First cider is in the bottle!

[crazylegs5150]

I just finished up bottling my first 5 gallon batch of what should be hard cider. After going though what I think was a stalled ferment and ten getting it going again I ended up with a final gravity of 1.001 and an ABV of about 8%. Moonshine no doubt. I let it clarify in a secondary for a week before bottling today. However, beforehand It tasted terrible. Mind you it certainly had mellowed out since it first fermented but nowhere near my goal. So, I added some acid base and kept stirring and adding until it had a little zing to it. It was flat and tasted like yeast water before this. I then mixed up about 3/4 pound of lactose in a pot of boiling water. Sadly, I discovered that lactose does not dissolve in hot water. Curious. I then added some of that to the mixture in small quantities until taste was agreeable with the pallet. It was miles from where it came from. I then added some apple flavoring which seemed to hardly be noticeable but perhaps that is a good thing. I plan on keeping them in their boxes to ferment for a couple of weeks before shipping them into the fridge to settle and age. We'll see how it goes! I hear cider needs aging which SUCKS because I am ready to taste the fruits of my labor now. Not next fall!

 

[mdbrewer1]

I just finished up bottling my first 5 gallon batch of what should be hard cider. After going though what I think was a stalled ferment and ten getting it going again I ended up with a final gravity of 1.001 and an ABV of about 8%. Moonshine no doubt. I let it clarify in a secondary for a week before bottling today. However, beforehand It tasted terrible. Mind you it certainly had mellowed out since it first fermented but nowhere near my goal. So, I added some acid base and kept stirring and adding until it had a little zing to it. It was flat and tasted like yeast water before this. I then mixed up about 3/4 pound of lactose in a pot of boiling water. Sadly, I discovered that lactose does not dissolve in hot water. Curious. I then added some of that to the mixture in small quantities until taste was agreeable with the pallet. It was miles from where it came from. I then added some apple flavoring which seemed to hardly be noticeable but perhaps that is a good thing. I plan on keeping them in their boxes to ferment for a couple of weeks before shipping them into the fridge to settle and age. We'll see how it goes! I hear cider needs aging which SUCKS because I am ready to taste the fruits of my labor now. Not next fall!

That's strange. The lactose I used recently dissolved fine with just some stirring.

Edit: Now I'm questioning if I added it before heating or after the water was boiling. Maybe that makes a difference. It was late and my memory is terrible, so I'm not sure.