nakeddog
Well-Known Member
For my first cider, I decided to go simple and just go with juice and yeast to see where it takes me and then build from there. So we have a local unpasteurized, unfiltered apple juice that is sold in stores. Excellent juice. So I took about 9liters (2.4gallons) and a packet of Champagne yeast and tossed them into a 3gallon better bottle. I let it sit at 18-20*C (64-68*F) for 8weeks where it went from 1.050 to 1.002.
Tasted the cider, it was drier than dry. So I backsweetened with the same juice that I made it with, it took around 2 liters (~.5gallon) to get it to where I thought it was lightly sweetened. I bottled the cider and let it sit for a few days and kept an eye on a plastic soda bottled that I filled as well to keep an eye on the carb level. Once the plastic bottle was hard enough, I attempted to bottle pasteurize unsuccessfully (didn't think about the plastic corks melting) so I put the remaining 8 750ml bottles of cider in the fridge to keep the yeasties at bay.
Jump forward 4 weeks to last night where we tasted the cider for the first time. Great carbonation, a flurry of Champagne bubbles. Aroma was good, with a bit of yeast nose. However the flavor was all yeast! Couldn't get past the yeast flavor in the cider. So much that I couldn't drink it.
I didn't cold crash the cider because at the time I didn't have the means to cold crash a full carboy (I do now). But still, I didn't do anything different than I do with my beers with no ill effects.
So why the extreme yeast flavors?
Tasted the cider, it was drier than dry. So I backsweetened with the same juice that I made it with, it took around 2 liters (~.5gallon) to get it to where I thought it was lightly sweetened. I bottled the cider and let it sit for a few days and kept an eye on a plastic soda bottled that I filled as well to keep an eye on the carb level. Once the plastic bottle was hard enough, I attempted to bottle pasteurize unsuccessfully (didn't think about the plastic corks melting) so I put the remaining 8 750ml bottles of cider in the fridge to keep the yeasties at bay.
Jump forward 4 weeks to last night where we tasted the cider for the first time. Great carbonation, a flurry of Champagne bubbles. Aroma was good, with a bit of yeast nose. However the flavor was all yeast! Couldn't get past the yeast flavor in the cider. So much that I couldn't drink it.
I didn't cold crash the cider because at the time I didn't have the means to cold crash a full carboy (I do now). But still, I didn't do anything different than I do with my beers with no ill effects.
So why the extreme yeast flavors?