Off flavour of pepper/wood/burnt stuff

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SKBugs

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G'day all,
I was hoping someone could give me a clue as to the off taste that is happening with my cyser.
Made on about 4 quarts of apply juice and a pound of honey.
Used Fermaid K and DAP and went to about 13-14%

Into secondary I also added:
juice of 3 lemons
1 ounce lemon rind
1/2 tsp ground ginger.

Back sweetened with 31/2 ounce of honey just before bottling.

I bottled in Nov 2018 and wanted to try it now to see how it is going.

It now has the after taste described above. This has happened to me once before when i made a dodgy cider using the same apple juice and added 1/10 ounce of tannin.

Can anyone provide any insight as to what may have caused it?

Thanks.
 
If I had to guess I would say the peppery flavor comes from the ginger and the rest of the off flavors come from the pith of the lemon rind.

Zest a lemon some time and taste it. Quite sweet and very lemony. Next bite into the white part of the rind. Notice the sensation that appears on your tongue and the perceived bitterness of the aftertaste. The affect of the pith may have some bearing on your perception of a burnt taste in the finished product.

This isn't a scientific response though, merely my conjecture based on using the ingredients in cooking.

I suspect you can age out these off flavors in a few months, but I'm not the smartest guy in the room. Others may have better insight.
 
Hey Redeemer. My first thought was too much tannin. And I don’t really know enough to work out how much is too much.
RPh has raised the microbe issue too which may be a thing, tho there is no visible signs of mould etc.
I’ll see how things travel in another 6 months or so then.
 
You wouldn't necessarily see anything unusual.

It also won't necessarily improve with time.
 
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