My cider tastes like...

So, I pitched California Ale Yeast in 5 gallons of apple juice at the end of july, added spices and racked to secondary a month and a half ago, and bottled about 2 weeks ago, with a can of apple juice concentrate for priming.

Now, my cider has almost no carbonation and tastes like bitter ass with orange peel and cinnamon.

Someone please calm my worries and tell me it's going to be all right and my cider will age gracefully and I'm just too impatient.

it's going to be all right and your cider will age gracefully and you're just too impatient.

thank you

Give it time. I think that has been the hardest thing for me to learn. I tasted my spiced last june and it was terrible. We tasted it today and it wasn't even close to being the same. Everyone loved it( I wish it had a little more snap but it was so much better than in June. I'm looking forward to December!

I totally ruined a batch by spicing it and it never recovered. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but aging doesn't cure everything (especially if you over did it?)

Also, racking causes more problems than it's worth IMO. If you rack after fermentation is complete, that's oxygenation city (no c02 to displace o2 anymore). I also toasted a batch by racking at the wrong time.

Needless to say I don't rack squat anymore, and life is good again.

bernerbits said:

So, I pitched California Ale Yeast in 5 gallons of apple juice at the end of july, added spices and racked to secondary a month and a half ago, and bottled about 2 weeks ago, with a can of apple juice concentrate for priming.

Now, my cider has almost no carbonation and tastes like bitter ass with orange peel and cinnamon.

Someone please calm my worries and tell me it's going to be all right and my cider will age gracefully and I'm just too impatient.

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How big a can of concentrate? What brand? Did it have any preservatives?

2 weeks for carbonation is not very long at all. Sometimes it can take 4-6 with concentrate. The math says you need 13.5oz of concentrate to equal 3/4 cup of priming sugar for 5 gallons so it may be a little under carbed when you are done.

What kind of spice and how much? Don't worry it will probably all work out. I wouldn't try another one for at least 6 weeks to make sure they carb.

Kroger brand concentrate. 12 ounces, and the only preservatives were ascorbic acid and calcium citrate, which I was under the impression that those were OK. I used sweet orange peel (half a packet), cinnamon (2 sticks) and grains of paradise (the whole packet), which I boiled in water and rum and discarded the solids before adding the liquid.

So, the running tally is 3 "just wait longer"s and one "totally fuxor'd"? 1 in 4, I'm not liking my odds

Gee I dont know. the odds are 75% you are going to be fine. Thats pretty good odds.

It's 9 days later and the really awful flavor (not sure how to describe it exactly) that was dominating before is softening out and it's starting to bring out the spice nicely. It's also finally carbing which is helping out immensely.

I know I wasn't supposed to touch it for 6 weeks but SWMBO was thirsty this weekend and opened a few.