Craft Hard Cider: Recipes, Tips, and Ideas for Making & Enjoying Hard Cider
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
Understanding pH to Make Better Cider Have you ever thought about what pH really means and why it might be important to cider making? Well you should. It is one of the key measurements that can help you make better hard cider. It’s also one if the easiest to measure since inexpensive and reasonably accurate … Continue reading CiderWords: pH
Generalization of how tolerant various microorganisms are to free SO2. Sulfur dioxide (SO2) has the ability to weaken the cell walls of organisms resulting in their death or inability to function. It can also react and bind with phenolic and other compounds impacting color, sweetness, bitterness, and astringency. SO2 tolerance is the ability of an … Continue reading Sulfur Dioxide (SO2) Tolerance
Killer toxins to prevent Brettanomyces spoilage In my research on preservatives like Campden (potassium metabisulfite) and potassium sorbate that are commonly used in wine and cider to preserve the cider as well as prevent residual sugar from fermenting, I was always interested in finding alternative methods. Preserving hard cider is generally about stopping various bacteria … Continue reading Natural Preservatives: Killer Factors
Usually, my answer to a question about hard cider is “it depends”. I generally try not to be definitive because there are simply so many unknown factors that being definitive is almost always wrong. However, for this article, I’m going to argue a definitive. The definitive is that you should not use Campden tables in … Continue reading Stop Killing Your Juice: The Argument Against Campden
Fresh pressed apple and pear juice will naturally have the microflora (yeast and bacteria) to ferment into hard cider. For many people, they use these natural organisms to create great hard cider. For others, they want to control the flavors and process and will use commercial yeast. In both cases some people use Campden tablets, … Continue reading Help! My cider isn’t fermenting.
In my original post on the color of cider, I asked the question what color hard cider should be. I described cider in the context of wine. Should cider be white and red or something different. I did this because in both cases, you are using fruit juice. While there are some natural variances in … Continue reading A Study in Color: Making Cider Silver
There is often a debate about the need, use, and benefit of sulfites (or sulphites if you live in many other English speaking countries) when making hard cider or even wine. Using or not using them along with sorbates can be a cause for much debate. Therefore, I wanted to explore the reasons why you … Continue reading Hard Cider Tip #22: Sulfite and Sorbate
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