Craft Hard Cider: Recipes, Tips, and Ideas for Making & Enjoying Hard Cider
The orchard I pick has Mutsu and Shizuka apples. These along with Orin apples were all discovered in Japan in the early to mid-twentieth century. What I find interesting is all three apples have the same parentage: Golden Delicious and Indo. They are siblings and just like humans, you can see the likeness at times … Continue reading Making Japanese Sunrise Hard Cider
One of the most critical processes in making hard cider is cleaning and sanitizing. It’s the easiest way to make a bad batch of hard cider and ruin the best hard cider recipe. Officially, this is a two-step process. There are cleansers and there are sanitizers on the market. Why not one product to do … Continue reading Hard Cider Tip #8: Bottle Cleaning
Do hard ciders have vintages? Regardless of whether you are legally allowed to define a vintage, like wine, on a bottle of hard cider, my question is really about what impact the “vintage” or year the apple was grown has on a hard cider. If you are using juice from the store, vintage becomes irrelevant … Continue reading The Vintage of Hard Cider
Prickly Apple is my flagship hard cider. After I started making hard cider, I soon realized how much I enjoyed not just drinking it but crafting it as well. I decided that I wanted my hard ciders and hard cider recipes to be based on organic or non-sprayed fruits and adjuncts. I wanted to know … Continue reading Making Prickly Apple Hard Cider
My adventure into making hard cider started with me reading everything I could find about apples and hard cider as well as by just making it. I like to experiment. Sometimes, I try something that I read isn’t supposed to work. I like to see if I can figure out how to make it work. … Continue reading Hard Cider Tip #6: Document Your Hard Cider
Traditional hard ciders are those made from only apples and pears. No adjuncts, which would be anything that augments the color, flavor, or taste of the hard cider. For me, that includes aging in oak. I’ve set out to taste as many hard ciders as I can from all over the world. I’m not sure … Continue reading My Favorite Traditional Hard Ciders
For most people, hard cider isn’t their first drink of choice. That beverage is beer. My goal with this hard cider recipe was to make a cider that would appeal to the beer drinker. While hard cider is fermented like beer, it’s not generally brewed. Brewing involves the use of hot water like making a … Continue reading Making Cider Lite Hard Cider
As a craft hard cider maker, you actually have several cost effective means to make your hard cider clear or what is commonly called clarifying. Most of my hard cider recipes call for filtering but you may be wondering if you really need to clarify your hard cider. The main reason you would make your … Continue reading Hard Cider Tip #5: Making Hard Cider Clear
One the the biggest challenges with crafting “Traditional” hard cider is finding apples with tannins. I define Traditional as a specific style of cider using only apples and/or pears. Check out my book for more styles and details about making and experiencing hard cider, including hard cider recipes. I mean it has to be worth … Continue reading Hard Cider Tip #4: Testing for Tannins
Rock’n Raspberry Hard Cider: A Craft Cider you can make at home. One apple picking season, I found myself with a good amount of Granny Smith apples for making hard cider but no specific hard cider recipe in mind. Granny Smith is an apple variety that most people associate with pies but you can make … Continue reading Making Rock’n Raspberry Hard Cider
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