Weak tasting cider

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Brew2Be

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Hi, I tried making a cider out of store bought, pasteurized, apple juice. I have had great success with making wine of the same apple juice, but my cider turned out tasting of virtually nothing.

It was estimated at around 5.5 - 6% abv. I only used the sugar which was naturally in the juice and did not add any extra. The yeast I used was Lalvin EC-1118. It fermented at around room temperature.

Does anyone have any idea of what might have went wrong?

Thanks
 
I know if I am making hard cider from store bought juice, I add in strongly steeped tea and some lime juice, I find the added tannins and acid give the final product a fuller tastes for lack of a better explanation. You could also use wine tannins and acid blend from your local home brew store. Also I found using an ale yeast like Nottingham made a better final product then a wine yeast when making a lower % cider as opposed to a higher % apple wine. Cheers!
 
My apple wine didn't have any taste either, I will try the above recommendation to use a less attentive ale yeast this year.
The champagne yeast combined with the added sugar made mine super dry (0.996), taste like a white wine.

I bought some acid blend but I have no idea how to use it, what does this contribute to taste and when do you add it in?
With the tea, this sounds like it may be a good idea. How does it affect fermentation and would it be better to add this in the secondary or is it fine in the primary?
 
I know if I am making hard cider from store bought juice, I add in strongly steeped tea and some lime juice, I find the added tannins and acid give the final product a fuller tastes for lack of a better explanation. You could also use wine tannins and acid blend from your local home brew store. Also I found using an ale yeast like Nottingham made a better final product then a wine yeast when making a lower % cider as opposed to a higher % apple wine. Cheers!

Thanks for the reply! Which flavor tea? Just earl grey? And how many bags for how many litres?
 
not trying to piss on anyone's parade but i would steer very clear of adding any citrus to cider. if you need acid, get some sour apples like granny smiths and juice them, or get some malic acid powder, you can mix it in after fermentation to taste (sugar in the raw juice will mask the sourness to some extent). be careful adding powder to recently fermented liquid, it will foam up like a science project volcano. dissolve in boiled water first. for tannin i like to add crabapples. you can juice them, or freeze them and mash them up to extract the tannins. i have read on here about adding tea but never tried it, maybe it's fine, but when i can grab a handful of crabapples from a neighbor's tree why would i. earl grey has a lot of other stuff in it like orange peel by the way
 
I like to add fruit juice concentrates to my store cider. I've been using 1 can concentrate before pitching yeast and 1 can as priming sugar. I'm looking at getting a kegging setup tonight so I'm not sure if I'm going to keep using 1 can or two. Trying different flavors of concentrate can make interesting flavors too (2 cans cranberry/apple concentrate is one of my favorites).

Tonight I'm also pitching yeast into a store bought juice cider to which I've added diced crab apples from my decorative tree. I'm hoping it adds some nice tannins.
 
Yeah addin malic acid is probably better then adding the lime juice, but I've neve used it myself. My last batch was a raspberry cider, for five gallons I steeped five bags of raspberry zinger and five bags of Canadian breakfast tea, sort of the same as English breakfast or any red rose tea for that matter. I didn't use lime juice though as I added cran/rasp cocktail and raspberry cocktail into it, I figure there was enough acidity from the juice to cover it, although I haven't bottled it yet, the samples have been tasty https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f32/agents-raspberry-cider-344988/ here is the link.
 
I have done the same thing with the same resul. Pressed frsh cider, dried all the way out, back sweetened with concentrate, bottler carbonated and I drank 1 every month. For me it tasted like nothing, no mouth feel, very little apple taste, essentially boring as hell. At 9 months aging, something happened. Now it tastes like a commercial cider. That is still not great, but I am no longer embarassed for someone to try it. In the future I will play with the recepie (add granny smits and crabapples as stated above) as well as waiting 9 months to a year till I drink it. I make cider and mead and everything seems to have a 1 year age time minimum. Just get started and a year from now you will have more than you can drink, just keep making them and adjusting the recipie...take good notes so you know what you did a year later
 
Thanks for all your replies guys. I made a batch last night using the tea tip from agent44. I hope it turns out well. Just one last thing; when bottling, should i degass it before bottling and priming?
 
A little acid blend and/or a little wine tannin might help, adding some crab apples will help quite a bit. A lot of wine yeasts can strip out a lot of flavour, especially champagne yeasts. I use ale yeast for ciders now, they work great. I usually add a couple of cans or FAJC (thawed) to the juice to make it even more appley & boost the ABV.
Regards, GF.
 
A little acid blend and/or a little wine tannin might help, adding some crab apples will help quite a bit. A lot of wine yeasts can strip out a lot of flavour, especially champagne yeasts. I use ale yeast for ciders now, they work great. I usually add a couple of cans or FAJC (thawed) to the juice to make it even more appley & boost the ABV.
Regards, GF.

I agree about the flavor stripping. I decided to use Lalvin 71B-1122 for this cider in the hopes that it would preserve more flavor than the EC-1118 i usually use for many things.

I think i will try to order some ale yeast as you say, since they seem to be quite popular for cider. I am excited to see how this batch with 71B-1122 turns out.

Cheers
 
I agree about the flavor stripping. I decided to use Lalvin 71B-1122 for this cider in the hopes that it would preserve more flavor than the EC-1118 i usually use for many things.

I think i will try to order some ale yeast as you say, since they seem to be quite popular for cider. I am excited to see how this batch with 71B-1122 turns out.

Cheers

FYI: the 71-B yeast will actually metabolize some of the malic acid in your juice, up to 20% if I remember correctly. This will "soften" your cider/wine, though a lot of the percieved flavour in apples is from malic acid, so you might notice another loss of flavour with the 71-B. There are some who like the softer ciders/wines, so it might work well for you if that's what you like.

Like I said, I'd use an ale yeast (Nottingham), but if I had to use a wine yeast, I think I'd go with Steinberg, Red Star has it in a dry form. Here's a link to a list of wine yeasts & their properties that you might find useful:
http://winemaking.jackkeller.net/strains.asp

Hope this info helps. Regards, GF.
 
FYI: the 71-B yeast will actually metabolize some of the malic acid in your juice, up to 20% if I remember correctly. This will "soften" your cider/wine, though a lot of the percieved flavour in apples is from malic acid, so you might notice another loss of flavour with the 71-B. There are some who like the softer ciders/wines, so it might work well for you if that's what you like.

Like I said, I'd use an ale yeast (Nottingham), but if I had to use a wine yeast, I think I'd go with Steinberg, Red Star has it in a dry form. Here's a link to a list of wine yeasts & their properties that you might find useful:
http://winemaking.jackkeller.net/strains.asp

Hope this info helps. Regards, GF.

Thanks for the info :) I hope it turns out alright anyways
 
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