This afternoon, Kim and I bottled hard cider batch 2009-1B. We started this batch back on September 14th using a Belgian Trappist yeast. It fermented quickly and vigorously. We bottled off the first part of it on September 25th. Then, we added two cups of maple syrup and allowed it to ferment until today. It didn’t seem to ferment quite as actively, but still there was a lot of sediment produced on the bottom.

We sampled it last night, and it was very good. So, we decided to bottle it today. It still had a little sweetness and a little fizz, so we didn’t add any more sugars. Hopefully it will get a little more fizzy in the bottles, but even if it doesn’t, it is pretty good as it is.

Meanwhile, I received a comment on one of my previous posts that led to a good discussion on Facebook. A first time hard cider brewer from another part of Connecticut was having a little difficulty. We compared notes and he is on his way. He did make a comment about pear cider, also known as perry. I did a little searching online and found that High Hill Orchard in Meriden sells fresh pear juice. I called them up to confirm as well as to see if they knew of people who had brewed perry and would sell me pear juice in bulk. Their pear juice costs about 30% more than fresh apple cider, but that seemed within the range, so I will head over tomorrow afternoon when he is making cider about buy six or seven gallons of pear juice. I’m planning on using the Belgian Lambic yeast which is what we used for 2008-2 and not adding any sugars. The Lambic yeast worked very nicely last year allowing the apple flavors to shine through, so I’m hoping for similar results with the hard pear cider.

It will be a few weeks before we know how this batch turns out but stay tuned. If you’ve done any interesting experimentation with hard ciders, let me know.