Cider Making Revisited 10.22.06 A Note On This Article As this being my third season making ciders, and my first pressing pears for Perry, I will here note the few things I’ve learned since my first attempts in the fall of 2004. Sources for Fresh Cider   Robinettes presses exceptional cider, however, there are many places to acquire raw “sweet” cider that are far less pricey. As I like to say to new wine and cider makers, “we’re in the middle of cider country!” As you travel, pick up some of the local cider and compare. If available, ask the grower or seller the apple varieties used.       Seek out Michigan apple growers and farmers who press and sell their own unpasteurized cider or send their apples to a local mill for pressing, such as Engelsma. Make their acquaintance and tell them your intent. As a cider or wine maker, you are not their target market. You need cider in bulk. At least half the price of a gallon of cider is derived from the packaging; skip the packaging and the price goes down. Offer to bring in your plastic fermenter and see if they will fill it on their press and package day. Both Tanis farms (616) 453-9566, who sell at the farmer’s market on Fulton and Fuller NE Grand Rapids (T,W,F,S, 8am until around 2pm) and Hills Brother’s Orchards (616)784-2767 on Peachridge Ave. north of town will fill your fermenter if dropped off with your name and phone number attached. Call ahead and ask when a good time to stop by would be and about prices, expect between $2 - $3 dollars a gallon, but make sure you ask prices first! Also, last year’s frozen cider also works great. Many farmers sell cider year-round in this fashion as frozen cider keeps well.    Press your own cider! A lot of crushing and pressing took place this year at Siciliano’s, most of it concerning pears. Remember: we’re your home for unwanted fruit and are notorious for fermenting just about any unwanted fruit, short of windfalls. In the back “warehouse” behind the store we rent, on premise, an apple and pear crusher. It’s completely manual, maximizing your participation (just like our famed house Corona grain mills). It takes a little effort but ultimately works out great. Scoop your crushed pomace into one of 4 various sized presses and crank out your juice. A very rewarding time! Call ahead for availability. Rather or not you crushed your own apples or pears or purchased bulk sweet raw cider, the next steps are the same. Putting Together Your Batch Start by taking a gravity reading. Some sugar is usually added to bump up the fermentables in the wort. A good stable cider should start out at 1.045 - 1.065 S.G. and it may take the addition of sugars to reach this depending on the blend, variety, region and season. As I talked about in the 2004 article, you can add cane sugar, brown sugar, maple syrup, molasses, honey, treacle and/or raisons to reach a higher than naturally occurring O.G.. Check out the cider style guidelines at BJCP.org for more details on this, however, the main impression I’d like to make is do not simply rely on a stagnant recipe calling for specific volumes of various sugars, instead, begin by taking a specific gravity reading and determine the S.G. of the sweet cider, then, by adding sugar(s) to a warmed up portion, raise the gravity to the desired level. This wine makers chapitilization (the practice of adding sugar to raise the specific gravity) chart may come in handy: http://www.grapestompers.com/chaptalize_wine.asp Using sulfites or pasteurization to sanitize the must of wild bacteria is an option, however, I rely solely on the yeast I pitch to overpower any possible contamination, i.e., I don’t use them. Cider is usually purchased or even pressed at a cool temperature, discouraging early fermentation. When deciding rather or not to stove-top pasteurize or sulfite your cider or perry, consider the freshness of the cider and for how long you will store it, and at what temperature, before you get the must started. Remember, cider is full of natural yeast; if you don’t get yours in, they will start without you!      Next, determine the flavor profile you’d like to obtain from your cider or perry. Do you want a dry beverage? A sweet drink to heat up during the storm? A tart sipper? A smooth, crisp summer quencher? The profile of your cider beverage is the derivative of three correlating characteristics: (1) alcohol, (2) acidity and, (3) fruit flavor. Each of these components act upon each other. For instance, a lower alcohol beverage will better showcase the fruit profile just as a higher alcohol volume will subdue the delicate play of acidity. Lesson here: keep your gravity under control for early attempts in order to ensure a more drinkable beverage. Once you’ve mastered these lower gravity ciders (1.040 - 1.050), the experience you’ve mustered will help you obtain future successful batches. Remember: unlike beer, the sugars in cider and perry are completely fermentable. Your final gravity will fall below 1.000 F.G. leaving you with a naturally completely dry beverage. However, you can sweeten your finished cider and this is a common practice to be explained in a moment. Also, consider rather your intent is to make apple wine or apple cider. The main difference being the starting gravity as apple wine’s (S.G. of 1.070 - 1.100) gravity is boosted significantly with cane sugar (chapitilization). This higher gravity and resulting higher alcohol percent lends to a vinous quality and lighter body in the resulting beverage.    Choose Your Yeast All yeast is ‘cider yeast’ because any strain can be used. Always use fresh yeast, but beyond that, experiment! The naturally occurring yeast in your sweet cider (the light colored sediment on the bottom of the jug) will ferment your cider, however, you will have no control over these wild yeast’s flavor profile. We recommend pitching a yeast strain isolated specifically for wine or beer making. Here are a few popular choices for apple cider among us at Siciliano’s: the wine yeasts Lalvin K1-V1116, EC-1118, Red Star Champagne, Cote De Blances, Whitelabs Champagne and Sweet Mead Yeast and dry Ale yeasts Safale S-56, S-04. I’d recommend S-56 or K1-V1116 for a first batch.           Mix Together Your Ingredients See 2004 article for directions on mixing together your ingredients and a standard process for fermenting your batch. Once you’ve got this under your belt try experimenting with varying fermentation temperatures. Research the yeast strain you choose to discover its optimal fermentation temperature. After initial fermentation try reducing the temp for a ‘cold conditioning’ stage. This will help the yeast completely flocculate and mellow the profile of your cider or perry.    Clarifying Even though BJCP guidelines do not necessitate your apple or pear beverage’s clarity, a translucent cider has nice appeal. Here’s a few ways to clear up a cloudy cider. 1) Do nothing; accept your cider’s natural appearance and let it be. 2) Be patient. Have you racked the cider from the lees? In my experience, most all of my ciders have cleared on their own. This may take from as little as a few weeks up to months. Be patient! 3) Try reducing the temperature of your cider after fermentation in order to assist the yeasts in flocculating out of suspension. Many things will fall out at a cooler temperature, give it a try on a persistently cloudy cider. 4) Add a fining agent to clear it up. My favorite is LQ K.C. super finings, a double punch of both chitosan and kieselsol which has worked ever time I’ve applied it. Also try polyclar, gelatin, or isinglass. Adding pectic enzyme and/or wine tannin to the initial recipe formulation will also assist in achieving clarity.     Perfect Your Product Once the main fermentation of your pear or apple cider completes, it is common practice to sweeten, increase the body or acidity of, or blend your ciders. Remember: cider sugars are completely fermentable and will finish completely dry. You cannot “stop fermentation” at a certain point along the way with any practical additive. In order to sweeten your finished cider, try a product called ‘wine conditioner’, a mixture of liquid invert sugar and Potassium Sorbate. Sorbate inhibits renewed fermentation so be careful if you plan to bottle condition your product for carbonation: it will not work. Add the wine conditioner to a small sample of your cider to see how you like it, then continue to add to taste until a proper sweetness is achieved. If a both carbonated and sweetened beverage is desired, force carbonation may be the tool you are looking for. See the accompanying article on this website for kegging details and instructions. Glycerin is another additive which can be used to increase the perception of body or mouth feel. Again, add to taste and experiment. If your finished cider tastes mild or bland, try adding some acid blend or malic acid (the acid naturally occurring in apples). As talked about earlier, the profile of your cider is a balance of acidity, alcohol and fruit. Altering one of these can accentuate or mellow the other variables. Experiment and keep clear and concise notes. Oak Aging Fermenting or storing you cider in contact with oak can add complexity to its body and mouth feel, a vanilla flavor and aroma, and a deeper amber hue. While aging in a true oak barrel is an art, one I have not yet even attempted by the way, which requires skill, knowledge, and practice, adding oak chips or cubes is simple. Experiment with toast levels, amount, and contact time. I recently added 4oz medium toast oak chips to my carboy for a week and was rewarded with an increased tannic mouth feel. Cider makers will also blend various batches of oaked or unoaked ciders to achieve a desired flavor profile. This is another part of the art of cider making. Experiment. Try blending cider into your beers or vice-versa. I think I may try a little amber DME in my next batch or even cut in a few ounces of Apple Jack before bottling… Spicing Spices can also be employed in cider making. Try a blend of old world mulling spices, cinnamon, vanilla, nutmeg, cloves or anything else that sounds good to you. Create a tincture by soaking the spices is spirits like grain alcohol, brandy, rum, apple jack or apple brandy. After a few weeks of soaking, strain out the spices and blend into your fermented cider. Spices can also be added into the fermenter itself or simmered in a mixture before the initial fermentation starts. Another way to use seasonal spices is to heat up your fermented beverage and add the spices directly to the mug you’re sipping from.                 Concentrating Cider naturally has a relatively low alcohol percent by volume. Freezing the fermented or unfermented cider to scoop out the ice crystals or to concentrate the unfermented sugars are common historical practices. See the reference list in 2004’s article for more on this. Sounds genius to me.    Sparkling or Still… The BJCP Style Guidelines (favored bathroom reading here at Siciliano’s)  lists three levels of carbonation for bottled ciders: still, petillant (lightly carbonated) and sparkling. All are enjoyable and distinct ways in which to enjoy cider. A still cider has relatively zero Co2 dissolved into solution and therefore can be bottled in cork-able wine style bottles. Petillant and sparkling ciders must me capped in appropriate bottles or corked with a champagne corker and appropriate equipment and are primed with varying amounts of sugar. Try 2-3 oz corn sugar for petillant or 5 oz per 5 gallon batch for sparkling. Consider adding fresh yeast along with the priming agent if the cider has bulk aged longer than a couple months. This is not completely necessary as yeast still remains in solution even after months of bulk aging; however, adding fresh yeast will greatly speed up the carbonation process.         Storing and Aging Fermented cider is alive with yeast; therefore, like wine, its profile will continue to develop over years. As a rule, ciders with a lower starting gravity and tannin presence will peak in character sooner than bigger batches. Keep a journal and samples of your batches over the years and take careful note of subtle changes. You may find certain recipe formulations tend to taste best fresh and others after months of bulk aging.   Go to BJCP.org Read the style guidelines and learn about the history of apple cider! Visit Beertown.org and read about apple events. Attend the Great Lakes Old World Syder Competition held annually in Grand Rapids, MI. For more information about this excellent local apple cider event contact Rex Halfpenny mibeerguyd@aol.com. Entries are accepted this year 11/20 - 11/30. Get involved!

Its Cold Out… Make Cider! This fall I fermented my first batch of hard cider.  The product is one of the most enjoyable beverages I have ever brewed.  Tart and crisp, yet mellow and light, my first batch of cider keeps me looking forward to going home!  Here’s how me and my partner the Perch made it happen. First you need to find a good source of cider.  Pressing your own could be a very rewarding experience.  For me, however, a trip to Robinettes was the thing to do.  The cider I most recently purchased was pressed just that morning and they still have plenty left.   Secondly you need to decide what kind of hard cider you wish you were drinking on.  You can make a sweet cider, dry cider, spiced cider. You can blend cider with mead, or with beer.  Get creative.  I swished my finished cider around the glass with some sparkling fruit juice and it was wonderful!  Ask yourself what you wish you were drinking.  Now do a little reading.  Check out some books in the store and ask some questions.   The last things you’ll need to determine are batch size and gravity (alcohol content). Purchased cider, on its own, has an approximate Original Gravity of between 1.035 and 1.060; that will give a dry (fully fermented) cider an alcohol volume of between 4.5 to 8%. (Crushing your own apples seems to give much higher O.G.’s.) Pretty decent, but a little honey and brown sugar can get it up higher and add some great character.  When thinking about how much to make, just remember that it’s just as easy to make 1 gallon as it is to make 6.    Below is a recipe I am currently fermenting, titled:  “First of the Year Cider” Equipment: Primary Fermenter (glass is nice, the brew changes colors like fall leaves) Secondary appropriate for batch size        Sanitizing/racking/bottling equipment Bottles/capper/caps (any size, champagne are especially nice) Hydrometer/Thermometer Brew Spoon Colander/funnel with strainer Ingredients: Yeast energizer Yeast nutrient Pectic Enzyme Whitelabs Champagne Yeast   Five gallons Robinettes Cider Two pounds Domino Brand Brown Sugar Two and one-half pounds Bulk honey from the store Process: Just as simple as it can get! 1) Start by sanitizing the fermenter.  Pick a size that leaves about a gallon of head space at most.   2) As you’re doing this, start to warm up your cider jugs in the sink; bringing them up to about 70F by surrounding them with warm water.   3) On the store top, warm up about a half gallon of cider in which to dissolve the honey and brown sugar.  Stir them in being careful not to heat the mixture above 100F - no need to get that hot.      4) With this being done, begin to pour the cider through a mesh colander or funnel w/ strainer into the fermenter.  This adds air which aides in the initial fermentation.   5) Before all of the cider is added, add the pectic enzyme, nutrient and energizer.  Follow the directions on the packaging for quantities.   6) Finish adding all of the cider and take an Original Gravity reading (mine was 1.082). Finally, pitch the Champagne yeast.  Keep it between 68-70F for a good initial fermentation.   Fermentation: Duration of fermentation depends on how well you aerated your wort, the temperature at which you ferment, and the Original Gravity.  Keep the cider in primary (admiring the colors) until the active fermentation shows signs of slowing.  This could be between 2-3 weeks at least.   When the fermentation has slowed significantly, transfer it to a secondary vessel the same volume as the total amount of cider, i.e., no head space. If there is any head space after racking over, top it up with cooled boiled water. The cider can finish in the secondary, however, a tertiary fermenter may be desirable if much lees settle have settled out.  Bottle when fermentation completes (two days of consecutive Final Gravity readings) and the cider has naturally cleared out.  You can prime or leave it flat. 1 oz of priming sugar per gallon gives some really nice Champagne bubbles after a month or so in the bottle.  An extraordinary treat.  Put a few bottles away ‘till next New Year’s. Slightly Advanced Cider Making Techniques:   Acid Testing: I am a beer brewer, so I was very interested in tasting for the acidity in ciders.  In beer I taste for hops and malt and yeast along with mouthfeel.  In cider, one tastes for mouthfeel and acidity.  A very new taste characteristic for me!  An acid titration kit will give you an acidity level to go along with the taste samples from your work in progress. A excessively high-level reading and acid taste may be improved upon by the following process.    Malo-lactic Fermentation:   A Malo-Lactic fermentation occurs when the harsh Malic acid, commonly found in apples, is fermented by Lactic acid bacteria.  It is desirable if your cider tastes too “harsh”.   CO2 is the fermented result, along with more Lactic acid and a smoother tasting cider.  This spontaneous fermentation should occur during the secondary and can be encouraged by letting the cider stand on its lees for a month or so at room temperature.  My cider’s Malo-Lactic fermentation lasted for two weeks and resulted in a superior mellow taste.  It also left a haze that was easily cleared with some two-stage euro finings.  We stock Malolactic bacteria cultures to start a Malo-Lactic fermentation if yours won’t take, along with Lysozyme to inhibit spontaneous Malo-Lactic fermentation.       Literature: The book Cider is a helpful guide for those who wish to immerse themselves more fully into the art. It covers all the aspects and possibilities of fermenting apple juice, albeit a little out of date:   Nichols, Lew & Proulx, Annie.  Cider:  Making, Using & Enjoying Sweet &Hard Cider.  Storey Publishing.  2003. It is highly recommended to read and research as you experiment with fermentation,  however, never let your absence of full understanding inhibit experimentation.       Food Accompaniments Served along with the brown sugar and honey sparkling cider, I baked a brown sugar and honey drizzled whole pork loin.  The sweet and soft meat perfectly complimented the cold fizz of my tart cider.  Serve the drink ice cold in tall Champagne flutes and the meat on a board for an authentic old world evening. Ingredients: Whole (10lbs) or Half (5lbs) Pork Loin 2 lbs Brown Sugar 1 lb Honey 1-2 apples of choice Cinnamon 6-pack Busch Light tall boys Total cooking time 1.5 - 2hrs Process: 1) Submerge and soak the pork in the beer for at least 24hrs. 2) Preheat oven to 325F 3) Fully sear the three sides that aren’t covered with fat. 4) Place in a shallow baking dish uncovered and smother with brown sugar.       5) Bake for 1 ¼ hours at 325F, spoon marinade on top, cover with peeled and sliced apples, pour on honey and sprinkle cinnamon to taste.  Return to oven and bake to internal temp. of approximately 160 - 165F, or 15 - 30 more min..  Take out of oven for 15min before serving.  Enjoy.