Some cider questions.

[j8715]

Hi. . .

Ok I brewed this (one case):

2.5 gallons of cider
2lb of dark brown sugar
1 package of Lalvin 71B (wine yeast)

for 3 weeks. Tasted it. WOW, strong. Lots of alcohol.

So following the rest of directions, added:

~1/4 lb lactose (didn't have a scale)
3/8 cup white sugar (guy at the brewing store said I didn't need corn sugar for cider, was this good advice?)

And bottled and left them sit for 10 days. First few bottles tasted a bit too sweet for me. After a while longer in the bottles (a week or two) I thought they were pretty good. Now we are at about 6 weeks in the bottle and they already seem a bit acrid. Not sure of the right word to describe the taste. Harsh? Anyway, my question is, is this normal? Do they just have a short shelf life? Did I do something wrong?

 

[superjunior]

you'll get some solid responses in the cider section of the forum. I can tell you from one experimental batch I made back in July that it really smoothes out over time. My frankencider is still getting better after 6 months. It was super harsh at first