Wife Wants to Dump Cider

For a first try I made some Peach Cider out of peaches from my tree and it has been in bottles for a month now.

I dont know what a peach cider should taste like all I can do is try to explain how mine tastes and SMELLS!!!

I primed my cider with both Lactose and priming sugar - wanted both sweet and bubbly.

I have been cracking open a bottle a week and this is the first week that I have have a bottle with more than a few bubbles. Also it is very tart even though I added lactose its still pretty tangy.

I can taste the peaches and it has a pleasant taste but I have a noticable sulfur taste along with a really bad sulfur smell. My wife doesnt even want to sit next to me when I drink a bottle its so bad. Last night she said why dont I throw it all out.

I have two cases sitting there. From some of the posts I am seeing now it looks like some people are talking about waitng 3 months in bottles before the cider is ready to drink. I dont know if they are talking about clearing or my type of problem.

Any cider pros that can offer any details. I dont see many posting about the smell they get, so I dont know if I have a problem or not.

Ok this is what I have read... over time the sulfur smell/taste will mellow out. Also that you would need to age it one week for every percent of alcohol. I would just let it go a little longer. Just my two cents.

It's not technically a cider (that needs apple juice of course) but i'm splitting hairs, back to your post!
Sulphur notes seem to be linked to certain yeasts and fruits but mostly it seems to happen in primary - the plum wine i've put into secondary about 3 weeks ago was the closest thing to a sulphur smell i've ever had - now it's fine, But i'll age it further before even considering bottling.
The tartness will mellow - it's the sulphur tones that makes me worry with it already bottled. However i'm an optimist about homebrew so if you've been brewing a while with successes (and the elderberry wine is still going okay i assume) I'd say leave it for 6 months (not 3!) and try it again!

Since it's already bottled and all the hard work is done, why dump it?? Just find a place to store it and forget about it for several months and try it again later. I'd keep it in the basement or another place with a (somewhat) constant temperature, though.

Well I'm back with some postive results. I have been drinking a bottle every week to see if the quality is getting any better and lol and behold it is getting pretty tasty.

The sulpher smell is about 80% gone and the flavor is very fruity. I may not add acid blend next time since it is pretty tart even when I add some splenda.

I have just the right amount of carbonation. The wife doesnt complain about the smell as much. Looking forward to trying a Grapefruit Cider for my next attempt as soon as my grapefruits on the tree ripen all the way.

Next batch I will wait at least 3 months in the bottle before trying it out.

Getting ready to bottle my Fat Tire Clone.

Grapefruit Cider

Click to expand...

Just the idea makes my teeth hurt.

How well does citrus do for making wines/ciders?

I have read that wine makers, when opening a wine that smells like sulfur, will decant it for an hour or so before drinking it as this gets rid of the sulfur smell. I know you said the sulfur is 80% gone, but perhaps decanting would get rid of the other 20% ? Worth a shot I bet.