Copernicus
Active Member
So, several months ago I tried my first shot at brewing hard cider. After fermenting, bottling, and waiting a couple weeks, my family and I tried it. The general consensus
not good. The best word I could use to describe it was musty. Not very pleasant at all. I couldnt bring myself to dump it all so Ive had almost the whole batch just taking up room in my closet since then. I also tried it a couple other times and it still was not good.
Now Im getting ready to try my hand at it again, so I decided to go into the brew store and have them taste it to tell me what might have gone wrong. The shocker is today it was not bad. I might even actually call it good. And all three of the staff tried it and liked it. Needless to say, I was surprised.
So what gives? This was a pretty dramatic change. Ive heard of letting cider sit for several months to let the apple flavor return, but this was more like going from bad/musty to fairly good.
For what its worth, the recipe was something like:
- 5 gal Murrays cider (no preservatives)
- 1.5 lb brown sugar
- 0.5 lb dark local NC honey
- Some Red Star wine yeast (dont remember the type, but not champagne yeast)
Fermented in carboy for 4-6 (ish) weeks, bottled in early March 2010. Sorry I lack more details.
Any thoughts?
Now Im getting ready to try my hand at it again, so I decided to go into the brew store and have them taste it to tell me what might have gone wrong. The shocker is today it was not bad. I might even actually call it good. And all three of the staff tried it and liked it. Needless to say, I was surprised.
So what gives? This was a pretty dramatic change. Ive heard of letting cider sit for several months to let the apple flavor return, but this was more like going from bad/musty to fairly good.
For what its worth, the recipe was something like:
- 5 gal Murrays cider (no preservatives)
- 1.5 lb brown sugar
- 0.5 lb dark local NC honey
- Some Red Star wine yeast (dont remember the type, but not champagne yeast)
Fermented in carboy for 4-6 (ish) weeks, bottled in early March 2010. Sorry I lack more details.
Any thoughts?