1st Cider (from store bought juice) is pretty Blah

[Dave_E]

Hi All,

After following the recipe to the letter, (it was really simple), my first ever cider was pretty disappointing. It was absolutely done fermenting after 13 days, finished with a nice clear presentation and the ABV was 6.2% +-. Just…. no flavor or smell to speak of. Good mouth feel, it needed degassed (which I did before bottling). As mentioned in the title, it was store bought juice (Mott’s 100% juice from concentrate). I’ve done nothing to it, so it’s as dry as it can be. I have (4) 750ml bottles to experiment with (more to get down some new processes than to try and make this batch a medal winner ). I’m going to experiment with back sweetening and natural carbonation.

I already have some Musselman’s 100% apple cider (not from concentrate) on the shelf for my next venture.

Dave

 

[Plasticmetal]

Nice!

A lot of the times store-bought stuff needs some sort of adjunct to give it character. I would look at adding fruit-flavoured syrup or apple juice concentrate to backsweeten and add some more depth as a start. A lot of folks swear by putting some black tea in as well to increase tannins.

Just be aware that if you haven't stabilised your brew anything you add is liable to restart fermentation, and if your math is off for bottle-conditioning you could make bottle-bombs. A lot of folks (myself included) opt for pasteurisation after adding back-sweetening agents for this reason. I recommend checking out the stickied thread on that regardless of what you chose to do as there's some great info in there.

 

[MaxStout]

I have made lots of Mott's juice cider and have found it's rather non-descript after only a few weeks. Letting it bulk-age in the fermenter 2 months or so helps the flavor come out more.

Next time you could bottle-carb it, which will add a little carbonic bite. Another option is to add some malic acid to brighten it up and add some more apple character. A little malic goes a long way. Experiment by adding a tiny pinch of it to a glass of your cider and taste. Determine what amount works best, then scale it for next batch.

 

[Dave_E]

Hi All,

This is an amendment to my original post. I had a half a bottle of left over that I put in the refrigerator. That was 5 hours ago. WAY different taste than right out of the carboy. I take back what I said about blah. I can absolutely taste the apple juice now after being really chilled down. Look forward to my back sweetening experiment and further brews using real apple cider (not from concentrate) and of course real apples as well.

Dave

 

[Chalkyt]

In my experience, bought juice generally needs a bit of help. My "magic numbers" are to add malic acid to bring the TA up from something like 3g/L to 5-6g/L (this usually drops pH from round 4.0 to a more desirable 3.6 - 3.8 ), and add some tannin at around 50 - 100ppm. You should get this from 0.05 - 0.1 g/L of tannin powder or 1 - 2 teabags per gallon (4 litres).

For natural carbonation, adding AJ, sugar etc to SG 1.005 should result in around 2.5 volumes of C02 when fermented in a sealed bottle. Finishing anywhere from 1.003 to 1.006 gives a nice Off-Dry cider.

Cheers.

 

[jnesselrode]

Hi All,

After following the recipe to the letter, (it was really simple), my first ever cider was pretty disappointing. It was absolutely done fermenting after 13 days, finished with a nice clear presentation and the ABV was 6.2% +-. Just…. no flavor or smell to speak of. Good mouth feel, it needed degassed (which I did before bottling). As mentioned in the title, it was store bought juice (Mott’s 100% juice from concentrate). I’ve done nothing to it, so it’s as dry as it can be. I have (4) 750ml bottles to experiment with (more to get down some new processes than to try and make this batch a medal winner ). I’m going to experiment with back sweetening and natural carbonation.

I already have some Musselman’s 100% apple cider (not from concentrate) on the shelf for my next venture.

Dave

I have been in that exact same situation. I'm repeating a bit (I've said this in multiple threads) but I'd suggest these four things that have really improved my results from store-bought pasteurized cider:

1. ¾ teaspoon tannin powder per gallon. I know there's a ton of info here about tea bags, but I never felt that was precise and/or repeatable;
2. 1½ teaspoons acid blend per gallon. Acid varies in juices, so more science may get you closer to what you like.
3. LET IT AGE! It makes a huge difference. 6 months minimum. Mine seem to plateau at around 9 moths;
4. Carbonation. That little bite is nice, as you probably know. It's not essential, but does help and it's not too hard to do.

Good luck!