Cider before bottling

We are very new to home brewing. A seasoned brewer recommended we get some 1 gallon jugs of all natural apple juice, pitch yeast and ferment. Before bottling we tasted each batch (5 made with different yeasts) and each one was very sour. Is this normal? Will bottle conditioning help?

Bottle conditioning and aging will help, but you have to remember that you have just taken all of the sugar out of apple juice. It's going to taste 'dry' like wine and adding CO2 via bottle conditioning might enhance the sour flavor. You can always back sweeten to balance this out if you want to drink them young. The best way is to just put a little juice or simple syrup into your glass when serving. This might allow you to determine how much sweetness your palette prefers to overcome the dryness of the cider.

The flavors will become more balanced the longer you let them sit, but it will always be dry without backsweetening.

Thanks. I'm curious how these batches will turn out. Maybe we'll back sweeten from now on.