Craft Hard Cider: Recipes, Tips, and Ideas for Making & Enjoying Hard Cider
There is an often referenced but just as often confusing process in hard cider making called malolactic fermentation. You might see it abbreviated by the acronym MLF and sometimes referenced as LAB. In reality, it’s not actually a fermentation process at all but is a bacteria reaction that converts malic acid to lactic acid (1). … Continue reading Hard Cider Tip #28: Malolactic Fermentation
Fresh pressed apple and pear juice will naturally have the microflora (yeast and bacteria) to ferment into hard cider. For many people, they use these natural organisms to create great hard cider. For others, they want to control the flavors and process and will use commercial yeast. In both cases some people use Campden tablets, … Continue reading Help! My cider isn’t fermenting.
While I really like pizza and hard cider, there is another pairing I thoroughly enjoy. That is popcorn and hard cider. One of the reasons I really enjoy pairing these together is because of the diversity you can achieve with both products. Popcorn can be made savory or sweet. You can veer it towards salty … Continue reading Popcorn and Hard Cider
I hope you are finding the information you need. Please don’t hesitate to leave me a comment or contact me if you have specific questions. To make the best hard cider, should juice be crystal clear or should it be cloudy? Have you even thought about it much? If you have read some of my … Continue reading Hard Cider Tip #27: Clear or Cloudy Juice
I am a big advocate that hard cider should reflect your local area. If you are lucky enough to live in England, France, Spain, or even some places in the US that have cider apples, maybe local hard cider would means a traditional cider. That could be dry, tannin-rich and farmhouse, keeved and sparkling, or … Continue reading Hard Cider: The Local Way
It’s pizza and cider time! If you didn’t know that I like pizza and hard cider, or you need some more inspiration for some wonderful pizzas, you should also check out my other three posts: Part I, Part II, and Part III. For Part IV, the unique crust flavors continue and are becoming a major … Continue reading Pizza and Hard Cider – Part IV
In my original post on the color of cider, I asked the question what color hard cider should be. I described cider in the context of wine. Should cider be white and red or something different. I did this because in both cases, you are using fruit juice. While there are some natural variances in … Continue reading A Study in Color: Making Cider Silver
I brought reinforcements and a better plan for my second visit to apple paradise. Our COVID friend met us at the experimental orchard, my apple paradise, to help us find and pick apples. We introduced him to varieties that he’d never heard. We were also able to spend a fair amount of time talking with … Continue reading A Day at the Orchard: Apple Paradise Revisited
In part III of my developing your method post, I explore carbonation and how this can impact your method for making hard cider. The method I generally use, is force-carbonating. The most common method to force-carbonate is using a kegging system. Kegging systems can come in various sizes, but 5 pound CO2 tanks and 5 … Continue reading Hard Cider Tip #26: Force-Carbonating
I often see questions online from people wondering whether their hard cider is done fermenting. I have written several post about elements of fermentation and I am certain I will write more. But, I’ve never specifically talked about the point when fermentation is complete. Let’s first cover some terms that often get used when talking … Continue reading When is fermentation complete?
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