Hard cider funky taste

I made hard cider this way: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G25FFvCpNoQ

except I also added cranberries, a couple tablespoons of sugar, and cinnamon. And yes, I used Fleischmann's rapid rise yeast. Today, after 2 weeks my airlock balloon deflated and I decided to bottle the hard cider. So, I combined everything that fermented with a little bit of water that I boiled and added a good amount of sugar to (so that the yeast hopefully feeds on it). I tasted it and it was mainly sour and odd tasting. No apple flavor and not sweet either. Is this normal? Why does this not taste that good? Can I fix this?

Topic taste aroma cider homebrew

Category Mac


Sounds like you got a lot of attenuation out of the bread yeast. In my experience all Apple flavor goes away below 1.005 SG. This can be corrected by using more juice of the same juice as a priming sugar, or back sweetening with it.

The funk was most likely from the raisin addition. An addition like this should be sanitized first since it is very likely to have wild yeast on the surface. Soaking in vodka or blanching rid you of most contaminating organisms.

If the funk could just be a strange flavor combination and not a result of an infection. It's a poor descriptor, if there isn't a hint of pleasant taste to it. It may not be worth trying to save at this point. Let it condition and see how it is in a couple weeks, a lot can change with aging.

Update From your discription of the plastic taste and the over attenuation. I think you caught a wild yeast from the raisins. Don't give up, just add it to your bad batch list. Many of us have very long lists of lessons learned. :-)


Making products like this with bread yeast is a crap shoot. Bread yeast isn't always as pure as brewers yeast. Its possible to pick up a contaminant that make the cider taste bad. More likely though is that your contaminant came from the raisins or the cinnamon. If these ingredients were from open containers in your kitchen, especially a spice like cinnamon, there could have been a contaminant there as well.

While many people get lucky making some sort of hard cider this way, its much more consistent to use higher quality methods and equipment.


Different yeasts seem to leave more/less apple flavour. I haven't tried bread yeast.

The sourness might just be the result of the sugar being removed by fermentation. Apple juice is pretty sweet. Also if the apple juice was naturally high in acid or vitamin C was added it could taste more tart than you were expecting.

Does it taste sour like green apple? Often that ages out after a few weeks in the bottle.

After aging around room or basement temperature for a few weeks leave it in the fridge for a week or two to let the yeast settle out. See if that helps it taste less yeasty.


You used the wrong yeast and the carbonation accrues after adding the sugar or honey and sitting for at least two weeks or more..

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