Thread: Hard Cider

Hard cider was something I never tried until a year or so ago. I really like it. It's a nice change up from beer every now and then. Locally, I can only get the Hornsby's, but while I was living in Portland last year I was able to get quite a variety at my local grocery store. Perry is hard to find, but I did manage to get a sample of some several months back. I was not overwhelmed by it, but I'd like to try some different types before I form an opinion.

I live in Gloucestershire, which is a hotbed of cider and perry. I love a good perry. I have tried to odd bottle of the so called "pear cider" and it's is sweet and nasty, full of chemical flavours. Give me the proper farmhouse stuff any day!

I have a few friends that make the proper stuff on their farms. Had several bad heads...

Gareth

You could have a 'Snakebite', 50/50 cider and lager, with a bit of cordial. Favorite of chavs everywhere.

Haha...chavs... I wish I lived in a cold climate so I'd be able to make some applejack. I've been a big fan of hard cider since I first tried it in the Asturias region of Spain. There they have cider houses where they serve wonderful home-made cider. One glass is given to the entire table and passed from person to person. Pouring is an elaborate over-the-shoulder affair and the farther away from the glass you can get the better. You leave a little on the bottom and swirl it (to clean the glass) pour it on the floor (which is covered in sawdust...for obvious reasons) and pass it along. I remember walking in to most of these places... the rest is a blur!

My two favorites have to be crispin cider and strong bow cider. Strongbow and Guinness makes a damn good snakebite! The classic in my opinion.

I'm a big fan of Crispin as well as J.K Skrumpy's. Both make a great snakebite when Guinness is added!

Decided to resuscitate this thread as I am planning to make some cider at home.
I have this on the way:
https://www.amazon.de/gp/product/B07...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

and this booklet, by some considered the best book on cider making, out of print, so had to settle on a second hand one:

https://www.amazon.com/Making-Cider-...+cider+jo+deal
The booklet will take a while to come by mail from the USA so I will be experimenting initially, led by some YouTube footage.

I will be starting really small scale. I'm planning on filling a few plastic soda bottles with apple juice and let it ferment. I am really excited.
I will be starting with the natural yeasts from the apples, if that does not work I'll be harvesting some yeast from the bottom of refermented beer bottles.

I love cider over beer any day I do. Crispin and Angry orchard for my everyday. We have some cider bars here in Denver but I don't care for their Ciders as they are too much like a dry champagne. I prefer mine sweet,unfiltered and strong . I'm also a big fan of Samuel Smith's Organic Cider. Mmmmm yummy Cider !

An interesting read on yeasts, lots of resources here too. I find it interesting on how the different yeasts effect the end result, which is taste. Easy way to customize for sure.

https://www.clawhammersupply.com/blo...for-distilling

Originally Posted by Kees

Decided to resuscitate this thread as I am planning to make some cider at home.
I have this on the way
....

Much depends on the alcohol level.
Use beer yeast for the max fermentation alcohol level.
The old guys when I was a kid would line up jugs and add sugar when the apple sugar
was used up. They did this as step one to up the alcohol.

The serious stuff was deep mid winter frozen apple cider.
At about zero F enough water would freeze that the cider was then
strained through cheesecloth to get the concentrated antifreeze alcohol
enriched liquid.

Use a bubbler to keep the air out or you would have vinegar by Christmas.
Apple cider vinegar is good stuff but not if you have too much.