Mike took his simple cider and tried his hand at adding ingredients to it after it was finished fermenting to try to get a few different flavored versions out of it. We tasted the results of his attempts at modifying cider post fermentation and made this video.

3 Ciders With 3 Flavor Profiles

Before us, we each had three tasting glasses. One was pink colored so we knew that was different. We reviewed them one at a time.

  • The first one was Mike’s quick cider, which we had tasted a little while ago. At first, Mike thought it was even better with some age on it but then he was picking up some vinyl hose taste. I thought it tasted like a medicine I had when I was a kid.  It seemed to have picked up some weird flavor since the last time we tasted it.  The carbonation was still good and the clarity was outstanding, but the after taste had some big problems.
  • The second was the same cider but two pounds of frozen raspberries were added to the carboy for a while.  I guess it was too long because the berries had cause some haze in the cider.  Mike picked up some more off-flavor.  I found it had same of the celery seed off flavor that is present in some of Mike’s sour beers.
  • The third and last of the series was the same quick and easy cider with 1 pound of honey. It was the best of the bunch. It came off as a honey fortified cider. I thought it has a mead quality to it and could be considered a cyser.  It was the cleanest of the ciders and the one I liked best.

What We Learned

Cider isn’t finished after fermentation. If you keep your process clean, then you can get creative and add all sorts of ingredients to change your cider. 

I think what Mike learned was that his equipment for sour beers needs to stay away from his clean brewing. One experiment he said he would try was to add some fresh wort to the carboy(s) that he thinks are infected to understand if the bugs are permanently embedded into the plastic.

BREW ON!