Bryan19836
Member
*officially it's cider, from experience I'd describe it as cat pee.
Hi Everyone,
I'm trying to homebrew my own cider, and batch #1 was just.AWFUL
I used No Name brand apple juice. No preservatives, just pure juice. Couldn't tell you what kind of apples.
I used Lalvin EC-1118 yeast (two packages for 5 gallons, because I suck)
So here's the whole story:
I poured my juice into a 5 gallon bucket, added some yeast, and closed it so the only apparent opening was my fermentation airlock. After a few days of no bubbles, I assumed I'd killed the yeast by not re-hydrating it. As such I prepped more yeast and dumped it in. Upon peeking in after adding the second batch of yeast I noticed a thick froth on the top of the mixture. Apparently fermentation was happening, but my bucket didn't have a perfect seal, so I assume the CO2 was escaping from the seams of my bucket. After sealing the bucket with saran wrap, plumbers vinyl tape and duct tape, the seal was complete. For real this time, because the airlock started bubbling happily.
After the bubbles stopped (~2 weeks), I transferred into a carboy for secondary fermentation. There was maybe 2 inches of air between the meniscus and the vapour lock. From here I let my mix settle so the cloudiness went away, then I started bottling.
My end product had a specific gravity of 1.004, and an alcohol content of 5.25%
I cleaned everything beforehand, I swear.
So why does my cider smell like cat pee, and taste watery?!?
Hi Everyone,
I'm trying to homebrew my own cider, and batch #1 was just.AWFUL
I used No Name brand apple juice. No preservatives, just pure juice. Couldn't tell you what kind of apples.
I used Lalvin EC-1118 yeast (two packages for 5 gallons, because I suck)
So here's the whole story:
I poured my juice into a 5 gallon bucket, added some yeast, and closed it so the only apparent opening was my fermentation airlock. After a few days of no bubbles, I assumed I'd killed the yeast by not re-hydrating it. As such I prepped more yeast and dumped it in. Upon peeking in after adding the second batch of yeast I noticed a thick froth on the top of the mixture. Apparently fermentation was happening, but my bucket didn't have a perfect seal, so I assume the CO2 was escaping from the seams of my bucket. After sealing the bucket with saran wrap, plumbers vinyl tape and duct tape, the seal was complete. For real this time, because the airlock started bubbling happily.
After the bubbles stopped (~2 weeks), I transferred into a carboy for secondary fermentation. There was maybe 2 inches of air between the meniscus and the vapour lock. From here I let my mix settle so the cloudiness went away, then I started bottling.
My end product had a specific gravity of 1.004, and an alcohol content of 5.25%
I cleaned everything beforehand, I swear.
So why does my cider smell like cat pee, and taste watery?!?