This morning I finally got motivated to bottle the second batch of cider. The previous time was in 2019 (with apples from 2018. 2019 didn’t have much of an apple crop at all, and these apples are the 2020 apples. 2021 are in the freezer now.
Last time the cider:
- had a “yeasty” taste
- was cloudy
- was very dry
According to Dave at work, the only cure for the first two is time. I rushed the bottling process last time, bottling the cider only a month and a half after starting fermentation. This time, I told myself I’d leave it for six months at least, and in the end it was almost nine. Once I was content to just let it be, then it was hard to get motivated to do the bottling! 😁 Tammy suggested for a couple of weekends in a row that we should do it, but it didn’t happen.
As for the dryness, when I did a taste-test after siphoning the cider out of the carboy, it was very dry. I added 3/8 cup of Xylitol as well as an ounce of raspberry flavouring. Follow-up taste testing was much improved. I’m not saying it’s going to be champagne, but I have hopes that it will be more enjoyable. The Xylitol is a non-fermentable sweetener. I also added one sugar tablet to the small bottles, two to the large and three to the big growler.
Miranda helped me with the siphoning and the bottling. She just happened to come into the kitchen at the wrong time…😘
The bottles are in a Rubbermaid bin in the storage room, just in case they decide to turn into apple juice bombs.
nice little batch!