My homemade alcoholic beverages taste acidic?
Hey there guys Ive recently started making my own homemade cider and mead. I made mead to begin with and my two gallons of Mead both had a sharp acidic taste to it when it cam to racking the acidic taste mellows over time but its still there. Then I recently made cider and I had the same result a sharp acidic flavour to the cider. This is ruining the flavours of my home brews and Im starting to get irritated can someone tell me what I might be doing wrong or tell me if this is normal or not?
The way I make my brews is I sanitize everything. I make honey water (or buy apple juice) put the yeast in put some citric acid in two table spoon fulls. I whack the bubbler on I put demijohns in the airing cupboard and wait.
I put campden tablets in one of my mead demijohns honey water solution and it turned out like the rest.
So there you go solve my woes people.
Comments
I teach a mead class at the local homebrew shop.
Where are you getting your recipes? A good start would be The Compleat Meadmaker, which has tons of good advice and recipes. The Got Mead site also has some good articles and recipes.
I would leave out any acid up front. Any internet recipes that mention putting acid in at the start probably shouldn't be trusted--adding it pre-ferment lowers the pH and stresses out the yeast, which can lead to off flavors.
At the very end of the process, just before bottling, it is OK to add citric acid (or better, ascorbic, or 'acid blend'), but think of it as a flavor adjustment only. Let your taste buds be the guide.
If you are getting any remotely vinegar-like aromas, it may be due to oxygen problems. Make sure you don't splash things around during racking and that your setup is completely airtight. -m
You don't mention batch size. Two tbs citric acid might be too much. You also don't mention sanitation methods except for the campden tablets. You could have bacterial contamination. If neither is the problem and the acidity is not unpleasant, you can treak the results with strong tea (to add tannin) and glycerine (for sweetness and mouthfeel).
So you make crap for drink. Is this the poor mans version of a mead? Buy apple juice wtf? Whack the bubbler on (?) this makes no sense. Wine ala Corvato method.
-Cut back on the acid aditions.
-Sometimes this type of sugar can give a cider or cider vinegar like taste to fermented drink.
I'm calling the cops you're making moonshine! LOL Haven't you seen the episodes of Andy Griffith? LOL
sweetness covers the acidic flavor. I would recommend more honey.
Your beer,your problem.
i just want my 2p
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