Throw out cider?

[SkiNuke]

Well my first attempt at a cider I think was a gigantic failure. It came out much lighter than I expected (about the color of white wine) and tastes yeasty and sour along with some buttery notes, it does not taste at all like apples. In fact it tastes closer to a bad wine than apples.

Now the question is: do I throw it out? Teusday I will need a bunch of bottles to bottle my 2nd batch of beer and it would be nice to use these and not have to buy more bottles. However, I would like to save these if there is any hope of them tasting like cider in the future.

 

[jcobbs]

What was the recipe and when did you start it? Might be bad, but might be just young & green. Without anything else to go on, I'm leaning toward young.

 

[Nateo]

What kind of yeast did you use? If you used wine yeast, they'll probably taste like wine.

The cider I made using wine yeast I let age for 8 weeks in the primary, bottled and cold conditioned for 8 weeks, and they started tasting pretty good. At 6mo old they were really good but I only had a couple left.

 

[SkiNuke]

This was my second thing I brewed so I basically took "simply apple" juice and added wine yeast (lalvin 71B-1122) to it. This was back in April. I think i did a 1-2 week primary and at least a month long secondary. I have had it bottled for about a month or 2. I lost track of time on this one because I moved during the secondary.

It could be that its just way too young, but I can't even taste a hint of apples. When I brewed my first beer a month or so back I tasted it when it was young and while it didn't taste like good beer, it still tasted like beer.

 

[MultumInParvo]

NO! don't do it!

I had a cider just like this. I put it in a keg and forgot about it for over a year. It has now been close to 2 years and it is excellent! Just put it in a cool place and forget about it. There is no reason to toss it unless you are really short on space.

 

[oldmate]

Don't do it! Transfer to a clean secondary vessel with an airlock and forget about it for half a year!!

 

[SkiNuke]

They are currently bottled. Could I leave them in a closest as is or should I pour them back into a secondary?

 

[Insomniac]

I would just hide them away at the back of the closet as is and get some more bottles.

 

[SkiNuke]

How long do you think I should leave them? 6 months? a year?

 

[BBBF]

Try one in six months and decide for yourself. They will keep improving and the Apple flavor comes back. You can also mix it with some Apple juice.

 

[dinnerstick]

leave them alone, in bottles, forget them 1 year and re-evaluate

 

[jcobbs]

How long do you think I should leave them? 6 months? a year?

Time is the secret ingredient in homebrewing. If you're old enough to legally make wine, you won't outlive your product. If it's not infected and it's properly stored, it'll only get better

 

[Foomoochoo]

Not sure on your particular recipe, I would leave it age. If after 1 year it is still horrible, I would promptly make it into vinegar. Homemade cider vinegar is pretty amazing.

I see your other post now. I am drinking very young apfelwein right now and it is great. Tastes are subjective but, not sure why yours is so bad.

 

[SkiNuke]

So I revisited my cider last night and unfortunately it is not very good. Its ultra light in color (almost the same as my mead). It also didn't taste like apple cider at all. It was still a bit yeasty, but there was a very faint aroma of apples when i first cracked open the bottle. Do I need to wait even longer for this? Also I don't understand why it's so light in color, I used Simply Apple as my juice since I thought it would be better to use a juice that was a bit closer to cider than standard apple juice. This makes me worried about using my press to press cider if my cider is going to come out crappy. Any thoughts?

 

[divi2323]

The color likely won't deepen. For the taste, maybe try sweetening it with some molasses to help.with the color and the sugar will help make the Apple flavor pop.

Perhaps your expectation is too high? I see a lot of forum posts about a lack of that Apple flavor. I think most people are looking for alcoholic Apple juice. You might try adding some frozen Apple juice concentrate as well

 

[SkiNuke]

I was just looking for something that somewhat resembles woodchuck or longbow, not my mead.

 

[Nateo]

Age helps a lot of things, but it won't make crappy cider good. Do it right to begin with, and age will make your good cider great.

How I make hard cider that I like (your experience may vary):

1) Use ale yeast. I like S-04 and T-58 for ciders, but I've had more success with any ale yeast than any wine yeast.

2) Check and adjust pH throughout fermentation. Low pH = stressed yeast = bad flavors. Yeast is happiest in the 4-6 range. Yeast gets really grumpy under 3. Too high of a pH could open the window for infections, so I usually shoot for 4.

3) Rouse, rouse, rouse, rouse. Rousing blows off CO2 and undesirable fermentation byproducts, such as sulfur.

4) Ferment under 70*. After all that rousing you're doing in step 3, the fermentation will generate heat, which you'll need to control.

5) Stagger your nutrient additions. Add the right amount at the right time.

If you follow the above steps, I guarantee your results will be much better. I've made ciders this way that were drinkable in 2 weeks, good in 4 weeks and great in 8 weeks. I've made ciders without rigorous fermentation controls that were bad young, and only mediocre after many months.

Another thing to think about when making cider is the basic flavor/character you're trying to target. Things that affect flavor and character are pH, type of acidity (malic vs. lactic vs. citric all taste different, and you perceive their acidity differently), structure/mouthfeel (sometimes from certain wine yeasts, but mostly from things like the fruit itself or oak), perceived sweetness, alcohol content, and carbonation.

If you're starting out with store-bought apple juice, keep in mind those apples were grown to make apple juice that tastes good. They are not the same type of apple that makes good cider. Granny Smith makes a decent one-varietal cider, but most "cider" varieties of apples are extremely hard to find. Most hard cider makers blend apples too, to get the right mixture of tannin, acidity, etc. in their must.

Homebrew and winemaking stores sell all kinds of additives you can use to adjust the parameters, like selling different acids and blends, oak alternatives, tannin powders, etc.

I personally like to use Earl Grey tea for my tannins, and that gives the cider a nice floral/citrusy flavor as well.

 

[SkiNuke]

So would you say the fermentation process is more like the fermentation of wine or beer?

Also, I take it since I am fermenting it immediately I don't need to pasteurize it? And if I don't pitch yeast immediately should i use campden? And how would I go about dealing with pitching rates and starters, or should i just pitch a packet of dry yeast?

 

[mollymyles]

Have you tried fortifying with a apple schnapps? Does anyone boost the flavor with this? We have just put down two batches. And we are new to the forum so hello everyone!