Making cider from other fruits

Hey,

Just wondering if it's possible to make a drink similar to cider that uses other fruit to completely replace apples? Or does brewing that style of drink always have to be apple based?

Probably not going to find much consensus on this issue but here's my take.

Here in the US, cider is made from an apple fermentation. Pear cider also seems to be largely acceptable but is typically labeled as such.

Most other fruits fall under the category 'wine' as in 'plum wine' or 'cherry wine'. I assume that this is both due to the fruit difference and the higher alcohol content due to the naturally higher brix of these fruit. As a rule of thumb, 'cider' has comparatively less alcohol (2.5%-10%) than most wines (8%-18%).

I say ferment what you want and call it what you want

For a fruit to make a good fermented drink it has to meet a few requirements - acidity, flavour, aroma etc. Most fruit don't meet these requirements, grapes and apples are in that "goldilocks zone" where things are just right. Pears are used a lot but apart from "perry" varieties they don't have enough acidity or flavour to be used on their own - you need to add some acid to even make them safe to ferment. Sometimes, like with plums, it is traditional to ferment fruit and distill it down to a 'brandy' - that's not for this forum.

gregbathurst said:

Pears are used a lot but apart from "perry" varieties they don't have enough acidity or flavour to be used on their own - you need to add some acid to even make them safe to ferment.

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Thanks. I tried this out. Never had a drink hit me for 14 hours before.