I have a cider that I started last April and bottled in October. The last bottle I drank was late January and it was fine, I opened a bottle yesterday and it was undrinkable for me but might be a manageable for others. It tasted like a very strong liquor…I can’t put my finger on it but it was something that I have had before. I tried one today and I can taste the flavor in this bottle but it is drinkable. I used cider, honey, and cote de blanc.
Any advice?
I should add, I have had some intense temperature fluctuations 15-20 degrees a number of times when I have been storing this.
I was leaning towards that as a problem.
Might just be too much sugar, which includes the honey addition. Did you prime at bottling time? This adds to the alcohol a little bit. My advice is not to supplement cider with any sugar (honey) at the beginning of fermentation. Cider makes a good strong 6-7% alcohol drink without any added sugars.
All that being said, if it tasted great before but now it’s too alcoholic, you could have an infection possibly, or maybe it really does have something to do with the temperature. But I’m thinking it might primarily have more to do with the added sugars.
Thank you.
I did prime with more honey, so possibly that was it. I was surprised that it would have taken almost a year for this flavor to develop.
I couldn’t find fresh cider for my last batch so I used 100% Mott’s Apple juice (5 gallons), and 5 pounds of dark brown sugar. Do you think I will run into the same problem? The OG was much lower on this.
