So... my wife is in love with Woodchuck, Strongbow, and Hardcore apple cider's, she loves them but they are a bit pricey $8 per 6 pack. I have a brewing kit and some internet know how, and a desire to make my own cider. I check this forum, google and wherever I can find a simple recipe with good results. I found out that to make cider you find an apple juice that you like that has no (zero) preservatives, you add this apple juice to your carboy, add 1-2 cans of concentrate (again no preservatives) and use a good yeast for the variety of cider you like. I'm thinking SCORE, this will be easy, yeah not so much.
So buy about 4 different types of apple juice that has no preservatives, I try them and so does my wife and we settle on "Simply Apple" a commercially available apple juice that is just the juice of an apple, no sugar added nothing. Find our concentrate and buy 5g of apple juice and 2 concentrate, want this stuff to be potent I guess.
Now I am a noob when it comes to making beer, much newer to making cider so I go to my LHBS and ask, I am told that Montracet is the way to go for a dry cider, which is what my wife likes. So I get everything set, sterilized, cleaned, mixxed, and ready to go.
It has been 3 weeks and my fermentation is done, no bubbles, and a regular sg. I pull a draw from the carboy and HOLY CRAP, it tastes like white wine, and not in a good way, it is SUPER dry, and has almost no flavor whatsoever of the apples, sugars, sweetness, it is bad.
My question is this...
Can I add plain old apple juice to the mix to add some flavor back to it?
Can I use Brown Sugar as priming sugar to help some of the flavor out?
Would any addative at this point do anything to get some of the apple flavors back to the brew or is it gonna taste like wine from this point on?
I will post pics and what not at your request but I didn't see a point to it at this time, since it looks really good, clear, no wierdness visually. Man o man is it dry.
thanks in advance for any help.
C
So buy about 4 different types of apple juice that has no preservatives, I try them and so does my wife and we settle on "Simply Apple" a commercially available apple juice that is just the juice of an apple, no sugar added nothing. Find our concentrate and buy 5g of apple juice and 2 concentrate, want this stuff to be potent I guess.
Now I am a noob when it comes to making beer, much newer to making cider so I go to my LHBS and ask, I am told that Montracet is the way to go for a dry cider, which is what my wife likes. So I get everything set, sterilized, cleaned, mixxed, and ready to go.
It has been 3 weeks and my fermentation is done, no bubbles, and a regular sg. I pull a draw from the carboy and HOLY CRAP, it tastes like white wine, and not in a good way, it is SUPER dry, and has almost no flavor whatsoever of the apples, sugars, sweetness, it is bad.
My question is this...
Can I add plain old apple juice to the mix to add some flavor back to it?
Can I use Brown Sugar as priming sugar to help some of the flavor out?
Would any addative at this point do anything to get some of the apple flavors back to the brew or is it gonna taste like wine from this point on?
I will post pics and what not at your request but I didn't see a point to it at this time, since it looks really good, clear, no wierdness visually. Man o man is it dry.
thanks in advance for any help.
C