My Cider is not tasting right.

[Aurora_2748]

I have made two different batches bottled cider. The first batch was Very dry using a champagne yeast (Lalvin 118). gallon of cider with a cup of sugar dissolved in. No additives or nutrients. Primary for two weeks and then bottled for two more with 1 tsp corn sugar.. The finished result tasted more like champagne than anything with apples in it. 10% abv. Tasted pretty good if you didn't tell people that they were drinking cider..

My second batch was made with the same yeast. One gallon of higher quality organic fresh pressed not from concentrate juice. 1 cup of brown sugar, 1tsp yeast nutrient, 1/2 tsp pectin enzyme, and 1/2 tsp acid blend. Primary for a month and then bottled for 3 days with 2 tsp corn sugar and a PET test bottle to check for carbonation. 9% ABV. Once the PET bottle was tight i put all the bottles in the dishwasher to pasteurize the yeast.

I just opened a bottle to try tonight. It still does not have a nice apple flavor nor the sweetness that i would like. I'm looking for a flavor similar to angry orchard sinful apple, or woodchuck amber. But neither of my brews have had a nice flavor yet.
Any recommendations?

 

[aspiffymofo]

You'll need to backsweeten with apple juice, or use lactose or some other non fermentable sugar. 1118 ferments DRY!

 

[paperairplane]

Sweet, moderate alcohol, carbonated, bottled cider is not easy.

If you add sugar up front, that will make it taste less like alcohol and more like white wine. Higher OG = less apple flavor, generally.

If you ferment it all the way dry, then add sugar to carb - it will taste like champagne.

If you ferment a couple days, bottle and refrigerate or pasteurize, you have to guess at sweetness and carbonation. This can have great results, if timed perfect, if you don't blow up bottles and if you don't overcarb. But you will not make much alcohol.

You can go totally dry, use Ksorb and KMBS to retard yeast - then backsweeten. This gives you flat sweet cider. But doesn't leave active yeast to carbonate in bottles. Works perfect for kegs. If kegging, may also get away with no chemicals and just cold crash.

You can go totally dry and sweeten with non-fermentable sugar like splenda or lactose. May taste weird. You can add priming sugar to carbonate. (Apple juice is fermentable and could bottle bomb)

 

[Maylar]

I have made two different batches bottled cider. The first batch was Very dry using a champagne yeast (Lalvin 118). gallon of cider with a cup of sugar dissolved in. No additives or nutrients. Primary for two weeks and then bottled for two more with 1 tsp corn sugar.. The finished result tasted more like champagne than anything with apples in it. 10% abv. Tasted pretty good if you didn't tell people that they were drinking cider..

My second batch was made with the same yeast. One gallon of higher quality organic fresh pressed not from concentrate juice. 1 cup of brown sugar, 1tsp yeast nutrient, 1/2 tsp pectin enzyme, and 1/2 tsp acid blend. Primary for a month and then bottled for 3 days with 2 tsp corn sugar and a PET test bottle to check for carbonation. 9% ABV. Once the PET bottle was tight i put all the bottles in the dishwasher to pasteurize the yeast.

I just opened a bottle to try tonight. It still does not have a nice apple flavor nor the sweetness that i would like. I'm looking for a flavor similar to angry orchard sinful apple, or woodchuck amber. But neither of my brews have had a nice flavor yet.
Any recommendations?

Use the fresh pressed orchard cider, and don't add any sugar at the beginning. Starting gravity of 1.045-1.050 is perfect. At bottling time add 3-4 tablespoons of Xylitol per gallon along with your priming sugar. You will not need to pasteurize if you use the correct amount of priming sugar. This will get you semi-sweet carbed cider with less alcohol and more flavor.

 

[barnaclebob]

Use the fresh pressed orchard cider, and don't add any sugar at the beginning. Starting gravity of 1.045-1.050 is perfect. At bottling time add 3-4 tablespoons of Xylitol per gallon along with your priming sugar. You will not need to pasteurize if you use the correct amount of priming sugar. This will get you semi-sweet carbed cider with less alcohol and more flavor.

I agree. So many people on this forum buy nice fresh pressed juice and then add a bunch of sugar or concentrate to make it have 10% abv after fermenting. Good juice needs no additives.

 

[bernardsmith]

.... and you might want to pitch a less aggressive yeast. The strain 71B has affection for malic acid (the main acid in apples) and is not so violent as 1118, so it will leave your cider with more aromatics and more complex flavors (IMO)

 

[acemannw]

It sounds just like the Cider I just made. I am pretty sure that is normal with Champagne yeast.

 

[Aurora_2748]

.... and you might want to pitch a less aggressive yeast. The strain 71B has affection for malic acid (the main acid in apples) and is not so violent as 1118, so it will leave your cider with more aromatics and more complex flavors (IMO)

Is this a Lalvin brand yeast, 71b? If I switch the yeast in my next batch would you do everything else in my recipe the same? The brown sugar, nutrient, pectin enzyme, and acid blend? How much time in primary vs bottle time?

I'm really not a fan of artificial sweeteners so I'm trying to avoid that option.

 

[phug]

If you change the yeast, leave everything else the same


Sent from my iPhone using Home Brew

 

[CJ1]

Everyone needs to quit adding sugar before fermentation. The juice itself has the potential to get between 4.5 and 6% ABV without adding any extra sugar, and any you add just makes it taste less like apples.

 

[Archer]

Aurora, Two big things people need to know and remeber about making cider. First, as was mentioned, adding sugar at the outset only increases alcohol content and does not make your cider any sweeter tasting, unless you arrest the fermentation long before its finished. The yeast eats all the sugar and turns it to alcohol...the yeast also eats the sugar already in the apple juice which has most of the "apple" flavors and converts that to alcohol, too, which leads me to the second thing. Just like good wine does not really taste like the raw grapes its made from, good cider does not taste like raw apples. If you want more "apple flavor" you need to add that after fermentation i.e., back sweeten with FAJC. Hope this helps.

 

[Yooper]

Is this a Lalvin brand yeast, 71b? If I switch the yeast in my next batch would you do everything else in my recipe the same? The brown sugar, nutrient, pectin enzyme, and acid blend? How much time in primary vs bottle time?

I'm really not a fan of artificial sweeteners so I'm trying to avoid that option.

I would use NO sugar in the cider if you want a drink that tastes like hard cider. Adding sugar boosts the ABV, but makes it apple wine and not cider like. I love apple wine, and make tons of it, but it's more like a pinot grigio and nothing like hard cider.

The other thing is that I think brown sugar tastes awful when it ferments out. It's only simple sugar with a bit of molasses, and molasses without sugar tastes horrible. Some may like it, but it comes out very odd as brown sugar without the "sugar" part of it tastes very weird to me.

Instead of a wine yeast, use ale yeast that enhances the fruitiness. I like S04. It's a dry yeast and works great in cider, and retains more sweetness and apple flavor than a wine yeast.

Aurora, Two big things people need to know and remeber about making cider. First, as was mentioned, adding sugar at the outset only increases alcohol content and does not make your cider any sweeter tasting, unless you arrest the fermentation long before its finished. The yeast eats all the sugar and turns it to alcohol...the yeast also eats the sugar already in the apple juice which has most of the "apple" flavors and converts that to alcohol, too, which leads me to the second thing. Just like good wine does not really taste like the raw grapes its made from, good cider does not taste like raw apples. If you want more "apple flavor" you need to add that after fermentation i.e., back sweeten with FAJC. Hope this helps.

I agree, but I don't sweeten mine. If you don't boost the ABV with sugar, and use good quality cider along with an ale yeast, the "cider" flavor does return and it has a good apple quality, once it's been aged for a bit.