Harsh hard ciders

[coleandrobin]

I started a couple of 1 gallon batches of hard cider on the second. I tasted a little of each after checking the SG and they don't really resemble the juice they are made of and have a harsh alcohol taste and very little sweetness. Here's what I did:
Apple Cider:
3.5 11.5 ounce cans of apple juice concentrate
Water to fill
1 teaspoon yeast nutrient 1/2 teaspoon pectic enzyme
1 teaspoon lalvin D47
01/02/14-OG 1.062
01/08/14-SG 1.008
01/11/14-SG 1.006
Temp constant 72

Pear Cider:
Juice from fresh pears, strained three times
SG of juice 1.041
1 teaspoon yeast nutrient 1/2 teaspoon pectin enzyme
1 lb. 2 oz. sugar
One Campden tablet
1 teaspoon pectic enzyme after 12 hours
1 teaspoon lalvin D47 after 24 hours
Racked off Lees at 17 hours
01/03/14-OG 1.086
01/08/14-SG 1.018
01/11/14-SG 1.010
Temperature 72

Have I made a wrong turn somewhere? Or am I just on track to have dry cider?

 

[oxpajama]

'drobin,

Leave it on the yeast, don't sample, give it another three weeks. The thing I've experienced about D47, fantastic yeast, after a few months the polysaccharides will reveal themselves, sometimes tasting quite sweet depending on how long you sur lie. Give it some time to do its thing.

Cheers

 

[coleandrobin]

Thanks you for your response! So should I even worry about racking into a secondary when using D47?

 

[oxpajama]

The only yeast I would worry about needing secondary, unless you're clearing over months and months, is 71B. I'd recommend against 2ndry unless you have gross lees from fruit/non-yeast detritus. This would have different colours from the yeast and is usually light and fluffy in appearance, whereas the yeast is usually tight, uniform, and firm looking.

 

[Randzor]

Welcome to homemade ciders, if you want a sweeter cider, you'll need to back sweeten and pasteurize.

 

[coleandrobin]

I've heard of doing that, So I'll get a little bit of research on it. I have two concerns with it. The first is that I would like to use an apple juice concentrate. Juice concentrate to back sweeten with. If I used this method how could I be sure that I had used enough. When I just go by the taste or is there some kind of a conversion chart I would need to use. Or measure it out based on the sugars on the back of the concentrate can and how much I'm using. My other concern is waiting long enough for the bottles to carb but not so long that they explode before I pasteurize them. How can I tell whether or not the bottles have carbed enough?

 

[Randzor]

Read the sticky. The key is using a pet bottle for the carbonation. As to sweetness, its up to your taste. Commercial hc's are in the 1.030 range for sg' sweet wines are in the 1.010 ranges, so you'll need to decide what you like. I like mine dry, so i've never pasteurized. Though if you let a cider sit for atleast 2 months after bottling, you'll be amazed how much better it can get.

 

[coleandrobin]

What is a pet bottle?

 

[Randzor]

Plastic pop bottle....

 

[coleandrobin]

Ah, I see

 

[Randzor]

Do't feel bad I googled it the first time i visited the forums.

 

[coleandrobin]

How does that work though? Using plastic bottles?

 

[Randzor]

Once the plastic bottle is hard, you have enough co2 and you need to pasterize at that time. if you wait even 6 - 12 hours latter you'll have the bottle bombs.

 

[coleandrobin]

Do you just use one plastic bottle as an indicator?

 

[BeastYeast]

Yep, bottle everything in glass as you normally would and just use the sinlge plastic bottle to indicate when to pasteurize.

I've read on the forum to make sure to use a soda bottle as opposed to a water bottle to ensure they are engineered to withstand the pressure.

RE: Lack of sweetness... Randzor nailed it but I will elaborate.

Your cider isn't going to miraculously going become sweeter a couple months after bottling, although the flavors can improve. If you're aiming for a sweeter cider you have to backsweeten, carb and pasteurize. Essentially, add more sugar than is needed to carb, then pasteurize which suspends the fermenation and leaves residual sugars, adding sweetness to the cider. If you keg, you would backsweeten, suspend the fermentation with additives, keg and force carb.

If you let your cider ferment out, a FG of 10.15 and under isn't going to taste sweet at all no matter how long it ages.

I'm rather new to ciders myself, and these are the learning processes I'm going through as well. Mine are also pretty gamey tasting since I'm starting at 1.060-1.065 and fermenting out to 1.015 and in some cases the small batches get to 1.000 in a couple weeks. They all need backsweetening for me, but I also haven't tried just letting a dry cider age to taste test yet either.

Good luck!

 

[coleandrobin]

Do you just use one plastic bottle as an indicator?

 

[BeastYeast]

Yes, the plastic bottle is simply an indicator as to when to pasteurize the glass bottles before they turn into boozey, sugary shrapnel.

 

[coleandrobin]

Thanks for the info guys very helpful! Sorry I posted that question twice, browser freaked out on me.