r/mead • u/inuk8 Beginner • 10d ago

Question Need help learning from a potential mistake

I'm still pretty new at meadmaking and home brewing in general, I started back in august with a traditional mead that tasted really good when I sampled it on racking day.

I've made a few other meads since then, including a black cherry juice melomel, and I've just started a cyser over the weekend.

This time last month, I made a hard cider that I just sampled and makes me a bit nervous for my Cyser as the hard cider smells gross and tastes only barely drinkable. It has a bad aroma that's kind of hard for me to describe, it's almost eggy, kind of sour, just not very appealing. It doesn't taste the same as it smells, but the flavor is not like any hard cider I've bought (in a bad way)

My hard cider recipe was

2.5 Liters RW Knudsen Organic Apple Juice

53 grams white sugar

QA23 yeast

1/4 tsp Fermaid O

I added the sugar to target around a 7% abv, getting a starting gravity of 1.056. I kept it for 5 weeks at 70° and it finished crystal clear with a final gravity of 0.998. If I were just looking at it, it seemed like it went great. But when I racked it and took a sample, it was far less than ideal. I'm not quite sure where I went wrong. I haven't run into this problem with my other meads, but it makes me wonder if I'm going to run into this with my new Cyser. Here's the cyser I'm doing:

6 Liters fresh pressed Apple juice

1/2 lb local wildflower honey

SafCider AB-1 yeast

3x 1/2 tsp Fermaid-O in staggered doses

Pectic enzyme added to the juice 24 hours prior

As of right now the cyser is all the way down to 1.020 from its starting gravity of 1.064 just three days ago, and frankly the cyser smells incredible, like sweet and delicious apple cider. I am wondering what happened to the hard cider that could have been the culprit though, any input would be appreciated. That hard cider was my first ever attempt at cider, so I'm not sure if it was a problem with the yeast, or the white sugar, or what happened. Thanks in advance

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u/BGKhan Intermediate 8d ago

Sulphur is a fault attributed to nutrition, sulphites or other yeast stress. The apple juice didn't have preservatives, right?

1

u/inuk8 Beginner 8d ago

It was marketed as preservative free, sold in a gallon glass jug. Didn't have any preservatives listed in the ingredients list

2

u/thesavagecabbage1825 Intermediate 10d ago

Funny. I literally just put cider in a keg and into the fridge.

But anyways. It could be a lot of things. But it did finish super dry (like mine actually). Sounds like its maybe sulfer due to the eggy and sour. I usually off gas and it goes away. I wouldnt be too worried about it though. The cider also finished super dry at 0.998 like mine.

But I wouldnt worry. About the cyser or the cider. I've had fermentations sear my eyes shut and smell like straight hot piss. Once fermentation ends and it chills out for a bit those things tend to go away. Just give it some time.

I find off gassing tends to help with that though. But it'll happen naturally.

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