JulianDave
Active Member
I think I may have a somewhat controversial opinion, so please share your experience!
I made a mixed berry cider last year. About 3# of frozen berries in 1 gallon of store bought apple juice. As usual, I taste test daily because I enjoy the sensory check to make sure things are going well. It tasted excellent. As it nears completion I stop taste testing and just let it finish up.
It sat maybe another 10 days, then I racked it and gave it a taste. OMG, it was awful. What happened to my delicious cider? It was so bad I was sure it needed to be tossed. As a last resort, I added some sugar to see what sweet awful tastes like. You may know how this ends. It was wonderful again. It was an unbelievable transformation.
This got me thinking that sweetness is really integral to our perception of fruit flavor. If there is no sweetness, you're not getting much fruitiness. Many cidermakers have posted in distress that their newly made cider doesn't have the taste they want. Often times the crowd says you need to add Apple Juice Concentrate (AJC) to get the apple flavor back.
I think I have to call ******** on that. If you made a cider that is 100% apple juice, adding a little more apple in the form of concentrate isn't going to add a significantly more apple flavor. It's all apple to begin with! But the sugar in the AJC is what is giving you the fruit flavor back.
I have not 100% tested my theory out, but with previous experience, I think it's correct. Only sugar is needed to a bone dry cider to give you the apple fruit flavor many are looking for.
Thoughts?
I made a mixed berry cider last year. About 3# of frozen berries in 1 gallon of store bought apple juice. As usual, I taste test daily because I enjoy the sensory check to make sure things are going well. It tasted excellent. As it nears completion I stop taste testing and just let it finish up.
It sat maybe another 10 days, then I racked it and gave it a taste. OMG, it was awful. What happened to my delicious cider? It was so bad I was sure it needed to be tossed. As a last resort, I added some sugar to see what sweet awful tastes like. You may know how this ends. It was wonderful again. It was an unbelievable transformation.
This got me thinking that sweetness is really integral to our perception of fruit flavor. If there is no sweetness, you're not getting much fruitiness. Many cidermakers have posted in distress that their newly made cider doesn't have the taste they want. Often times the crowd says you need to add Apple Juice Concentrate (AJC) to get the apple flavor back.
I think I have to call ******** on that. If you made a cider that is 100% apple juice, adding a little more apple in the form of concentrate isn't going to add a significantly more apple flavor. It's all apple to begin with! But the sugar in the AJC is what is giving you the fruit flavor back.
I have not 100% tested my theory out, but with previous experience, I think it's correct. Only sugar is needed to a bone dry cider to give you the apple fruit flavor many are looking for.
Thoughts?