure, 2 cups of dextrose, using Wal-Mart "Great Value" juice as my base....

So, I guess I'm looking for thoughts, comments and observations so far.... I'm keeping a journal of all this, so I can hopefully track what I'm doing right and wrong....

So yeah. Hello to all from a lurker who's learned a lot from this place so far :-D

-Elias

The problem here for you is separating your taste, and brewing recipes and standards.

First of all, if you have any left from batch's 1 and 2, don't drink them. Give them a couple of months. Batch 2 give them 6 months and your kick your self for drinking it too soon.

Go with 5 gallons of AJ / cider, 2 pounds sugar, yeast of your choice. Ferment for a month, rack to secondary, wait 3 months, bottle / keg.

Taste one bottle every week until 3 months. Then taste one bottle every month. Decide when it was best.
Now you have a recipe and time line to experiment with different yeast, juices, etc.

Best of luck.