Vinegar?

[Radler]

I'm curious if any of you have tried to make hard cider. I tried it for the first time a few days ago. I picked a lot of good cider apples, pressed them added a camden tablet and waited 24 hours, just like I was told to do and read. I then added pasteur champagne yeast and it fermented like mad for 4 days. The gravity went from 1.060 to 1.005. I tasted the sample and it ain't that great (ie. bad, although still drinkable). Temp was from 68-62 F. Will this get better with age or have I wasted a very expensive bunch of great apple cider (tasted excellent before I fermented it)? Thanks.

Rad

 

[Cap'n Jewbeard]

Eh- I suppose a lot of the answer to this hinges on the kind of "bad" you think your cider is. You mentioned "vinegar" in the subject line - does it taste/smell way acidic, like vinegar?

Or does it taste kind of sulfur-y? I've known ciders to be kind of funk-tacular while they're just fermented, and maybe for a month or so after that.

 

[Yuri_Rage]

If it "ain't bad" so far, give it a month or two (or longer if you can stand it). I bet it improves a lot with age. If it still tastes like vinegar after a few months, chances are, that's what you accidentally made. So use it to make some pickles.

 

[david_42]

Cider takes 6-8 months to mellow.