Help ! New cider brewer

[evanz89]

Hello everyone first of all would like to say I am completely new to brewing and don't know much at all.

I normally brew from kits (3rd attempt) and have used mangers strawberry kit, on the rocks mixed fruit and now a now I am using s samsons west country cider kit, the problem I am having is every kit I use tastes horrible I don't know where I am going wrong. I followed the instructions of my latest kit to the letter and have just tasted it after1 week in my pressure barrel and it's still cloudy when poured and tastes horrible, the sediment settles down in the glass after around an hour however .

I really don't know what to do, and am on the verge of stopping brewing before I have even seriously began!

Any help would be much appreciated .

The only thing I might say is that my pressure barrel leaked so I had to let all the pressure out the top.

 

[agent44]

Not too sure what you mean by pressure barrel? Like a corny keg? Why don't you list as accurate as possible the steps you did with your cider, and we can go from there. I've never made a kit before so I am not familiar with the process if it differs from "from scratch" brewing. The forum is full of very helpful people, I'm sure we can all get you on track!

 

[sa101]

agreed, no idea what this pressure barrel is (keg?), but if you had a leak, then all the oxygen interacting with your brew definitely wouldn't have done you any favours. Also, after only one week of fermenting, your cider shouldn't taste good, you need to give it time my friend

 

[smegger]

If your cider is still cloudy, you certainly have not been waiting long enough. Even my fastest fermenting cider has taken 2-4 weeks to start to settle.

Wait for the yeast to settle to the bottom of the barrel and bottle/move it to another barrel/keg before drinking it. If the yeast gets stirred up again you'll end up having to wait for it to settle to the bottom again.

The suspended yeast is quite likely to be what is making your cider taste awful. Also leaving the cider for a few months can improve the taste as well up to a point.

 

[evanz89]

Hey thank you for taking time to help, to try and clear a few things up, the pressure barrel is something similar to this ;

http://www.wilkinsonplus.com/home-brewing/youngs-brew-pressure-barrel-5-gallon/invt/0022554/?gf=a

And the leak was after I tried to carbonise, it leaked from around the tap so I have had to losen the top to stop the pressure building up.


I will try to go through The steps I had with my last kit because I have thrown the instructions away now so sorry if it's vague.


It came with a tin of concentrated apple juice, sort of like a syrup.

Poured this in my first FV, with 1.5kg of sugar, and poured in 6 pints of boiling water, then stirred. Topped up to 40pts with cold water, stirred again and left for 24 hours.

Then added yeast, stirred again and left in the FV (with airlock) for 10 days. Stayed at around 22-24° for this period

Then siphoned to the barrel, and added 0.5kg of sugar and stirred. Then left for 3 days, this is when the leak occurred, so I opened the top of the barrel, to let the pressure out.

Put the top back on but loosely , and the cider has been there ever since (8th day in the barrel today)

Hope this helps, as at the minute the cider is cloudy, and tastes horrible, sort of like eating a apple off a tree that not ripe as 1 of my friends describe it, but I think it tastes a little like a cheap wine.

 

[KBentley57]

Well, if it's still cloudy, it needs to either be finned (super-kleer, bentonite, and others work well) or left alone for a little longer. The cloudyness is the yeast, and IMO yeast don't taste good. Even if it were crystal clear, tasting it this young will not give you the right impression. It needs to age for a few months before it tastes anything like the final product.

 

[evanz89]

This is what I am worried about though, my last batched tasted yeasty too and just a sort of cheap wine taste I left it for about 2 months it was still cloudy with sediment at the bottom of every glass so I threw it away I just don't know weather this batch will actually clear and taste nice or because of the leak I had am I chasing a lost cause?

If the top of my barrel isn't on too tight (to let the pressure out) would that have an effect on taste?

 

[monel_funkawitz]

I fly rc airplanes. I spent many years trying to do things MY way and got really frustrated. Then I followed the advice of some pros and took baby steps. Saved me alot of grief.

Quit experimenting. Put the pressure keg away, and get a standard 6 gallon glass carboy and an airlock and make a dry still apfelwein. All you are doing is going to get frustrated. Try something easy first.

 

[evanz89]

I do take advice that's why I'm here, but I am not experimenting, I am using the most simple thing, a home brew kit and I am having problems, that's why I'm here because have done everything in the way it said on the kit, this is not MY way.

But I will take your advice and get a glass carbon and see how I get. Along

 

[monel_funkawitz]

I just dont want you to get frustrated and give up. Yeast makes a difference in taste, as well as fermenting under alot of pressure.

Innovation is how great new things are found, but get something drinkable first so you don't frustrated and so you know what standard fermenting looks like so you can use it as a baseline. Any variable you change makes a difference, sometimes better, sometimes worse. Id even recommend a 1 gallon growler and airlock for a first brew. Then you can work with smaller batches.

I made my first cider as a half gallon with bread yeast and drank it after the first week of brewing. Then I did it right, and wow it is a whole different animal. This hobby ive learned is one of patience.

 

[evanz89]

Yea I used a 40 pint bucket with an airlock, it fermented fine, as did the other 2 batches, I didn't syphon it to the barrel until the hydrometer reading was around0.999 so I understand this to be correct for siphoning into SV it's just the coudyness I can't get rid of and I am guessing this is what is causing the horrible taste