Craft Hard Cider: Recipes, Tips, and Ideas for Making & Enjoying Hard Cider
Budding versus Sporulative Most yeast cells are capable of reproducing asexually, a process called mitosis, and sexually, a process called meiosis. The most common form of asexual reproduction for fermenting yeast, especially Saccharomyces cerevisiae, is budding. Asexual reproduction is most common when resources are abundant. Sexual reproduction is generally the process yeast pursue in times … Continue reading Cider Words: Mitosis versus Meiosis
The quest for a naturally sweet hard cider is like trying to find a four-leaf clover, something sought by many but only found by a few. There are a number of methods, like keeving and nutrient deprivation, that can be utilized. But, while these work, they are not always the simplest method and may not … Continue reading Cider and Natural Sweeteners
Maturation: The time needed to make a cider ready to drink. Maturation is defined as the time it takes cider or wine to become ready to drink. I like to broaden that definition to mean the time a cider is stored without preservatives after primary fermentation finishes. I also often call this aging. You can … Continue reading Cider Words: Maturation
This marks the 10th official pizza and cider post on PricklyCider.com. Most of these contain 4 homemade sourdough pizza and cider pairings so that is almost 40 pizza options. These pizzas range from veggie to meat lovers, classic to experimental, but they are all packed with flavors and paired with great hard ciders. Many of … Continue reading Pizza & Hard Cider: Part X
Phenolic Compounds of Fuji Apples Fuji is such a common apple that unless you live in the historical cider regions of France, England, or Spain, you will probably be wondering if it makes a good cider. It was developed in Japan in the 1930s and is the offspring of the American Red Delicious and Virginia … Continue reading Apple Phenolics: Fuji
Many books and articles that you read on fermenting wine talk about how you need to add nutrients and specifically nitrogen to ensure a healthy ferment. While lack of other nutrients can slow or stop fermentation prematurely, nitrogen is considered the number one cause for wine fermentation to slow or stop. This is because nitrogen … Continue reading Cider Nutrients: The Need for Nitrogen (YAN)
The impact of light on cider. Does light pose a risk to hard cider? Beer is bottled in amber bottles to prevent what is called light struck or skunky beer. This occurs when photosensitive iso-alpha acids form 3-methyl-2-butane-1-thiol (MBT). MBT has a skunk odor. If hard cider includes hops, it can form this fault as … Continue reading Cider Words: Light Struck
Yeast Derivative Products (YDPs) can aid with fermentation by providing nitrogen and nutrients and with clarity by binding with colloidal compounds. But recent research has been focusing on how they can impact aroma. Remember that YDPs are just inactivated yeast developed to provide specific reactionary compounds. YDPs are made by using heat, enzymes, or even … Continue reading Yeast Derivative Products (YDPs) & Aroma
Maillard Reactions Create Color and Aroma In 1912, French chemist Louis Camille Maillard identified a chemical reaction between amino acids and reducing sugars. Amino acids are the building blocks of proteins and reducing sugars are those like glucose, fructose, and sucrose. This is a common reaction in bread and baked foods but also occurs in … Continue reading Cider Words: Maillard Reactions
Red Pear-Sweet Apple Cider Label This is a cider with some natural residual sweetness. Actually, it’s a semi-sweet perry with some apple notes. That is because its 2/3 pear and 1/3 apple. For reference, I made made 3 gallons of this golden elixir of flavor, and I’m happy I opted for a larger batch. For … Continue reading Making Red Pear-Sweet Apple
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