Going from beginner to intermediate...aging? Sugar?

[domingo]

I've brewed about 200 gallons of ciders and perries with a wide array of yeasts. I like a cider that's a bit sweet but I find most commercial ciders to be unpalatable...sort of like carbonated apple juice mixed with Splenda and ambiguous grain alcohol.

But I'm finding I like most of my ciders best within the month or two after I rack them into secondary. I feel like the flavors are fuller, especially the apple flavor. The ones I've aged from last year seem flat, dull, lackluster. I'm underwhelmed.

Part of this has to do with oxygenation errors on a couple batches...obvious acetones...whomp whomp. But I think some of this has to do with my process. I've done very little with adding sugars (I'm usually starting with a 1.055 to 1.060 natural og, pH in the 3.6/3.7 area usually).

Part of the reason I say this is because the perries I've made with added honey have been absolutely wonderful in my opinion, even though the perry ABV has matched a lot of my cider ABVs (I know getting above the 5%/6% ABV range can really impact the quality during aging).

So I'm starting to think...maybe I should be a little more aggressive about adding sugars, honeys, etc. I've read the threads about the flavors imparted by different sugar types. I'm mostly looking for advice into the aging process and whether adding sugar will actually affect the aging how I want it to...i.e., in a good way...seems possible I'm just messing up the cider from the start and getting boring stuff. Maybe I should add more acid blend or something.

Any thoughts on sugar + aging?

 

[nbstl68]

Bump
I'm interested in anyone's thoughts on this as well..

 

[BigHungry]

What kind of recipe are you using? Do you add any acid or tannins? I started adding a wine tannin powder and some citric acid (well, I squeezed a couple of limes in it) to my ciders I made with store-bought juice, and that made a pretty dramatic improvement in their longevity.

Adding sugar might help, since a higher ABV will help preserve it longer, but there are plenty of ciders that age fine without that. You might actually make something that you need to age before it's drinkable, particularly if you make an apfelwein type drink. It couldn't hurt to give it a try though? Just be careful if you're used to drinking cider without an upped ABV; the first few batches of cider I added sugar to got me hammered after a couple of pints of the finished product. I guess it's like drinking pints of wine in terms of ABV.

Also, just a couple of other thoughts I had, do you have a consistent temperature that you ferment at? I know a lot of yeasts will produce some funkiness if they are too warm. It might be worthwhile to cool down and slow the fermentation some. Yeast nutrients couldn't hurt either if you don't use those already.

How do you store them? My house is pretty warm, so I have to store my in the basement if I want them to last. Sunlight can make them go off, as well.

Anyway, I hope something there helps you out. I know it can be really frustrating to wait a year to drink something only to be disappointed.