Early in my alcohol making career, word reached me that a friend had said that I was not a brewer. I took it as a slight. I made cordials at the time. I may have made a mead or two. I wanted to be part of this group. My friends adopted me and I wanted to give back and be part of them. To be called, “not a brewer” to me, then, meant I wasn’t part of that community.
In the learning more about cider and vinegar, it turns out that I am not a brewer. And that is okay.
We tend to use the word casually. Anyone who makes alcohol could be a brewer. But technically, a brewer is someone who brews, like we use the word for brewing tea. Someone who applies heat to change starch to sugar to ferment. I don’t use heat. Cider doesn’t need it. Mead can use heat, and often does, but it doesn’t absolutely need it. Heating the water makes dissolving the honey much easier.
So far, I haven’t found a medieval word or guild for making cider. The making of cider is very much akin to making wine. So while vintner applies specifically to wine, until I find a better word, vintner is good enough.
I want control of what I make and I need to make it affordable. I ordered my own trees.
I ordered these two, listed as cider apples
https://www.starkbros.com/products/fruit-trees/apple-trees/franklin-cider-apple
https://www.starkbros.com/products/fruit-trees/apple-trees/orleans-antique-apple
I also ordered Stayman Winesap because my wife loves them and they make a nice “spicy” addition to cider. I ordered a honeycrisp as a neutral apple and a pollenator to the other trees.
With the trees, I feel I have made as much of a step back as I can. I will have the trees, I can press the juice, I can ferment the juice, and make vinegar if I desire.
Since I should have plenty of apples, I can mix and match to my heart’s desire. I do lack a cellar though and we will have to see what we do about that.
