Hard pear cider smelling like vinegar

[walte1fr]

I just opened the lid on my pear cider and got a huge wiff of vinegar. I'm hoping it's not a dump bucket because I hand mashed all the pears. any thoughts?

 

[snuesen]

How long has it been in carboy? How much headspace is there in the container (surface area of cider exposed to open air in carboy)? Have you ever stabilized it with sulfite and sorbate? Did the airlock ever dry up?

 

[ColoHox]

Vinegar means an Acetobacter infection. Keep it as cider vinegar or dump it. Either way, it's a goner.

 

[thatjonguy]

I would keep it for fish and chips. Pear cider vinegar sounds awesome on a salad!

 

[aeviaanah]

vinegar is worth its weight in beer! great for cooking etc!

 

[walte1fr]

Airlock never dried. I never nuetralized it but never have in the past 3 years of doing tgis either. There was only 2 inches maybe in the top of my fermenter. Yeah I think its a gonner. How do I keep 5 gallons for cooking hahaha

 

[Virigoth]

Airlock never dried. I never nuetralized it but never have in the past 3 years of doing tgis either. There was only 2 inches maybe in the top of my fermenter. Yeah I think its a gonner. How do I keep 5 gallons for cooking hahaha

Sounds like Christmas gifts to me. "Hey check out this awesome pear vinegar I made for salads and cooking...Here is your bottle of it!"

 

[walte1fr]

Haha how do I store it? Gallon jugs in the celar?

 

[thatjonguy]

Haha how do I store it? Gallon jugs in the celar?

Sure! I would checkout a specialty bottle retailer and give some as gifts.

Next year you might actually need to make some on purpose if they like it!

 

[walte1fr]

Thabks for the help haha

 

[MindenMan]

I have never heard of pear cider vinegar before. I agree with Virigoth, since your foodie friends have probably never seen it on sale anywhere, it would be a really exclusive treat. You might check your local craft stores, if not there is always the web.

 

[thatjonguy]

http://www.specialtybottle.com/glassbottles-2.aspx

 

[WVMJ]

Drop some oak in it, oaked pear cider vinegar, and a pretty bow on the bottle. Did you ever add KM at the start or somewhere in the process? Are you supposed to take your airlock off and let it get some air to finish off, plug up the entrance so gnats dont get in there? You might save the mother to use again, never done it but would be an interesting experiment.

WVMJ

 

[walte1fr]

Actually it tasted fine just had a slight vinegar smell so I dropped some sorb ate in it and threw it in the freezer to kill the yeast off. Hopefully it stops the vinegar.