Cider
Stories about making Hard Cider
Wordless Wednesday
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Wed, 09/14/2011 - 18:59
Cider Nouveau
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Mon, 09/12/2011 - 06:28Saturday, September 9th, I started the first batch of cider for the 2011 season. It was the first day that Beardsley’s Cider Mill was open and I went over and filled up my five gallon jug. The mix of apples is Honeycrisp, Gala, and I think some Macintosh; basically the same as my first batch of last year. The cider is very sweet tasting and fruity. However, as an early cider, its sugar content is low. This year, it has a specific gravity of 1.050. Last year, I started on the 18th and had a specific gravity of 1.052.
Last year, I used a Trappist yeast and the resulting hard cider came out very nice; light, crisp and fruity. We’re looking to do something similar this year. For a yeast, I picked up Belgian Abbey II yeast. I added it to the jug and it is busy fermenting.
Since it is often still warm for parts of September, the first batch of cider often ferments fairly quickly, and after two or three weeks, is ready to rack off, let settle for a week and then bottle. Last year’s batch turned out very nicely for drinking right away and aged nicely to be quite good a year later. So, like a Beaujolais Nouveau, a wine meant to be drunk right away, the a hard cider made with Honeycrisp apples and Belgian Ale yeast seems to be a nice Cider Nouveau, and I expect quite a bit will get consumed pretty early on.
I picked up my yeast at Maltose over in Monroe. While I was there, I got a fascinating discussion about craft distilling. There was a couple getting supplies for a new craft distillery they are setting up. Doing a little research, I found a directory of craft distilleries. The list includes three craft distilleries in Connecticut, and by the sounds of it, a fourth one will begin operations soon. I hope to find out more and write more about craft distilling soon.
Holiday Cider
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Sat, 12/04/2010 - 17:06Today, Fiona and I took another drive over to Beardsley’s Cider Mill. Along the way, we counted Christmas Trees on top of the cars. The total we ended up with on the trip was 229. That was partly because Beardsley’s is near Jones Tree Farm.
At the mill, we picked up another six gallons of fresh cider. This batch was about equal parts fuji, macintosh, and red delicious, and a little bit of mutsu thrown in. We also picked up some apple jelly. We then drove over to Maltose Express to pick up some new yeast. I found some Wyeast Eau de Vie strain. This yeast requires a higher temperature than other yeasts, which isn’t great for our house since we keep the house pretty cool. On the other hand, it has an alcohol tolerance of 21% ABV, low flocculation and produces a very clean, dry profile, with low ester formation and other volatile aromatics. It should be good for a dry apple wine.
With the high alcohol tolerance of the yeast, I figured I should really try boosting the sugar content in the cider. I like to stay with local and natural ingredients, so I put in a half gallon of maple syrup that we got from the Hebron Maple Festival this spring. I tried to calculate ahead of time how much this would boost the sugar level, but I figured no matter how much I put in, the yeast would eat it all up.
Last year, Kim got me a hydrometer for Christmas. So, I measured the specific gravity of the cider. It started off at 1.062. This cider has a much higher sugar content than other batches of cider we’ve gotten from Beardsley. Adding half a gallon of maple syrup to the six gallons of cider boosted the specific gravity up to 1.090. Using Dave’s Homebrew calculator and previous experience, I’m expecting this cider should come out to be about 12% ABV.
Doing a few further calculations, I figure that if I wanted to end up with 21% ABV, I probably need about a gallon and a half of maple syrup for a six gallon batch of cider, or put simply, a quart of syrup per gallon of cider. Maple syrup is pretty expensive. A quick check online shows LL Bean selling Grade A maple syrup at $32/quart. Amazon has some syrup as low as $18/quart. That is probably Grade B maple syrup. Grade B maple syrup is darker and has a stronger maple taste. Personally, I think a strong maple taste is really good when making hard cider, and as a general rule, we always buy Grade B maple syrup.
In testing the cider with maple syrup, I siphoned off enough to fill the cylinder to test it. At the same time, I gave it a little taste test. The maple cider was almost like candy. It was very good. I’ve saved a cup for Fiona for when she gets home from a birthday party.
In thinking a little more about it, it seems like this is close to some of the hot mulled cider recipes. However, I’m probably using about twice as much maple syrup in the cider as most hot mulled cider recipes that call for maple syrup use.
Whether drinking some of the apple cider with maple syrup in it as is, or drinking it later when the fermentation is done, maple syrup and apple cider make a great holiday cider combination.
Hard Cider Day
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Sat, 11/13/2010 - 13:46This morning we bottled our latest batch of hard cider. We now have a good supply stored away for the coming year. There is another batch brewing and we may get to more or two more batches this year.
The ciders that I’m making have been evolving and I’ve kept some of them from previous years. This afternoon, I’m going to have a cider tasting and open up several older bottles to see how they’ve aged. We’ve invited a bunch of friends over and the goal is to get all of them to share their impressions of the different ciders. I’ll then try to come up with a good summary of which ciders people liked best, what they liked about them and what I did to make them.
Various things that I’ll look at include the strength, color, clarity, sweetness, fizziness, tartness, bitterness, and any other descriptions I can come up with.
It is a beautiful day outside, so we will probably taste the cider around the picnic table in the front yard. We’ll probably have cheese to clear the palate and the dog running wildly around the guests. It should be fun.
If you have thoughts about what makes for a great hard cider, let me know.
Hard Cider Sunday
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Mon, 11/08/2010 - 09:35Saturday, Beardsley’s Cider Mill in Shelton, CT made more cider than it ever has in a single day. Sunday, I was there to get some of the cider. Here’s the story.
A couple of years ago, after we had been pumpkin picking at Jones Farm, we stopped at the Cider Mill to get some cider and donuts. We noticed a Hard Cider Making Kit that they were selling and my wife said that probably we had all the tools we needed to make our own hard cider. Her first husband had been a brewer and we could probably have one of his old “carboys”; a big glass jug.
So, we picked up a carboy and started making our own hard cider. It’s pretty easy and I encourage first time readers to go back and read through the Hard Cider brewing section of my blog to read my experiences and pick up a few tips.
Beardsley’s gets a lot of people coming into their store after pumpkin picking and when the weather is good as it was this year, October can be a great month for them. As the later apples ripen, often with higher sugar content, many claim the cider gets better for fermenting. I must admit that I really like the hard cider brewed from some of the first apples of the year, but that is a whole different story.
So, as the pumpkin traffic dies down and the later apples start coming in, the folks at Beardsley’s Cider Mill make a special batch of sweet cider. Besides the Northern Spy and Winesap which make up most of the apples in the cider, they throw in some other apples and even a little bit of quince to make the cider a little tarter. Then, hard cider enthusiasts from around the state descend on the cider mill on the first Sunday of November. They line up their carboys waiting to get them filled.
As they wait, they share some of their best batches from previous years along with stories and tips about how to brew it. Personally, I like to make a very simple hard cider. I like to use an ale yeast, do two fermentations, and either add a little maple syrup, or nothing at all. This year there were a lot of people sharing ciders they had made with honey added. There was also a really nice raspberry cider that I’m thinking about trying next year.
Last year, the cider mill made 350 gallons, and it got sold out before everyone get their carboys filled. This year, they doubled the batch and made 700 gallons. On Sunday, they sold 440 gallons, so they still have some available.
If you’re a hard cider brewer, or thinking about brewing hard cider, this would be a good week to get over there and get some of this cider before its gone. For that matter, it is also a great fresh cider, so you might consider picking up a gallon or two just to drink as is.
