Yeast Harvesting: Plates & Slants Yeast and apples are the core ingredients of any cider, even natural/wild fermentations. Understanding your yeast, just like understanding your apples, is key to consistently making great craft hard cider. The yeast will impact your residual sweetness, aromas, tastes, clarity, and many other aspects of your cider. Working in conjunction … Continue reading Yeast Harvesting: Plates & Slants
Tag: harvest
Yeast Harvesting: Agar
Yeast Harvesting: Examples of Agar Types If you make enough hard cider, you will inevitably start to explore yeast. Whether you are using commercial strains or just letting nature run its course, yeast is such a critical component in making great craft cider. It impacts your residual sweetness, aromas, tastes, clarity, and many other aspects … Continue reading Yeast Harvesting: Agar
Yeast Starter for Cider
A yeast starter is used to increase the biomass of a yeast and to ensure the yeast cells are healthy and ready to ferment. It is how you grow more yeast cells to ensure you have enough for a robust ferment and to ensure the yeast cells you are using are healthy and full of … Continue reading Yeast Starter for Cider
Yeast Propagation for Cider
Whether you use commercial yeast or wild yeast, you really should be thinking about yeast propagation. Yeast propagation is the process of taking a small yeast sample, usually from a plate or slant and growing it until you have enough to pitch into your juice to make cider. You might be thinking, that sounds like … Continue reading Yeast Propagation for Cider
A Day at the Orchard: Orchard Diversity
If I asked you to close your eyes and picture an apple orchard, what would come to mind? Would it look something like this picture? Would it have rows of trees in straight lines? Maybe the trees would be even bigger. It’s interesting how our reference is based on what’s around us. South Somerset Orchard … Continue reading A Day at the Orchard: Orchard Diversity
Harvesting Prickly Pears: Dangers and Rewards
In my book, The Art & Science of Cider, I advocate for making hard cider that represents where you live. Almost every place in the world does or can grow apple trees. However, they also grow many other great fruits, flowers, herbs, and vegetables. Hard Cider is the perfect method to include and highlight these … Continue reading Harvesting Prickly Pears: Dangers and Rewards