Hi all,
I pressed my first cider in the fall. The apples were a mix (~745/25) of eating apples and crab apples. The varieties are unknown, as these were picked from strangers' yards around the city (after asking of course!). The fruit was scratted and pressed, heated to 130 for 30 min, cooled to 60F and pitched with S-04.
The fruit has been on its lees/yeast since then. Its in a glass carboy. I'd like to make adjustments and bottle it.
The cider tastes almost like 'apple la croix' at this point. It's quite bland. The major flavor is a malic bite, and there is a noticeable amount of tannin and mouthfeel.
My impression is that the tannins will round out with age and contribute to mouthfeel. Is this right?
Ideally I'd love to get more apple flavor from the cider. Would backsweetining increase the perceived fruit flavor, or would I need to add apple concentrate to achieve this?
Also, since the major flavor is malic acid, I assume I wont want to add acid blend, and I can skip picking that up at the store. Is this good intuition, or might I want even more acid?
I'm sure the answer to most of this make samples adjust, but I wanted some advice on what directions seem the most likely to help.
I pressed my first cider in the fall. The apples were a mix (~745/25) of eating apples and crab apples. The varieties are unknown, as these were picked from strangers' yards around the city (after asking of course!). The fruit was scratted and pressed, heated to 130 for 30 min, cooled to 60F and pitched with S-04.
The fruit has been on its lees/yeast since then. Its in a glass carboy. I'd like to make adjustments and bottle it.
The cider tastes almost like 'apple la croix' at this point. It's quite bland. The major flavor is a malic bite, and there is a noticeable amount of tannin and mouthfeel.
My impression is that the tannins will round out with age and contribute to mouthfeel. Is this right?
Ideally I'd love to get more apple flavor from the cider. Would backsweetining increase the perceived fruit flavor, or would I need to add apple concentrate to achieve this?
Also, since the major flavor is malic acid, I assume I wont want to add acid blend, and I can skip picking that up at the store. Is this good intuition, or might I want even more acid?
I'm sure the answer to most of this make samples adjust, but I wanted some advice on what directions seem the most likely to help.