Craft Hard Cider: Recipes, Tips, and Ideas for Making & Enjoying Hard Cider
I’ve talked about the color of hard cider and how the process for making wine can be used as a reference. This is because like wine, cider color can be influenced by the fruit as well as the process. In another post on hard cider color, I explored how to make what I call silver … Continue reading Exploring the Colors of Hard Cider
Fruit ripeness can impact a variety of compounds. Ripeness is usually associated with sweetness so confirming that apple cultivars have higher sugars and lower malic acid as they ripen(1), makes sense. It’s always good when what we think it logical is confirmed by science. However, I found it interesting that when O. Laaksonen and associates … Continue reading The Impact of Fruit Ripeness
We continue to create and pair unique pizzas and hard ciders. Pizza is one of my favorite foods to pair with hard cider and like cider, pizza offers a wide array of flavor combinations. Usually, my pizzas are driven by a unique crust flavor that think up. But, a couple pizzas I matched the crust … Continue reading Pizza and Hard Cider – Part VI
Aroma apples add complexity to a cider blend. Cider apples are often referenced as Sweets, Bittersweets, Sharps, and Bittersharps. However, this doesn’t highlight a key element that contributes to great hard cider: Aroma. Aroma in hard cider come mostly from esters and alcohols but aldehydes, ketones, and ethers can also contribute. These compounds are created … Continue reading Aroma Apples
Tupelo Cyser Label One of my favorite adjuncts for cider is honey. It’s amazing how just a little honey can add unique aromas and flavors to a cider. It also turns it into a cyser, which is a cider made with honey. If you make mead, you might start calling it other names. For me, … Continue reading Making Tupelo Cyser
That rotten egg smell is hydrogen sulfide and there are 3 common ways it’s created. Have you ever made a hard cider and noticed a rotten egg smell? That is hydrogen sulfide (H2S). Saccharomyces cerevisiae, the most common yeast used to ferment hard cider, wine, and beer, can create hydrogen sulfide through 3 main pathways(1). … Continue reading The Source of Rotten Egg Smells (H2S) in Cider
When we traveled through the West Country in England, we had a list places that we wanted to visit. Of course, those places included numerous cideries along with numerous historical sites like Stonehenge, Highclere Castle, and Glastonbury Tor. However, one of our other goals was to sample various foods. We had high tea at Highclere … Continue reading Scotch Eggs and Cider
Alternative Cider Yeast: Exploring High Aroma Non-Saccharomyces Cerevisiae Yeast While Saccharomyces Cerevisiae is the dominant yeast use for beer and wine, is it the best yeast for making hard cider? Many Saccharomyces Cerevisiae strains used for beer have mutated through yeast harvesting, cropping, and selective pressure placed on them over many years. These have created … Continue reading Exploring Alternative Hard Cider Yeasts
Apple peels can be yellow, green, red, blushed, streaked, sunburnt, and russeted. However, after noting the wonderful colors and even texture, we often ignore them once we start the cider making process. Did you realize that those peels are potentially the single most powerful ingredient in your cider making process? Most cider makers ignore and … Continue reading Apple Peels: The Missing Ingredient of Hard Cider
ATP: The energy used to power fermentation You might be asking what ATP is and why you should care. Besides being the energy source for many cell activities, even those in our own bodies, it is what allows yeast to ferment sugar into alcohol. Without ATP, we wouldn’t have hard cider. I have discussed yeast … Continue reading ATP: Adenosine Triphosphate
