How can I save this batch/what would you do from here?

[lilschmutz]

Recipe I threw together was..

2 gallons motts apple juice
2 lbs caramelized brown sugar
2 cans apple/raspberry frozen concentrate
Red Star Cote Des Blancs yeast
OG = 1.070

This was totally an experiment to see how it would turn out, but now I'm under a time constraint so I need it done within a week or so.

It's been in primary for a week and I just took a sample. I'm at 1.030 which puts it at 5.2% abv which is about where I want it. Unfortunately, it smells like dusty socks/dusty raspberry. Not too appetizing. Taste is drinkable, but really not that good. My original plan was to stop it around here for a sweet cider, bottle carb, then pasteurize. I want it to be an apple raspberry cider sweet but a little tart with a decent amount of raspberry taste. I'm thinking about grabbing a bottle of raspberry extract and seeing if that saves it.

Thoughts?

 

[Daze]

its all about time. you can't rush perfection. adding something to it will just give you two unmarried flavors and not fix your problem. Time time time. You either need to pay on the front end or the rear. If it ferments out fast you need to secondary age or bottle age it. I prefer to ferment mine out slow... months not weeks, then I don't have to age it nearly as long to get good flavors. Either way time is the cure.

 

[kurtism]

1.030 is going to make for a sweet cider. i don't think this is near ready. its like daze said...drink something else while you wait for this to finish

 

[dinnerstick]

its all about time. you can't rush perfection. adding something to it will just give you two unmarried flavors and not fix your problem. Time time time. You either need to pay on the front end or the rear. If it ferments out fast you need to secondary age or bottle age it. I prefer to ferment mine out slow... months not weeks, then I don't have to age it nearly as long to get good flavors. Either way time is the cure.

^this

 

[lilschmutz]

So I guess the better question would be, is this smell/taste normal for the ingredients I've used and at this stage of fermentation? I'm hoping this gets better with time. Master cider makers out there- what would you do at this point? Ferment dry and backsweeten?

 

[Daze]

I am by no means a master cider maker but the first thing I would do is let it age a couple of months. Then I would taste it and go from there. If it needed sugar I would add it, if it needed carbing I would add it but not until I knew exactly what I had and you won't know that tell the end of March at the earliest.