Cider Off-Flavor

[ntillemans]

We kegged a cider about 1 month ago now. I thought it tasted yeasty at first. Now, that yeastiness has changed slightly to be a funky, tart, metallic off-flavor. The smell is just a little funky. I would say the smell is maybe a yeasty/apple smell. This has been in the kegerator for a month; but it's still sort of cloudy. Is there any hope for this one? We didn't cook at all. So, I don't know where the metallic taste is coming from. We've brewed several ciders and kegged them without any problem like this. Any idea what I could attribute this too?

[Swamp Yankee]

I help out at a local apple orchard/cider mill during harvest and learned a few neat things about apples. Apples have a very high acid content, there for contact with ANY metal can leave behind metalic flavors....ie/ knifes, crushers, press plates, copper tubing... Was your cider from an early pressing, early season apples have a higher acid content then late season? Also some varieties have a naturaly occouring metalic flavor, like Red Delicious. Red Delicious apples are not usually associated with cider production but some orcards will use them in their blend to offset the crispness of a Mac or Cortland, If it ferments out, the metalic flavor could be left behind. Look into where your cider is pressed and try to find out what apples are used, a lot of the cider mills here in New England use a blend of 5 or more apple varieties, the cider I use is a blend of 11 varieties, there are an awful lot of flavors there. Another thing, I like to at least heat my cider before I put it in the carboy, enough to pasturize it, not boiled though, don't want to release any pectins. You never know how the cider was produced. Also, what are you using for adjuncts, I've noticed honey will make my cider cloudier then light brown sugar.

[ntillemans]

Thanks for your thoughts on this. I still need to investigate the origins of our cider. After readign your response, I'm thinking the problem has something to do with the production of the cider. Our homebrew club did a group buy. I'll start asking the other members questions next time we meet.

We were just using brown sugar and cider for this one.

Thanks again.