I think i killed my first cider...any thoughts?

[spidermonkey1187]

Hello all! This is my first post here. Previous to this cider attempt I have made "wine" from cranberry juice a few times which turned out better than I thought. I will say that my methods at the time were pretty crude. I REALLY want to make some genuine fruit wine or multi fruit wine but i decided to make a cider first while i was researching that topic.

Anywho my problem is my cider taste a little like vinegar and smells like bread. I forgot to take the initial hydrometer reading so i do not know what the content is or how to figure it at this point. I will say that it definitely packs a whollup. So i will layout now what I did to make this batch.

i started with a bunch of the three apple cider from walmart. i used some wine yeast first, and 2 pounds of brown sugar. i thought the fermentation was stuck but i didn't have any more yeast so i added bread yeast. I know i know not a good idea! I also added a bunch more sugar. Now it was about 3 months and i had racked it twice but it tastes awful. I also added a jar of honey and some cin sticks as well. It has been about months right now and after racking it today it still has alcohol in it but doesn't taste very good at all. I know I probably really messed this up but does anybody have any ideas? Can i filter it out, sweeten, distill, or what?

 

[Looneybeer]

Sounds like your yeast died, may have to call it a wash. I made a batch of cider last year, well attempt to but it turn out more like a dry white wine. Good luck if ya try aging.

 

[jackfrost]

Honestly the bread yeast was a bad idea...how ever you mite rack it into a clean demijohn then let it age about a year. That seems to take the hot flavor away and the yeast flavor will mellow.....how ever given the amount of sugar in there I'm not sure it will ever by drink able....but if it taste better in a year you can always use it to top up or back sweeten

 

[spidermonkey1187]

Do you think it would be worth it to distill this into something like vodka then?

 

[jackfrost]

Its one of those things all you can do is try it if you like it then great if not dump it. Its just an experiment...mite make a good mixer tho

 

[spidermonkey1187]

Well you are right there. I have found out that it does make an excellent marrinade for almost any meet. Lately what i have done with it is rack it one more time so it will now sit in a carboy for the next year i guess. i cant help but wonder if I should go ahead and bottle it now or just let it sit in the carboy.....

 

[jackfrost]

If you have access to a cool dry dark place fir all the bottles bottle it no need to keep the carboy occupied for some thing ur not happy with any way

 

[spidermonkey1187]

do you all know of anything i can do to something like this to force it to mature or taste better?

 

[jackfrost]

Use 71b-1122. And oak chips to start...and or drink it cold...but aging. Is best