Cider #3

In my mind, Fall has the best flavors of the year. There is nothing better than drinking apple cider or eating pumpkin pie when the air gets cool and the leafs turn orange. You probably know how I feel about Pumpkin beer, but did you know I am quasi-obsessed with making the other classic fall beverage, hard apple cider?

In 2009, I made a special trip to Fredrick, Md. to procure fresh pressed cider apples specially selected for home brewing. The orchard I went to is an amazing place called Distillery Lane Cider Works - http://www.ciderapples.com/ I would love to get back there again this fall, but the fact that it's an 1.5 hr drive makes it really tricky to fit into the ole schedule.

Last year, I brewed just using their special ciders and cider yeast and was really pleased with the final product. The one draw back from this process was how little carbonation and how wine-like the cider finished as. A lot of people love their cider this way. This year, I decided my goal would be to brew a thicker, more robust, more carbonated beverage. After doing my online research, I learned there were several ways to go about this and felt that experimenting with a few in 2010 would ultimately lead me closer to where I want my cider to be.

Back in May, I brewed a gallon of hard cider out of organic apple juice from Whole Foods, ale yeast and honey. My initial tasting was so-so. Despite having a strong apple aroma and perfect carbonation level, the mouth feel was somewhat gummy (something I thought could be related to a preservative that wasn't labeled, but more than likely has to do with the ale yeast). A friend recommend that I ignore the first tasting and give it more time to age (a key component to brewing good cider). So "A2" as I call it is aging in my fridge and I will hold off judging it for another few months. It really is great to have the one-gallon carboy for jazzing around and playing mad scientist. More to come upon second tasting.

Last Sunday I began my third attempt to brew hard cider. I drove about 10 miles south of the beltway to try and get some fresh cider. I arrived at the fresh produce outlet to find that the cider they carried was filled with potassium sorbate - a stabilizing preservative that inhibits yeast growth (not ideal for fermentation). Frustration set in and yet for some reason I still felt compelled to buy a $5.00 1/2 gallon of the stuff...

It was getting to be crunch time, and rather than making the trek to Distillery lane -I pulled into Safeway and found that their "organic" cider was on sale for $2.99 a 1/2 gallon. Pasteurized, yes, preservatives, no. I figured, "what the hell?" at that price, it was worth a shot. So I grabbed to bottles, tossed it in my 5 Gallon bucket, added 2 lbs of brown sugar, yeast nutrient, some lemon peels and apple peels (another suggestion from a friend) and finally the White Labs English cider yeast. In about 15 hours, the bucket was jamming. The bubbles have slowed down a good bit, but are still coming every 10 seconds or so.

Who knows what will happen here (someone with more experience likely)? I'm giving it another week and will bottle up 20 or so bottles and stash them away. If it's awful, I'll not repeat. If there's something halfway decent about it, I may try pulling it apart for next year....

In the meantime, I'm plotting to begin batch 4 in 2 weeks...