Cider House Select-1172 Home Brew Ohio Brewer's Best Pear Cider Kit

We've brewed from several cider kits, including another of the Cider House Selects. The first worked out pretty well (just regular apple cider). We followed the instructions for this one straight through. We live in Alaska, and heat is expensive, so our house sits at a constant 63 degrees F. I'd say that's fairly low, and we've gotten very slow, but very tasty results from our other brews. We took care with this kit, sanitizing everything we used, used filtered water, but right off the bat, the fermentation smelled like nail polish remover. The yeast never made its usual mess on the top of the glass carboy. Now, we have 6 gallons of some pretty funky smelling cider, and we're not sure what happened. Maybe we got some contamination in there somewhere, but after checking several guides, the smell of acetone (nail polish remover) comes from fermenting at too high a temperature and/or exposing the yeast to too much oxygen. As in all brewing funk ups, perhaps it's our error, but this kit certainly didn't work out for us.Update: Well, we let the cider sit in the carbouy for two months, and the smell kind of settled down. We decided to bottle the stuff anyhow, but first pitched a little more champagne yeast in. We put carbonation drops in all the bottles, capped them up and let them sit for a few more months. The result was an awesome, well rounded, deliciously zesty pear cider! It just required a lot more mellowing out than our other kits. Worth your time, if you've got the time!

This cider kit is fantastic. So easy to make and really delicious. I made beer for years and I tried this since my wife likes cider and not beer. I am really sold. Have made 5 batches and all turned out perfect.

Wanted to make a pear cider but had difficulty finding pear juice. Came across this kit and it was great! This cider is the favorite of friends/family. Great price on here especially with free prime shipping.

This review is for the pear cider that I ordered, not the cherry cider that was shipped and had me scrambling last minute.This was the first cider that I ever made and it was relatively easy. After brewing, legging, and carving I hosted a party. Most people have said it was one of the better ciders they've ever had. I've done several more and had similar results.Took 1 star off for the packaging. You have to cut it open to get the directions and all the extract is exposed. It's not a sturdy bag and was once knocked over spilling sticky extract all over.

Great cider, so yourself a favor and let it ferment for at least 2 weeks. Already bought another one.

was delivered fast but after making it i find that there is no taste of pear and it taste more like garbage wine than it does pear cider i will try to find more flavoring to see if i can give it a taste im also gonna let it sit another week under pressure to see if taste will improve

This stuff is amazing. The taste is fantastic. Beer haters in the family fell in love with this drink. We have made it twice now. And will make it again. Really good stuff.

This tastes okay, not great, not terrible. Pear flavor was noticeable but rather fake tasting (like an essence vs juice). Fermentation conditions were ideal but couldn't get below 1.02 gravity, even with energizer added. Stank to high heaven during fermentation (rhino farts I think they call it) and left lingering sulfur smell at the end, which seems to be dissipating over time.