Bitterness, how can you avoid it?

[Schmitz]

Hi guys,

I brewed 20gallons of cider last season from my orchard.

It turned out wonderful, yet very bitter. The only changes I made from each of the 4 carboys used was yeast. 3 out of 4 had a wine yeast (which I wont be using again) and the 4th was an ale yeast. They all tasted similiar. Two I carbonated and back sweeteneded with 8 and 16oz of lactose and the other two I made a still cider and sweetened with 2 cans of frozen concentrate apple juice in each.

I did use campden to kill off the intial yeast and sorbistat k when racking for the still ciders.

What kinds of things could impart a bitter taste? It is dry, but the prevalent bitterness gets me down. I did not add any sugar at fermentation, while it gets eaten, perhaps I underestimated the power of sugar at this point to impart a smoother taste later on. I do wonder if that's the culprit.

Secondly, I had at least 4 varieties of apples used. Admittedly 1/4 were red delicous (and wont be used again this year). So, I'm worried that too may have played a part in bitterness.

Thirdly, I didn't rack the primary for 3.5months. It sat in the secondary for another 3. Is there any harm in off flavor etc for letting it sit in the primary too long? Off flavors etc

On an offnote, I did add 3 sticks (3inchs apiece) of cinnamon to one of my secondaries. Throughout the airlock I thought I could often smell it, but since bottled, there's not even a hint of cinnamon in the taste. Others cannot tell either. What did I miss here?

The carboys were 5 gallons a piece.

Appreciate your thoughts on bitterness and what I may have done wrong w/ the cinnamon.

 

[Bobby_M]

Bitterness? No idea. On the cin sticks though, I boil mine in a cup of water for 5 minutes and then put the stick and the water into the primary. The boling extracts more flavor right up front.

 

[Adolphus79]

Bitterness could be partially the apples fault, you said one of the varieties were Red Delicious, what were the other 4?
When making a cider, you want to make sure to get a good sweet (unfermented) cider to start with. Did you taste the pressings before you started the fermentation? If the apples weren't fully ripe, and some were still a little sour, that could be part of the reason. Also, what were the wine yeasts used?
If you could give us the actual recipe used (and any variations between batches), that might help some in figuring out the problem.

 

[Schmitz]

Bitterness could be partially the apples fault, you said one of the varieties were Red Delicious, what were the other 4?
When making a cider, you want to make sure to get a good sweet (unfermented) cider to start with. Did you taste the pressings before you started the fermentation? If the apples weren't fully ripe, and some were still a little sour, that could be part of the reason. Also, what were the wine yeasts used?
If you could give us the actual recipe used (and any variations between batches), that might help some in figuring out the problem.

Bobby, thank you on your thoughts on cin sticks, Ill try em in the primary this round.

Adolphus, the other 3 would have been a mix of yellow delicious, jonathan and granny smith.

The cider was good and semi sweet. It was a touch sour I remember, but still quite palatable to drink straight.

The yeasts used was Lalvin 1118 on two of them, the ale and other wine yeast fails me atm. However, all 4 were dry. I planned on going w/ WY cider and sweet mead liquid yeasts this year.

The recipes were very basic. Campden at the beginning for a day or two, then rehydrated the yeast and let everything sit for 3months. The different yeasts all took off just fine in all 4 carboys. After 3 months, I racked each and tried 3 cin sticks in one of them. The other 3 I added.. nothing.

At bottling time, 2 of them I added lactose and corn sugar for carbonation and sweetness. The other 2 I used sorbistat k and sweetened with 2 cans of frozen apple juic concentrate.

The continuing theme in any one of them I drank was bitterness and sure dryness. I've read white sugar (honey etc perhaps) may help adjust taste but in what direction and what reason I wasnt really sure. Raisins perhaps too.

I plan on getting a bit crazier w/ a bit of honey and sugar this year and more flavorings. Still trying to tackle the initial bitterness I may have.

Appreciate the help again.

 

[Adolphus79]

You could try back sweetening with some Splenda. Next bottle you open, pour about a half a packet of Splenda into the glass before you pour in the cider. I have found that 1 packet of Splenda per 750ml bottle of Apfelwein can really help to sweeten up the drink and remove some of that tartness / bitterness. What kind of ABV did you come out with? Just wondering because my New England hard cider (nothing but fresh pressed apples, campden & yeast) came out about 5.5%, but isn't very tart or bitter (still aging, will get racked go into bulk storage at the end of this month for 6 months).

The last recommendation off the top of my head is aging. How long ago did you ferment, how long has it been aging, etc.? Cider really has a second fermentation, malo-lactic, that takes place after the yeast has done it's thing, and the batch is in bulk aging stage. Most New England style ciders (nothing but cider & yeast) are 6 - 12 months old before they're bottled & drunk. You might try letting it sit for a couple more months and see if the taste gets any better.