Making turbo cider with pressé

Question

I've made a turbo cider with 3L apple juice from concentrate, 500ml of elderflower cordial and 750ml elderflower pressé. None contained preservatives.

I used the cider yeast as instructed on the packet, added a very strong cup of tea and did not add any sugar.

It took 9-11 days to ferment and I bottled it today but I think it's spoiled. There is a vinegary taste to it but I'll see if conditioning it will help. I know it's hopeful but I've got nothing to lose.

My question is, have you used a pressé before in this context? What did you do differently when using it? And was the outcome any different?

Answer 1

You may want to experiement with different yeasts. Also, take care you are ferementing within the temperature range for your yeast. Weird things happen when you get too cold or too hot.

My first few batches of cider were fermented with Cider House Select Premium Cider Yeast and I didn't care for it. I managed to get band-aid, sulfur and butterscotch over a few batches. Letting the stuff age for about a month or so cleared it up but after trying some other yeast I had much better results. Safale SO4 was one which produced drinkable cider right off the yeast with no weird aromas or flavors. It's really a matter of preference however.

You don't mention it, so be sure to stablize your cider when you backsweeten or you can kick off fermentation again with the additional sugars. Nothing worse than a gallon jug blowing up and throwing cider all over the basement at 3am.

Answer 2

After about 10-14 days of conditioning the vinegar taste disappeared. I had to backsweeten with some more elderflower cordial because it was a little bit too dry for me. The flavour was good however. I'll leave the rest of it to condition longer, hopefully to the point of not needing the backsweetening.