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anybody out there enjoy making hard apple cider? please respond
I have never been able to brew a batch of cider that tasted like apples. They all taste like hot alcohol. even when i use low alcohol ale yeast. All my batches were cloudy. I have some bottles from about a year ago that still have not cleared up an still taste like hot alcohol. Anyway I might abandon the cider ship and free up my carboys for more beer.
ID
I brewed some cider last year, it came out tasting super alcoholy, but cleared up pretty well. I brewed some more cider this year, didn't add any extra sugar, (og was 1.074!) it doesn't taste too bad, not overly alcoholy, but is still pretty green.
-ID what kind of apple juice/cider have you been using, and have you added sugar to it? The first batch that came out really alcoholy I used a champagne yeast that left it super dry, the last batch I used some dry ale yeast that left it moderately sweet.
I find that the best way to avoid the hot alcohol flavors in cider is to ferment at pretty low temps. I ferment mine in my basement during the late fall and into winter and end up somewhere in the upper 50s/lower 60s F. I typically use the sweet mead yeast from Whitelabs (WLP720), which tends to stop fermentation around 11.8% ABV. To ensure retention of the apple flavors in cider I will either add sugar (white or brown) to the cider so that the 11.8% abv is reached but still leaving some residual sugar in the cider. Since all the sugars in cider are 100% fermentable you can easily reach a FG of 0.996 resulting in a flavorless beverage if the OG isn't high enough. Cheers!
I've had good luck, no alcohol heat, using Lavin D-47.
Then back sweeten, add Potassium Sorbate & force carb.
Also, I don't add sugar to the cider, so I'm usually starting around 1.050 - 60
Instead of adding sugar try adding honey and make it a cyser. Just did one the finished at 1.000 with us-05 but still has some residual apple flavor. First time Ive made it with an ale yeast and it tastes pretty good. The aroma is a bit funny but I did add cinnamon, orange peel and oak.
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