Yeast appears to be failing after bottle carbonation

[u/Commie_cummies]

Hey all! A while back I started a strawberry apple cider. It was supposed to finish out at about 8% ABV, and I gave it plenty of time to finish fermenting. I thrn added sugar and sweetener and bottled it, as I have done in every other batch but with a little more sugar than normal (trying to achieve more fizz!) It’s been sitting in the bottles for several weeks now it is not clearing up. I did a taste test. It has a very slight carbonation and is very sweet. It has some off flavors. I’m assuming this means the yeast got tired and gave up. I haven’t run into this issue yet, and I am thinking that the strawberries I used in the initial fermentation process added more sugar than I thought or was measured in the original gravity reading. Since this has never happened to me before, I’m wondering if I should just let it sit and rest for a couple of months and if that might fix the off flavors, and I’ll just have an overly sweet cider, or if I should open the bottles up, dump them into a bucket with some more powerful yeast and let it ferment again. Open to any and all suggestions!

Original recipe was 2 gallons of Martinelli’s apple juice a pound of frozen strawberries 4 g of US 05 yeast, lemon juice, wine tannin, and a little additional sugar to bump up the ABV, I can add more details if necessary .

[u/redittr]

If its fizzy it has done something.
I say give it much more time (6 months?) before checking again what it is like. I imagine it will change a lot.

[u/Commie_cummies → u/redittr]

That was my first instinct, I just want to make sure that those funky off flavors aren’t trapped in the bottle for good. I had a similar experience with a mead but I noticed it while it was still in secondary. I definitely added too much sugar for an already strong cider I think. Lesson learned.

[u/teamwaterwings → u/redittr]

Yeah my cider has always been best after at least 6 months. Maloactic fermentation or whatever