My last three batches have had a cidery wang to them. On the first two, I thought it might be questionable ingredients, so I went to a proven recipe with proven ingredients I've used in the past: an American Hefe that I've made 4 times now. I still got cider from that even, so I started looking up threads on here about cideritis.
- cheap or wrong sugars - Cheap fermentable sugars aren't the culprit, as I only use what I understand to be, quality malts from Northern Brewer and Midwest Supplies, and I only use Corn Sugar for bottling, not brewing. I mix 5oz of said sugar in bottling bucket with batch before bottling. I don't think that is it.
- sanitation - I'm pretty sure it is not sanitation, or lack there of. I'm pretty clean in my process. I do use straight un-boiled tap water, but it has never caused problems in the past. As I was taught: if you like the taste of your tap water, then use it. I sanitize with bleach and a name brand sanitizer, and as a Nurse, I am all to familiar with infection control.
- lack of conditioning or green beer - I am tempted into impatience as much as the next guy, but I only partake in the green on a limited basis. I have only had one batch (my first batch, two years ago, which used half corn sugar/half syrup malt) that improved in the way of cideriness after time spent in the bottle. All my other batches were basically "set" in taste after two weeks in the bottle. My cidery batches as of late, remained cidery after months in the bottle.
- Ferment temp - Here's where I think I've been funking up, lol. I have a radiant heated house, heated by a boiler that pumps hot water throughout the house through a series of pipes in the concrete slab. I keep my house at 70 degrees, but my floor is much warmer. I have placed my primaries directly on the floor in pretty much the warmest floored room in my house. I do have a temp strip on my primary, but it is old and basically ineffective. I thought I read 75 one day and thought, meh, 75 is close enough. I think that's my downfall.
I currently have a batch of high gravity Double Brown in the secondary. It's been there now for a month (2 weeks prime, month 2ndary, and will be 2mos in the bottle). It is ready to be bottled. Is there any saving it from cidery doom?
Oh and yes. I will ferment on non heated floor in order to keep my temps under 70 from here out. Not so strangely, I haven't had this problem before when I wasn't running my heater (in warmer months), or when I fermented on non-heated floor. Ain't acetaldehyde a biotch...
- cheap or wrong sugars - Cheap fermentable sugars aren't the culprit, as I only use what I understand to be, quality malts from Northern Brewer and Midwest Supplies, and I only use Corn Sugar for bottling, not brewing. I mix 5oz of said sugar in bottling bucket with batch before bottling. I don't think that is it.
- sanitation - I'm pretty sure it is not sanitation, or lack there of. I'm pretty clean in my process. I do use straight un-boiled tap water, but it has never caused problems in the past. As I was taught: if you like the taste of your tap water, then use it. I sanitize with bleach and a name brand sanitizer, and as a Nurse, I am all to familiar with infection control.
- lack of conditioning or green beer - I am tempted into impatience as much as the next guy, but I only partake in the green on a limited basis. I have only had one batch (my first batch, two years ago, which used half corn sugar/half syrup malt) that improved in the way of cideriness after time spent in the bottle. All my other batches were basically "set" in taste after two weeks in the bottle. My cidery batches as of late, remained cidery after months in the bottle.
- Ferment temp - Here's where I think I've been funking up, lol. I have a radiant heated house, heated by a boiler that pumps hot water throughout the house through a series of pipes in the concrete slab. I keep my house at 70 degrees, but my floor is much warmer. I have placed my primaries directly on the floor in pretty much the warmest floored room in my house. I do have a temp strip on my primary, but it is old and basically ineffective. I thought I read 75 one day and thought, meh, 75 is close enough. I think that's my downfall.
I currently have a batch of high gravity Double Brown in the secondary. It's been there now for a month (2 weeks prime, month 2ndary, and will be 2mos in the bottle). It is ready to be bottled. Is there any saving it from cidery doom?
Oh and yes. I will ferment on non heated floor in order to keep my temps under 70 from here out. Not so strangely, I haven't had this problem before when I wasn't running my heater (in warmer months), or when I fermented on non-heated floor. Ain't acetaldehyde a biotch...
