Craft Hard Cider: Recipes, Tips, and Ideas for Making & Enjoying Hard Cider
You may have come across a recipe for making cider that calls for the addition of sugar or maybe you add sugar to your cider. The answer to the question of should you add sugar, varies. Fundamentally, you should never need to add sugar to make cider. In fact, in many countries, the addition of … Continue reading Cider Question: Should I add sugar?
What is the right temperature to drink a cider? Should it be cold, chilled, warm, or even hot? Yes, you already know my answer, which is that it will depend! Hard cider is not a simple product. In fact, because it’s a relatively young and overlooked beverage in most places around the world, I propose … Continue reading Drinking Cider: Temperature Effect
Preservatives naturally found in hard cider Fermenting apple juice and making hard cider will naturally create compounds that act as preservatives. These compounds, like SO2 and CO2, can be added but, I am focusing on how these compounds are naturally created. The compounds are produced by lactic acid bacteria (LAB) and yeast in your juice … Continue reading Cider Words: Natural Preservatives
Key numbers for understanding carbon dioxide in cider. I have written various articles about carbon dioxide (CO2) in cider. I’ve provided details about what volumes CO2 means, how sugar is converted to CO2, how to force carbonate cider with a keg, and just how carbonation can impact your method for making hard cider (search the … Continue reading Understanding CO2 in Cider
Key numbers to remember regarding carbonation While some people enjoy their hard ciders still or without much noticeable carbonation, others enjoy some bubbles or even sparkling. The fermentation process under open atmospheric conditions at 21C (70F) will naturally have around 0.85 volumes CO2. You may remember from my Mālus Trivium on Volumes CO2 that the … Continue reading Key Carbonation Numbers
Volumes CO2: Amount of CO2 dissolved in your cider relative to your cider volume. You may find carbonation expressed as grams per liter (g/l). However, I have always preferred defining carbonation as Volumes CO2. It makes it easier to visualize as I’ve tried to demonstrate in the graphic because the volume units are universal. If … Continue reading Volumes CO2 Defined
In part III of my developing your method post, I explore carbonation and how this can impact your method for making hard cider. The method I generally use, is force-carbonating. The most common method to force-carbonate is using a kegging system. Kegging systems can come in various sizes, but 5 pound CO2 tanks and 5 … Continue reading Hard Cider Tip #26: Force-Carbonating
This is the third part in my three part tip on developing your method for making hard cider. My focus is on the process versus the ingredients. I will highlight ingredients, but my goal is to help you understand the processes involved in making a hard cider that you enjoy. In Part 1, I highlighted … Continue reading Hard Cider Tip #17C: Understanding Carbonation (Method Part 3 of 3)
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