TL;DR - Should I let a cider brew that smells, and possibly tastes slightly of vinegar to mature for a few weeks/months before passing judgement, or would it be a bad batch based on that alone?
To cut a long story short(er, haha), I think I botched my first brew and would like opinions before it goes down the drain/is turned to cider. I sterilised everything with 'vinclasse' sterilising powder before hand, I tried to be as thorough as I could but the equipment was new so I don't think not getting every part up to the 30 second contact time would have been too much of an issue, everything definitely got wet and it was sat for at least a minute and was swirled a few times around.
I started the brew by adding 23 litres of 100% pure apple juice, I didn't add campden tablets or otherwise pasteurise the aj. The next step I definitely made a mistake, I added my dry cider yeast directly to the brew and stirred it in, I knew I should have rehydrated the yeast beforehand or at the very least let it sit on top, but it must have skipped my mind. The lid + airlock went on the brew last Monday around 10pm, it got some bubbles on Tuesday and some time during Wednesday morning I noticed foam about 2-3 inches higher than the liquid. The airlock was bubbling nicely on Wednesday, and it died down late Thursday but I wasn't around the bucket much to see how much it was bubbling often. The pressure of the bucket caused the lid to expand a little before air would exit the airlock, I had made a note of pressing the lid down a little to manually relieve some of the pressure although I was very careful not to let any air back into the bucket. The lid remained pressurised well until Saturday or Sunday night, and after pressing the lid down Sunday night it hasn't pressurised up to the point I could notice on Monday, and the same again following into Tuesday afternoon(today).
Perhaps at this point why I should explain why I think it's gone bad: the smell. The first few days into the brew it smelled of standard apple juice, and then got progressively yeast-like smelling. Around Thursday or Friday it smelled a smell that's hard to explain, I could still smell apple juice along with a strong smell of yeast, but it also smelled of cider, with an occasional strong whiff of alcohol (or just carbon dioxide I guess) and very faintly of rotten eggs/sulphur, fairly standard up to this point I think. The smell hasn't improved much since then, but I started to get a faint whiff of vinegar at some point, around Sunday I think. I can't say that it definitely smells of vinegar, it could just have been the carbon dioxide and sulphur mixed with a little paranoia. Anyway, fast forward to today(Tuesday) and the smell of vinegar has really got me worried, so I opened it up and with a sterilised glass got a little sample to taste. The smell of the sample was mostly yeast and cider after swirling and never strongly of vinegar, and it didn't taste strongly of vinegar. But I can't if the taste is specifically vinegar, or if it's just because I've never had cider this 'young' before, it was definitely dry and not sweet but it tasted slightly sharp or acidic.
I've read on these forums and other that if it smells of vinegar but doesn't taste of vinegar then the brew is fine (even if it smells awful!), but I've also read that if the brew tastes of vinegar then it isn't going to improve with time. My concern is that because I think it tastes of vinegar that it generally isn't going to dissipate and return to a more typical cider taste and I'll end up with 23 litres of vinegar. However I recognise that I'm inexperienced and the taste may be typical for a cider brew this young, I've read that cider yeast specifically may account for the sulphur smell, and I've read that not properly hydrating the yeast (coupled with a lack of yeast nutrient) may affect the taste, and I also know I forgot to add tannin etc.
I think I'm just being paranoid but any opinions on the matter will be welcome, I think I may have to let the cider sit for a few weeks/months anyway even if it is just because the taste is slightly unpleasant, vinegar ignored. If it turns out that I'm dealing with a vinegar situation I wouldn't mind having the opportunity to sort out a proper cider brew in the meantime, as opposed to waiting a few weeks for what I have now to mature a little.
To cut a long story short(er, haha), I think I botched my first brew and would like opinions before it goes down the drain/is turned to cider. I sterilised everything with 'vinclasse' sterilising powder before hand, I tried to be as thorough as I could but the equipment was new so I don't think not getting every part up to the 30 second contact time would have been too much of an issue, everything definitely got wet and it was sat for at least a minute and was swirled a few times around.
I started the brew by adding 23 litres of 100% pure apple juice, I didn't add campden tablets or otherwise pasteurise the aj. The next step I definitely made a mistake, I added my dry cider yeast directly to the brew and stirred it in, I knew I should have rehydrated the yeast beforehand or at the very least let it sit on top, but it must have skipped my mind. The lid + airlock went on the brew last Monday around 10pm, it got some bubbles on Tuesday and some time during Wednesday morning I noticed foam about 2-3 inches higher than the liquid. The airlock was bubbling nicely on Wednesday, and it died down late Thursday but I wasn't around the bucket much to see how much it was bubbling often. The pressure of the bucket caused the lid to expand a little before air would exit the airlock, I had made a note of pressing the lid down a little to manually relieve some of the pressure although I was very careful not to let any air back into the bucket. The lid remained pressurised well until Saturday or Sunday night, and after pressing the lid down Sunday night it hasn't pressurised up to the point I could notice on Monday, and the same again following into Tuesday afternoon(today).
Perhaps at this point why I should explain why I think it's gone bad: the smell. The first few days into the brew it smelled of standard apple juice, and then got progressively yeast-like smelling. Around Thursday or Friday it smelled a smell that's hard to explain, I could still smell apple juice along with a strong smell of yeast, but it also smelled of cider, with an occasional strong whiff of alcohol (or just carbon dioxide I guess) and very faintly of rotten eggs/sulphur, fairly standard up to this point I think. The smell hasn't improved much since then, but I started to get a faint whiff of vinegar at some point, around Sunday I think. I can't say that it definitely smells of vinegar, it could just have been the carbon dioxide and sulphur mixed with a little paranoia. Anyway, fast forward to today(Tuesday) and the smell of vinegar has really got me worried, so I opened it up and with a sterilised glass got a little sample to taste. The smell of the sample was mostly yeast and cider after swirling and never strongly of vinegar, and it didn't taste strongly of vinegar. But I can't if the taste is specifically vinegar, or if it's just because I've never had cider this 'young' before, it was definitely dry and not sweet but it tasted slightly sharp or acidic.
I've read on these forums and other that if it smells of vinegar but doesn't taste of vinegar then the brew is fine (even if it smells awful!), but I've also read that if the brew tastes of vinegar then it isn't going to improve with time. My concern is that because I think it tastes of vinegar that it generally isn't going to dissipate and return to a more typical cider taste and I'll end up with 23 litres of vinegar. However I recognise that I'm inexperienced and the taste may be typical for a cider brew this young, I've read that cider yeast specifically may account for the sulphur smell, and I've read that not properly hydrating the yeast (coupled with a lack of yeast nutrient) may affect the taste, and I also know I forgot to add tannin etc.
I think I'm just being paranoid but any opinions on the matter will be welcome, I think I may have to let the cider sit for a few weeks/months anyway even if it is just because the taste is slightly unpleasant, vinegar ignored. If it turns out that I'm dealing with a vinegar situation I wouldn't mind having the opportunity to sort out a proper cider brew in the meantime, as opposed to waiting a few weeks for what I have now to mature a little.
