Craft Hard Cider: Recipes, Tips, and Ideas for Making & Enjoying Hard Cider
Li’l Apple Cider - A cider crafted with manzanita berries. If you are ever near where manzanita trees grow, I encourage you to find one. They are a gorgeous tree. In southern Arizona you can find them on some of the mountains and they surround one of the orchards that I pick, which is around … Continue reading Making Li’l Apple Cider
A layer or film formed by yeast on the top of hard cider when exposed to oxygen during storage. So you open the lid to your bucket or peer through the glass of your carboy and what do you find, some gnarly looking whitish film, crust, or even little island floating on the surface. What … Continue reading Film Yeast – Flor – Pellicle
Can hard cider go bad? You know, can cider spoil? I often see posts about someone who found an old bottle of cider they forgot and the question often asked is whether it’s safe to drink. The answer is usually, yes, it’s safe to drink. That is because hard cider won’t really spoil, it simply … Continue reading Acetic Acid: How Cider Becomes Vinegar
Key Genes Impacting Processing Characteristics Why do some hard ciders become crystal clear in a few days while others seem to always have a slight haze? Have you ever had a hard cider that formed a film on top of it? Were you aware that the yeast you use might impact whether that happens? It … Continue reading Decoding Yeast Genes: Processing Characteristics
I sometimes hear people described as those that live to eat. These are the people who enjoy food. They like the look of it, the smell of it, and ultimately, the taste of it. They rarely met a food they don’t like. On the other end, I know people who you might describe as those … Continue reading Flavorful and Healthy – The Only Way to Eat
Key Genes for Aroma and Sensory Characteristics If you took the same juice and fermented it with different yeasts, why would they have different aromas or flavors and even unique mouthfeel and sensory characteristics? Why would one be slightly sweeter or more acidic? It’s all in the gene’s. As discussed in other Mālus Trivium posts, … Continue reading Decoding Yeast Genes: Aroma and Sensory Characteristics
Pichia kluyveri is found on many types of fruit but also on the fleshy part of the plant(1). Several isolated strains came from prickly pears in Arizona and California, which I appreciate given where I currently live. However, it was also isolated from olives and is very common on apples as well as coffee. It … Continue reading Alternative Cider Yeast: Pichia kluyveri Overview
Key Genes for Fermentation Why do some yeast die during fermentation or only ferment certain types of sugars? Have you ever thought about why some yeast produce hydrogen sulfide (rotten egg smell) and others don’t? It’s all in the genes. As discussed in other Mālus Trivium posts, the Saccharomyces cerevisiae yeast DNA genome was sequenced … Continue reading Decoding Yeast Genes: Fermentation Characteristics
This is my second year learning to graft apple trees. Last year I learned the important lessons of making sure your rootstock is growing before you graft scion wood. I also learned not to unwrap your scion graft too soon or at least not without first having some staking in place. This year, I did … Continue reading Grafting: Bud Versus Scion
Chaptalization… It sounds like a complex process with lots of things that could go wrong. However, it’s really quite simple. Chaptalization is the process of adding sugar to juice in order to increase the level of alcohol, %ABV, in the final fermented product. You may have noticed that I didn’t say it’s the process of … Continue reading Chaptalization and Hard Cider (errr… Apple Wine)
