Craft Hard Cider: Recipes, Tips, and Ideas for Making & Enjoying Hard Cider
How do you know the apples you are using for hard cider are ripe? Maybe, you would ask me to define ripe. Is ripe defined by the ideal time to harvest an apple, to eat an apple, or to press an apple. We could even consider the question of ripeness for cooking apples. In my … Continue reading When are apples ripe?
Hidden Rose and Pink Pearl Apples - Two Red Flesh Varieties Have you ever eaten a red apple? Not red on the outside, but red on the inside. I must say that there is this appeal of biting into an apple and finding this pink or reddish colored flesh. Even when you know it’s there, … Continue reading Unique Apples: Red Fleshed Varieties
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
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
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
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
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
Interesting and uncommon words related to hard cider. In my reading, discussions, and research, I have come across a variety of words that I found to be interesting. They are usually uncommon or at least I don’t tend to use them often. I thought it would be fun to explore some of these interesting words … Continue reading Cider Words: Interesting but Uncommonly Used
The simple answer to why apples brown after being sliced is polyphenols and oxygen. Polyphenols in the apple flesh oxidize and turn brown. That’s the shortest Mālus Trivium I have ever written! Well, maybe there is a little bit more to it. As with most things about apples and hard cider, the answer is often … Continue reading Why do apples turn brown?
Cider Health: Common Vitamins and Minerals in Cider & Fruit Wine Is it healthy to consume hard cider? A more progressive question might be whether cider a functional food. In their book on fruit wines, Joshi and associates highlight some of the key ways that fruit wine, including hard cider, could provide healthful compounds and … Continue reading Cider and Health – Vitamins and Minerals
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