Fred on Cider
Fred Buhl
OK, I asked you all to submit some articles for the newsletter. Did you listen? Only George P, Ken and Dave did. Anyway, Fred made the mistake of passing a disk containing some old Hogtown Brewers stuff to me when he drafted me to be president he tried to make it seem like it wasnšt his idea, he called it a coup, for christ sakes. So, I was looking through the files on that disk the other night and found this piece on cider that he had written way back when (the file date was June 1995 if youšre interested). So let this be a warning to all of you, if you donšt start writing some pieces for the newsletter, Išll be forced to find stuff wherever I can. And by the way, note the first sentence -- the more things change, the more they stay the same. --Mark
Yeah, we've printed this twice before. So what? None of us can remember a damn thing anyway... --Bradley
Bradley asked me to write several hundred words for the newsletter (y'know -- filler). So here goes...
Today's topic is CIDER. Only in America is plain ol' apple juice called cider -- everywhere else cider means what we call HARD CIDER -- fermented apple juice, basically. It was a popular American drink a coupla centuries ago. Heck, a recent beer mag practically claimed all the Founding Fathers were continually drunk on the stuff -- probably caused the American Revolution ("Hey guys!" Ben Franklin shouted drunkenly, "Let's go to war with the England, the most powerful nation on earth, over this TAX thing!" "Great Idea!" the other toasted patriots slurred, spilling their tankards all over their breeches, or something.) Anyway, I've made a few batches of cider lately, and people seem to like them. The coolest thing about ciders is that they can be real freakin' EZ to make, as long as you're not a purist or anything.
Since I'm far from pure, I make cider from (yes) apple juice CONCENTRATE. Look, we're in FLORIDA, OK? Apples don't exactly grow on TREES around here. I don't own a cider press, and I'm very sure that superior cider is made from nice fresh apples, but gimme a break -- it's no worse than using malt extract, OK? I use concentrate instead of regular store-bought apple juice because most juices have preservatives that would kill the yeast (that, and concentrate is cheaper). I will admit to one purist thingie -- I don't put corn sugar in my cider, though most commercial examples do. Corn sugar is only fit for priming, if that.
Anyway, here's the recipe for the first cider I ever made -- all the others have been minor variations on this theme:
Fred's Tart Dry-Ass Cider (8/13/94)
18 cans Old Orchard Apple Juice concentrate (from Publix) 2 tbl yeast nutrient Water to 5 gallons Redstar Pasteur Champagne Yeast
[Yes, the chick at the register will look at you funny when you come through the line with 18 cans of apple juice concentrate -- just stare at her with a mad look in your eye and say stuff like, "I'm thirsty, man, I'm REAL thirsty!"] Each can of Old Orchard concentrate makes 1 1/2 quarts, so this is 6 3/4 gallons worth of concentrate in a five gallon batch -- so it's still a bit concentrated. This has the effect of upping the flavor and the alcohol a bit. I used Champagne yeast, which left it dry -- too dry for some people, but I sure liked it.
Anyway, the preparation was a snap:
1. Put 1 1/2 gallons of water and the yeast nutrient to boil for 15 min.
2. Turn off the heat, start opening cans. Plop them into the water carefully so they don't splash. It'll start cooling down immediately, of course.
3. Once you have them in, turn the heat back on and PASTEURIZE it -- get it up to about 180 degrees for 30 minutes (that's a tad on the super-safe side, but if you've heard about the contamination problems I've been having, you understand). Don't boil it, ya don't need to, and I figure it can't help the flavor any.
4. Chill it down and pitch the yeast.
It'll take about a week to ferment. You won't need a blowoff tube -- not enough protein to matter. That's about it.
Variations:
Using manacles, a Great Dane and a large tub of coconut oil...oops, wrong kinda variations. Cider variations -- you can put in more apple juice concentrate, for one. I made one 5-gallon batch that used enough concentrate to make 8 gallons. I won't do it again, it was real strong and real easy to drink -- I consider it a Threat to Western Civilization.
[You may have heard of "Apple Jack" -- the drink, not the cereal, silly. It's kinda like Ice Cider -- ya freeze cider and take out the ice, leaving a more concentrated drink. It's Illegal As All Hell for homebrewers to make (it's like distilling, ya know). But I would point out that you can get similar results (if you're inclined) by adding more concentrate and using a high-tolerance yeast (but I don't recommend it). Another variation, "Scrumpy", is a nasty-looking cider with chunks of apple and stuff in it, apparently -- ya hafta go ta England to get it, so I'm just workin' on hearsay, here.] [Update from Bradley: I had several kinds of Scrumpy in England. No chunks, but it was cloudy and kinda sour. Like me.]
A sane cider variation is to use ale yeast, which leaves it a little less dry -- the diacetyl from the ale yeast makes it taste more apple-y too.
You can mix and match various kinds of concentrate -- the batch I made for the Medieval Faire was half Seneca Granny Smith and half Old Orchard. (Seneca also makes a bigger can that makes a half gallon of juice -- adjust the recipe accordingly.) I always carbonate my ciders -- helps bring the flavor to your nose -- but you can leave it still, too.
If you make some killer cider, be sure you bring it to a meeting -- I wanna try it. Nuff said. *f*