Craft Hard Cider: Recipes, Tips, and Ideas for Making & Enjoying Hard Cider
Words related to yeast and their impact on hard cider When making hard cider, the yeast you are using is a critical component. Therefore, I thought a great “Cider Word” article would be to review some of the key but uncommon words that describe the science around how the yeast in your cider works. Familiarizing … Continue reading Cider Words: Yeast
The steps to freeze concentrating apple juice. Have you ever wanted to make ice cider? What about using juice concentrate for bottle conditioning? Have you ever wondered if there was an effective way to store apple juice? These are all reasons why you might want to freeze concentrate apple juice, or any juice for that … Continue reading Freeze Concentrating Apple Juice
Suspended Solids: How juice clarity impacts hard cider V.K. Joshi and associates assessed the impacts of juice clarity on hard cider. They found that similarly to wine, clarifying juice by filtering and pectic enzyme treatment resulted in higher quality cider(1). Quality was defined by a panel of five trained judges assessing 14 flavor characteristics using … Continue reading Impact of Juice Clarity
As I’ve noted in an earlier article on pressing apples, there are a lot of methods and equipment you can purchase or make to press apples into juice. If you have quite a few full-sized trees in the backyard producing thousands of pounds (500+ kg) of fruit, a larger grinder and press system is probably … Continue reading Making Cider with a Juicer
Historic American Cider Apples In 1867, John A. Warder published American Pomology: Apples (1). If you haven’t read it, it’s not only a wonderful book about American apples but also a great reminder of how America grew. When he talks about the West, he means Illinois! Within its pages are references to apples that after … Continue reading Cider Words: Historic American Cider Apples
If you read some of my other articles on sulfites and sorbates, you will know that I am not an advocate of using Campden, potassium metabisulfite, sulphite, SO2, or whatever other term you use for this preservative and sanitizing compound. The biggest reason I am not an advocate is because I think it’s overused, especially … Continue reading Potassium Metabisulfite: The Overview
Cider Words - Perry Perry, the step-child of the cider world. It is often overlooked and under appreciated. For example, if you want to increase the residual sweetness of a hard cider naturally, the best way is to add pear juice to your blend. Pears on average have higher sorbitol levels, which can often be … Continue reading Cider Words: Perry
I have sampled a few ciders over the years and I have worked to develop a more discerning palate. It hasn’t been easy. For many years, I wasn’t open to trying new things. However, I now seek out the new and unique, especially when it comes to fruits and vegetables. I do this partially as … Continue reading Cider Tasting – Common Faults
Humorous Names of Heirloom Apples At one time, the United States of America had around 14,000 named apple varieties. That is pretty amazing and sad when you consider how many you can find today. I love the history of apples and I’ve enjoyed reading some of the older books, like American Pomology and The Apples … Continue reading Cider Words: Humorous Apple Names
Filtration is a process used to remove unwanted compounds from a hard cider. Those compounds can range from suspended solids that are relatively large to the smallest of particles like sugars and salts. Those smallest particles basically mean you will only have water remaining and would usually require an osmosis filter system. It is possible … Continue reading Filtration Basics
