Craft Hard Cider: Recipes, Tips, and Ideas for Making & Enjoying Hard Cider
Cider or what some call hard cider is normally dry, which means it has little to no sugar remaining. This is because apple juice has about half the sugar that grape juice has and is often made with yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) used for wine. The result is that when fermentation completes, you are likely to … Continue reading Cider Question: How to make sweet hard cider?
Red Pear-Sweet Apple Cider Label This is a cider with some natural residual sweetness. Actually, it’s a semi-sweet perry with some apple notes. That is because its 2/3 pear and 1/3 apple. For reference, I made made 3 gallons of this golden elixir of flavor, and I’m happy I opted for a larger batch. For … Continue reading Making Red Pear-Sweet Apple
Blue Flame Cider Label My love of spicy food has been carrying over into my cider making. One of my favorites from last year was my cider mistelle, Ruby Reaper. It uses Carolina Reaper peppers, which were considered the world’s hottest pepper. I also made a hop and pepper cider called Flamin’ Hops that you … Continue reading Making Blue Flame Cider
Cider Words - Perry Perry, the step-child of the cider world. It is often overlooked and under appreciated. For example, if you want to increase the residual sweetness of a hard cider naturally, the best way is to add pear juice to your blend. Pears on average have higher sorbitol levels, which can often be … Continue reading Cider Words: Perry
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
Sorbitol: The Hidden Sweetener I don’t have access to perry pears and am generally limited to dessert pears or cooking pears. I have tried a number of varieties including Asian pears. However, one of my favorites to use is Red Bartlett. I can purchase them locally from a large organic orchard. Many of the dessert … Continue reading Sorbitol: The Hidden Sweetener
PricklyCider.com 