Bad Taste After Bottling

[balderdash]

Is it normal for cider to taste a little off after bottling? It tasted fine when I was bottling it, and I placed the bottles in the fridge with hopes of drinking them soon. I cracked one open today (3 days later) and it tastes watery and weird, kind of like an open bottle of wine that sat out too long.

There were still some starsan bubbles in the bottles when I filled them, could this be contributing to the off taste? Thanks!

 

[RPh_Guy]

It sounds like you may be describing oxidation.

More details would be helpful to see what could be improved with your process.

 

[balderdash]

It sounds like you may be describing oxidation.

More details would be helpful to see what could be improved with your process.

Thank you! I made a still cider using nottigham yeast and store bought apple juice. Total time until bottling was 5 weeks. I checked the specific gravity a week ago and again 3 days ago and it had reached 1.000 on both occasions. I used PBW to clean all equipment and then rinsed with water and followed with starsan. I bottled the cider using an auto siphon on swing top bottles and left about an inch of headspace. I also siphoned 32 oz out into two glasses to drink while bottling and those tasted great.

 

[Yooper]

Believe it or not, there is a thing called "bottle shock", where a wine will taste flabby and not right immediately after bottling. Hopefully that's the case here. Put it at room temperature to let it sit a little and try it again in a week or more.

 

[balderdash]

Believe it or not, there is a thing called "bottle shock", where a wine will taste flabby and not right immediately after bottling. Hopefully that's the case here. Put it at room temperature to let it sit a little and try it again in a week or more.

Oh wow I had no idea, thank you so much! Hopefully that's the issue.