Craft Hard Cider: Recipes, Tips, and Ideas for Making & Enjoying Hard Cider
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
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
Easy Cherry Cider Label I didn’t always press my own apples to make cider. Like many people, I started making cider using store bought juice. I also think I made some good cider from store bought juice and you can as well. For this recipe, I thought I would go back to my roots and … Continue reading Making “Easy” Cherry Cider
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?
If you live in Southern California, June Gloom means the time of year when clouds roll in and it gets overcast, cool, and gloomy. It’s most common in June but can start earlier or last later into summer. For me as a cider maker, this sentiment covers the summer months beginning in June and running … Continue reading June Gloom: A Cider-Maker’s Struggle
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
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
