Craft Hard Cider: Recipes, Tips, and Ideas for Making & Enjoying Hard Cider
Spoiler Alert: If you haven’t taken Cider Quiz #1, click here to take it before exploring the answers. I included links to various articles about aroma faults and what causes them at the bottom of this post. These can provide additional references and information that talks about causes and potential impacts to cider quality. You can also … Continue reading Cider Quiz Answers: Question #5
Spoiler Alert: If you haven’t taken Cider Quiz #1, click here to take it before exploring the answers. Check out the list of related articles at the bottom for reference material about organoleptic. Remember that I wanted the quiz to be challenging. I tried to make all the answer reasonable and related to the topic. Question … Continue reading Cider Quiz Answers: Question #2
Bucket with Film YeastYeast versus Mold: Yeast is the smooth white and mold is the fuzzy green/blackMold on top of Cider If you’ve read many of my articles, you know I often answer questions with “it depends”. However, that doesn’t mean we can’t define practices that are generally helpful and will not create problems when … Continue reading Cider Rules: Oxygen
It seems like a simple question, but it’s really one of the most difficult to answer. Rarely is this question answered properly. More commonly, a quick answer is provided. That quick answer can be complex, like use this yeast for fruity flavors and this yeast for phenolic flavors. The quick response can also be simple, … Continue reading Cider Question: What is the best yeast to use for making cider?
Which is more important when making great cider, the apple varieties you use in your juice blend or the yeast you use? It’s not an easy question to answer. If I asked whether the apples were more important than the shape of the fermenter, most of us would probably say the apple. I recognize that … Continue reading Cider Question: Apples or Yeast
There is art and science involved in making great hard cider. PricklyCider.com is dedicated to helping you understand both the art and the science involved in the process. One idea I have been working to implement is a way to engage more of the expertise and experience from active cider makers around the world. With … Continue reading Cider Poll – The Art of Aging Cider
Should juice be clear or cloudy, or does it really matter? If you are like me, you might think that cloudy juice will provide more flavor. But, as I have learned and demonstrated with some experiments, clearer juice actually creates more fruity aromas. Juice with high turbidity (cloudy) or colloidal compounds means it has higher … Continue reading Cider Question: Should my juice be clear or cloudy?
I broke down the equipment used to make hard cider into the following three basic process steps. Fermentation Equipment Aging Equipment Bottling Equipment In this post, I’ll cover the Aging step. You can find PDF files of each step in The Shop. As I did with my other posts, I am taking the view of … Continue reading Cider Equipment: Aging
Is there an ideal amount of time to age cider? Ultimately, there is no one single right answer to the question of how long you should age cider. That is because it depends on the cider and the conditions under which it will age. The maturation or aging of cider, like wine, will allow it … Continue reading Cider Question: How long should you age cider?
Enzymes commonly found in cider and perry. Enzymes are proteins that act as catalyst for chemical reactions. In cider making, they can enable or speed up these reactions. This enzymes can improve clarification, increase juice yield, extract color, enhance aroma and flavor, and stabilize your cider(1). They can also improve the nutritional characteristics of foods … Continue reading Cider Words: Enzymes
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