In article ,
"George.com" wrote:

Righteho

Cider was brewed early February so almot 9 months old now.

Sunday was the old boys birthday so we celebrated by opening a bottle of
still cider. Very dry. Tasted of cider but not the best. Drinkable with some
lemonade added, but too dry.

Tonight wife & I sampled some sparkling cider. Not much of a psssssst out of
the bottle, more of a 'st'. Not very active on the sparkling side. Tasted
ok, not as harsh as the still. More of a muted flavour.

Over all not the success one had hoped for. This weekend coming I will try a
couple more bottles with a mate. Maybe, just maybe.

I reckon I may have received some duff advice from Charlie somewhere along
the line. Should've known he'd put me crook.

rob

Never been a big fan of dry ciders. The dry ones don't remind me of
apples at all, at least not in the way a proper Calvados does. Or is
the problem one of off-smells? Do you have dusty smelling, foul-tasting
acetaldehyde, or the paint-thinner smell of ethyl acetate? If not, I
suggest that you save your cider to drink with food. Kräusening your
cider may help with the carbonation,
http://www.picobrewery.com/askarchive/krausen.htm
or
http://www.motherearthnews.com/Real-...-Make-Hard-Cid
er.aspx?page=2

For sweet cider, you may need to drink it while it is still fermenting
(it seems so innocent) or raise the sweetness of the juice to 32 brix or
more. Eighteen per cent alchohol is about as far as yeast can go.
Anything over that will be sure to remain in the cider.

In vino veritas, or a very nasty hangover, YMMV ;o)

PS. I'm sure you know that Charlie wouldn't give you dodgy advice. Once
he is finished going bush, you can probably expect a damn good hiding;o)
--
³When you give food to the poor, they call you a saint. When you ask why the poor have no food, they call you a communist.²
-Archbishop Helder Camara

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http://countercurrents.org/roberts020709.htm