Help rescue my mediocre cider

[Tommydee]

i did a simple recipe...unpasteurized juice from local orchard, and US05, fermented at 68 in a glass carboy. No use of campden, Ksorbate, or anything else. Maybe decided to keg too soon, after 30 days, and it hadn't really cleared up. It's got a nice potential, but it's too dry and harsh/tart. My wife loves DownEast Cider, which is murky, so I figured dropping clear wasn't important. It's been carbed in the keg for 6 weeks at 38 F, not getting better.(tastier or clearer) I have 2 ideas to salvage this, my wife won't drink as is.

1. Attempt to backsweeten straight in the keg...we had an awesome black currant wine, we both love that, and I've read good things an here about one of the currant syrups. Would just hit with Ksorbate, KmBS, wait a day or so, then add the syrup, all to the cold, carbed keg, hope for the best.

2. Age, then backsweeten: Pull the keg out of the Keezer, let it warm up, dose with sorbate/sulfite, and age at room temp for a few months..(3-5 psipressure? Or better to transfer to glass carboy with airlock?).springtime, coldcrash, drop in a short diptube to leave dregs behind, and transfer to serving keg. Backsweeten, re-carb, try again.

Let me know if any of these Plans make sense, or I'm doomed since it's already carbed....my buddy with the orchard had the juice ready earlier than I had planned, so I didn't do my homework on this one before pitching.

 

[Kees]

As a beginner I am looking forward to reading the answers as I need to learn a lot. As far as I understand your cider may need more time to become drinkable.

 

[dmtaylor]

If you've already kegged it, just backsweeten then enjoy. If you keep it cold, and drink it up within a couple of months, the residual yeast won't dry it out too bad.

Keep in mind that currants are extremely tart. If you don't want an extremely tart cider, then you should sweeten with something else.

 

[bernardsmith]

Hi tommydee, You say the cider is too tart. Do you know what the TA is? You want that to be about .65g/L. If it is significantly above that then you need to find some way to reduce this. One possible way is to add MLF bacteria to transform the harsher malic acids from the apples to softer lactic acids. Once you add K-sorbate you cannot add this bacterium without it producing a geranium off-flavor.
For future batches using 71B as your yeast may be better than the ale yeast as 71B itself metabolizes about 40% of the malic and changes it to lactic

 

[Yooper]

I'd pour a sample, and see what makes it taste good. Honey? Fruit juice? Cheap wine? tannin? that syrup? Cherry pie filling whirled in the blender? whatever- then just do some math and add that to the keg. If you keep it cold, you won't have to sorbate it.

Of course, you want to dissolve whatever you're adding in a little of the cider before putting it into the keg, as you don't want a "Mentos and Coke" re-enactment in your keg. (Nucleation points from it being carbed).

 

[416Brewer]

Apple cider vinegar, or applejack if you aren't happy with the results.

 

[GeneDaniels1963]

Ribena blackcurrant syrup is a wonderful way to backsweeten, if you like the taste. I love it and it works wonderful with cider. Just do some test tasting first, it is pretty strong.

 

[Tommydee]

Interestingly, my friend with the family orchard really liked my cider, so I think it is just a bit dry. I'm going to avoid getting too crazy with chemistry, but might consider TA reduction. etc. next time. Will try the black currant, FAJC, ginger beer, maybe honey, or whatever else. Thanks for the tips, all!