Unpleasant Aftertaste

[spacebarcowboy]

Hey Cider makers!

I tried my hand at some ciders for the first time this fall. I made a total of 3 batches, and all of them have turned out with an unpleasant after taste that I could best describe as plasticy.

The recipes for the 3 batches all varied somewhat, but here are the basics: I used cider of unknown apple mixtures from a local cider mill, using about 5.5 gallons of cider with 1 lbs honey and 1 lbs corn sugar. With one batch, I heated the cider first, and with the other 2 batches I used Campden tablets. I believe that I was quite careful with sanitation, and don't think that should be an issue. I used Lalvin champagne yeast in some and white wine yeast in others, and with 2 of the batches I added yeast nutrient. I have logged everything in my notebook so could look at that for better details. They all fermented out to a pretty low FG (I think around 1.004). All of them were also allowed to clear in a secondary fermenter.

Anyway, I have bottled 2 of the batches. This weekend I added some frozen peaches and some ginger and cinnamon and nutmeg to the 3rd batch which is still in secondary, in hopes of covering up some of the nasty after tastes.

My question is, what do you think the unpleasant after taste might be? Is there hope for my 18 gallons of cider? Will it mellow out with age?

Thanks for any insight!

 

[Pumbaa]

probably a sulfury taste? If it is let it age more and you should be fine. I usually let mine age from 6 months to 1 year

 

[Freezeblade]

That there sounds like the taste of green cider! let it alone and age it for AT LEAST 6 months, prefurably a year. I don't know about the one you added a bunch of stuff too, sounds like you were just impatiant, nothing covers up the taste of green cider other than time.

 

[spacebarcowboy]

I hope it is just green. I can't tell if it is a sulphury taste. Plasticy seems like a better description, but then I am not really sure what sulphur tastes like. These have been aging for 2-3 months, and I can't really tell that they have gotten better, hence my impatience. Maybe they will though, I hope so! I put the peaches and all in the last batch as an experiment. I figured it can't hurt, and I have plenty of cider to go around!

Thanks for the encouragement. I guess I will just have to wait and see. It just seemed like a of the people posting here seemed to get good results in 2-3 months.

 

[SenorWanderer]

probably a sulfury taste? If it is let it age more and you should be fine. I usually let mine age from 6 months to 1 year

actually, he said i was plasticy. if you could also describe the taste as band-aid like then your problem is probably phenols. if that's the case then it's from hot yeast fermentation, or a reaction with chlorine during the fermentation. did you use chlorine bleach to sanitize?

 

[spacebarcowboy]

Band aid like is certainly more accurate than sulfury. I would say plasticy, chemically, maybe a little metallic.

I used Star San for all my sanitation. Also, the house was quite cool when the primary fermentations were going down. I would have to check out my log book but I would guess it was in the mid 60's, certainly never over 70.

 

[gwin99]

a freind of mine had a "plasticy taste" to his cider - it happend because he used a Pepsi bottle as a hold until he cleaned out the carboy after racking... It eventually went away, but you sure could taste it!

 

[spacebarcowboy]

I used a mix of glass carboys and better bottles (which are plastic) but should not impart flavors, I assume

 

[JoeSponge]

actually, he said i was plasticy. if you could also describe the taste as band-aid like then your problem is probably phenols. if that's the case then it's from hot yeast fermentation, or a reaction with chlorine during the fermentation. did you use chlorine bleach to sanitize?

Uh oh... I was trying to find a good description for the plastic-y I was experiencing. Band-aid-y sounds like a good description of a bad flavor.

And, yes, I did use Clorox. Sigh. Is there any resolution (or do you just push it down the drain and start over)?

 

[petes]

JoeSponge I'm not familiar with Chlorox, however I've used chlorine bleach for years to sanitise my brewing gear for beer and more recently wines/meads.
Good rinsing always for sure; never detected anything in the way of an off-taste.

 

[spacebarcowboy]

Do you think the plasticy taste could be from under pitching the yeast? I used one pack of dry yeast for each batch, but I seem to remember hearing that sometimes not enough yeast can cause a plasticy taste.

 

[Tusch]

Generally speaking, most dry yeast packages are rated for between 1-6 gallons. So that is probably not the case, unless the yeasts were stressed. There are several different things that can stress yeast, heat or high gravity musts are common, along with nutrient deficiencies. Stressed yeast can create many different flavors and outcomes, but a lot of problems can be aged out.