Acid additions to wake up a boring cider?

[KyleinMN]

I have a number of gallons of cider that's been aging for a few months in the carboys and I'm ready to start bottling it and bottle carbing. It's made with store bought apple juice and although its turned out decent in the past it's usually pretty "flat" tasting.

This time I added some wine tannin in primary and I've heard that acid additions can really transform a beverage so I purchased some malic, tartaric and citric acid.

And idea what a good starting point would be in terms of acid additions and the ratio of each type for a 5 or 6 gallon batch?

This will be carbonated faily heavily (maybe 7oz dextrose per gallon) and I don't intend to sweeten it.

What is your experience in using acid additions to liven up a cider made with dessert apples/store bought juice?

 

[TwogunRocky]

Let me see if I have the math correct.....
7oz Dex/gal = 196gms
Us gallon = 3.8 litres
16oz US bottle = 473ml
So if you say for arguments sake you'll get 8 X 16oz bottles/ gallon
196(Dex)÷8(bottles)=24.5 grms Dex per bottle.
That's insane, I hope you meant 7oz/5gal, brewersfriend couldn't even calculate that at 1 gallon as it only goes up to 6 volumes of Co2

At 3.2vols/Co2 that's a heavily carbed cider(which I do enjoy), multiply that by five and you could be wiping out half your street at 16 vols/Co2.
Stay safe fella!

 

[FLYPacNW]

Me thinks thats got to be a typo. Those figures are explosive!

To answer the OP's question, try a little citric acid as it will give some nice tartness. You could also try some flavoring such as cranberry, lingonberry or grapefruit. I used to keep some 100% pure cranberry juice concentrate around for when a cider turned out "meh". A little cranberry and that boring or poor execution cider became a substrate for fun flavor trials. I love cranberry cider, especially around Christmas.

 

[KyleinMN]

Haha, sorry. I meant 7oz for the entire 6 gallons! lol

I did end up in the ER this year due to a homebrewing accident but that was from dropping a carboy not bottle bombs.

 

[Chalkyt]

Most of my apples are eating/desert types (red delicious, pomme de neige, granny smith) although a few newer "cider" trees are starting to produce. Generally, the eating/desert apple blend has a pH of around 4.0 which is a bit high and often low in TA. If the resulting cider seems a bit underwhelming, I start with 5grams (roughly a tespoon) of malic acid per litre which makes an improvement. I tend to go on taste combined with measurement, and find that a good outcome is something like pH 3.8 and TA 0.6% or 0.7%, or a balance something like that.

Working with a cider sample of 250ml (about a cup) and adding malic acid a gram at a time (about 1/4 teaspoon) works for me and can easily be scaled up to your whole cider batch once you hit the "sweet spot".