Tag: cider

For those who have done my varietal v blend class or just want to know more about the apples I am using or hunting, please see below.

First off, there are few systems to classify apples. One of the more frequently used one is the LARS system (Long Ashton Research System). Imagine two axes, one for acid, and one for tannin. The prefix “bitter” means high in tannin. High in acid is sharp and high in sugar is sweet. Under this system, we get four types of apples, bittersharp, sharp, bittersweet, and sweet.

Different styles of cider want different apples but normally some of each is desired but the “best” ciders often use bittersharp apples.

Traditionally, true cider apples are hard to find in the US. While our colonial ancestors brought some cider apples, prohibition made them unfavorable. Then also most apples are used culinarily. Culinary apples are very different from cider apples. Modernly, most cider apples will be committed to cideries, making it difficult for hobbyists to get some but it is not impossible.

In my 2022 experiment, I was able to source apples local to me.

Ashmead Kernel

Fortunately a retired orchardist from the University of Illinois bought farm near me and sells his apples at the Farmer’s Market. I was able to get 1 bushel of these from him. Ashmead’s are reasonably high in acid. Tasters noted a bit of a “metallic” taste in the middle of palate.

Roxbury Russet

Another high acid apple but with a little better tannin than the Ashmead. It gave a very clean but tasty cider.

Winesap

Gertie’s favorite apple. Winesaps are generally sweet apples but firm. They have a lot of uses around the kitchen and are fairly aromatic. The cider however was just okay. Watery, but not much like cider.

Winecrisp

Unrelated to the Winesap, the winecrisp is a modern hybrid. It stores well and has good aromatics. But like the winesap, the cider was virtually the same as the winesap and much like water.

That said, the blend of 25% of each was pretty good!

My next steps are to try to get actual cider apples. First, I will buy more from my local person. Ashmead, Roxbury, Sundance, and Winesaps I think.

I am looking for sources for Dabinett, Somerset Redstreak, Kingston Black, White Pearmains, Medaille d’or, Michelin, and any red fleshed apples I can find.

If I can find Somerset Redstreaks, this would be pretty darn close to what a late period cider would have been like. White Pearmains are the oldest English apple we have reference to. I will also be looking to do keeving and perhaps pet nat for sparkling.

Another experiment would be to try to find the terrior. The same apple from different places, can we taste the difference? Let’s find out.

This past week (today is 2/4/2023 at the time of this writing), I attended CiderCon in Chicago. This is an industry focused convention for cider professionals by the American Cider Association (ACA). Here are my thoughts.

The event was heavily industry focused and I knew that going into it. While I was welcome to attend as an enthuasist and homebrewer, it was not going to be about either of those things. So I knew that and accepted it. Anytrhing I gleaned from it would be by me using my knowledge to distill it from the industry focused material given.

First up, it was clear that diversity was wanted and desired. Two prominent sessions were for a BiPOC meet and greet, and a Pride meet and greet. There were ribbons one could chose to indicate those statuses and the opening slide for the keynote speaker was “Cider is for Everyone.” The crowd skews mid 30s and the customer base is younger so it makes sense to stress this. The message was clear; this is a place for diverse peoples and you will be hurting yourself financially if you don’t embrace that.

While the SCA and ACA are born for different purposes and at different times, this is something the SCA could learn from the ACA (and other organizations), put diversity first. The SCA is not good at this. Sure it cherry picks its marketing photos to show diversity (minimally) but it hides from larger initiatives. The DEI scandal is a prime example. So, embrace diversity SCA. Stop making excuses for why or what; just do it. Make it a priority and in your face.

One thing the ACA could have done better is connecting its newer members. This is something they could learn from the SCA. I felt like an outsider the whole time. In part, because I am not part of the industry but in part because I was a new person and there was very little effort to connect me in. Some sort of ambassador program would be nice here. Get a group of volunteers that know a bunch of people and are willing to approach new comers. Many of us newcomers had ribbons to identify ourselves. Those volunteers would then approach the newcomers, learn a little about who they are, and make introductions to a variety of people for them. There was one newcomer session but it was heavily industry focused. It was like speed-dating but it was on business subject matter. A more socially oriented newcomers session would have been good for me.

I attended several sessions to expand my palate and knowledge. Again, I had to listen to find the information that would apply to me as a homebrewer. And I did find some. But more importantly, I think I learned that becoming a pommelier would be difficult for me. There were many characteristics for the ciders that I just didn’t get. It is a bit like the pope in the joke about art, “I make not know much about cider, but I know what I like.” Again, this was useful information to know. It will take a lot of time to train my palate to understand these flavors. I am not sure it is worthwhile.

Another thing that was prominent at CiderCon was the idea that cider is more akin to wine, or at least they want it to be. All of the cider was served in stemmed glasses. Much of the terminology about cider is borrowed from wines. Much of the processing is more like wine. But in true, cider currently occupies the middle space between beer and wine for consumers. Historically, it has moved all over the map; being cheap and fancy, wages earned and wages substituted, common and noble. At the moment, it is increasing in popularity. Making the producer and consumer associate it with wines is good for the industry because you can command a higher price point.

Personally, I prefer my cider in a pint glass or a pint can. I would rather see it as a fancy beer/ale and less of a diminished wine. I want it to be accessible and fun. I want it to be something to you enjoy with a bunch of friends eating burgers and wings. But the more consumers can see how versatile it is, the more market share it should command.

Was this worth it? No, not really. I made no lasting connection with anyone. I learned a few things so it was not worthless. But given what I gave in time and money, I didn’t get my value. If I were a small cidery, would I have gotten more value? I think so. There several sessions about the selling of cider that would have been of interest. Would I do it again? Not without being in the industry for some reason. I spent nearly $2000 for 4 days of this. With so little about the hobby side of this, I can’t justify that kind of money again. I am not sorry I went. but I don’t see going again.

I did taste some interesting ciders and got some inspiration for doing new things on my own. I accidently sat near the featured author at the convention for two sessions. So eavesdropping on his conversations gave me some interesting insights. I met someone from Angry Orchard and again, listening in on his conversations were interesting. I met someone from Bauman Century Farms (and Cidery) and tasted some excellent ciders from this 5th generation company. So it got something out of it.

One of the takeaways from Cidercon for me was using some historical techniques. The challenge with medieval ciders is while we know they existed (Palladius from ~400 AD, et al. forward tell us about them), we don’t know much about how they were made until nearly out of period. There is a French treatise about cider from the mid to late 1500s and the earliest English equivalent is Worlidge in the mid 1600s.

Sparkling cider is only documented in the mid 1700s. So what follows is a very modern cider but using late medieval technique.

The first technique I want to try is pet nat. Pétillant Naturel, pet nat for short, is a modern name for what is called the technique ancestrale, which the fancy French word for most of us call “bottle conditioning.” To any brewer, bottle conditioning is nothing new or unusual. However, there are some unique steps that pet nat uses. Pet nat can be traced to 1531 when the champagne technique was first documented. There is no evidence that cider used it then but cider does use it now. In most ciders, you ferment the cider dry, then add a few brix of fermenting must to the bottle, cap, and store. Cider actually does well to keep on the lees as the interaction of alcohol of lees produces some interesting flavors. The bottles are stored as tirage (tier-age), that is, on their sides for a few months to allow the carbonation to happen.

The other thing I might do is keeving. Keeving is an old French process for making cider. The cider is allowed to wild ferment and some of those microbes interact with the pectins to make a chapeaux brun, brown cap, that forms a barrier to the outside air. This is normally done as “low” temperatures, ~ 50 degrees F. The yeast ferment slowly and eventually run out of nutrients and die. They will therefore leave some sugar in the must. With enough knowledge of the sugars present and potentially added, you can calculate the pressure in the bottles. Keeving was definitely done medievally for many centuries in Normandy and Brittainy.

Where the two ever combined? Probably not. But I intend to 🙂 I will be adding a Norman to Oswyn’s family tree. Not unusual for any English person after the conquest. But that would bring some of these French techniques to Oswyn Swann’s manor.

The hardest part of this experiment will be getting ahead of the right apples. That might be impossible. But I think I can find a reasonable substitute. Assuming I can do this in the Fall, it might be ready for Better War or Chamfron in 2024.

On Oct 16, I was supposed to have an apple pressing day where I invite the Shire over to learn about cider and do some apple pressing. But since it was my last day of quarantine, I was on my own.

I have 1 bushel of Winesaps (left), 1/2 bushel of winecrisps (left-middle), 1 bushel of roxbury russets (right-middle), and 1/2 bushel of Ashmead Kernals (right). I wanted some unusual apples this time around and as old as I could find. The Ashmeads and Roxburys are those. I like Winesaps so that was a natural. And my apple guy had these winecrisps which are related to the Orange Pippin, not the winesap!

I knew the Winesap would be my juiciest apple but I thought I would get some good acid and tannin from the Ashmeads and Roxburys. I was averaging about 1 hour per bushel by myself. That was too long. The Winesaps did okay in the mill. The Roxburys turned to mush. The winecrisps were too hard and caused the gears to slip. The Ashmeads did okay.

Then I had to press them. I didn’t get nearly enough juice. On average, a bushel should produce ~ 3 gallons of juice. I expected some variation but not this much! The ashmeads made ~ 1.2 gallon. The winecrisps about 1 gallon. The roxburys only about 1.5 gallons. And the winesaps were about 2 gallons. I was expecting about 6 to 9 gallons in total, not ~ 5 gallons.

With clean up, I was out there for about 6 hours. My back, arms, and hand were sore from turning the various cranks. I still have to take SGs and add the yeast to do what I want. I half way decided to give up on mixing and matching. I was expecting at least a gallon from the 1/2 bushels so I could make a few blends.

As it is, I can make 1 750 ml of each varietal, then maybe 1 mix with the ashmeads as 0.5 of the bottle, then smaller mixes. It will have to be what it is.

I then found a better crusher and press. The better crusher uses teeth that rotate into each other, tearing into both sides of the apples! And the hopper can deposit straight into the basket press! The problem with my current basket press is the pressing blocks wander as the big metal screw jack rotates. Better presses I have seen the screw jack is affixed to a wooden block that presses down on to other blocks. It is much more stable. I can certainly spend more money!

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.

Over the past few weeks, I have made about 5 gallons of cider. I will be doing a 101 history and tasting class on this and probably start it at Chieftains in February.

So far I have:

• Cider made from Old Orchard Apple Juice Concentrate
• Cider made from Louisburg Honeycrisp Cider (so sole source of apples)
• Cider made from my local orchard’s sweet cider
• Cider made from local orchard plus apricot juice
• Cider made from local orchard plus peach juice
• Cider made from Old Orchard plus pineapple juice

All of the ciders are ~6 to 7% ABV.

I have tried to backsweeten them but a few apparently still had live yeast in spite of a healthy dose of camden tablets. So I will have to cold crash, rack, and try to backsweeten again.

I have tasted all of them. You can make a surprisingly good cider from Old Orchard Concentrate. That makes it really cheap too. I calculate it at ~%0.67 per pint or ~$0.50 per 12 oz bottle. Using sweet cider from my local orchard comes in at ~$0.66 per 12 oz or ~$0.88 per pint. One of my local bars sells that same thing, a cider made from the very same local orchard’s sweet cider at $5.00 per pint.

My friend CJ recently went to his local orchard and bought apples to make a great cider. I am not sure how much he paid for his apples though. Pricing apples at my local orchard would come in at ~$1.50 per pint for “standard” apples.

So a local friend of mine apparently has apple trees. Still trying to figure out what they are. Maybe Early Crisps based on when they are ripe. So free is a great price for apple cider 🙂 That is next year’s project.