I am a beer brewer and have slowly been getting into cider over the last couple of years using my beer brewing knowledge. Hence, all of the crappy cider I made at first. It wasn't until I took a break, knowing I was barking up the wrong tree with juice concentrates. I have done some reading and am trying to imagine what a "real" cider ought to be. A lot of people know this website: http://cider.org.uk a real eyeopener!
Traditional cider is not just fermenting some juice. Or is it?
Keeving (in English) and Defecation (in French) using real apples is not complicated, but is akin to mashing in beer. And, it makes cider actually become a store-able stable food stuff without chemicals or pasteurization. 200 years ago without campden tabs or starsan, how would you make a drinkable one year old product? The answer is they allowed all comers in terms of micro-flora and manipulated the growing medium to favor yeasts first and bacteria second. You want an apple with a lot of acid because it is a malo-lactic fermentation in the end that makes the cider good and provides carbonation in the bottle, unlike the priming sugar thing we do in beer and modern American home-brew cider. The whole process takes a year!
Now, I try to make some nice juice and add in crab-apples for tannin. I don't sulphite hoping to let some of the wild stuff affect my cider and immediately pitch something like 71B, Safale 04, or US Chico 1056/ US05. I keg and force carbonate in the end- one month tops. I have yet to do an intentional Keeve (spelling verb?); however, one of my ciders split (Pectin on top and debris/ yeast on the bottom) on its own after cold crashing the yeast.
Here are my questions:
1) Did American settlers assisted by Johnny Appleseed engage in keeving their ciders? I am sure some did, being immigrants from the old world, but I am suspicious that the whole of American cider culture did? If they didn't, they must have fermented warm and fast (relative to English/ French cider) like we do with beer, for two weeks or so. They would have racked off and stored a dry cider? Was American cider more like a 6% abv wine then? If so, it would only be the acid and lack of O2 keeping spoilage at bay. (I am speaking generally, obviously a lot of it turned to vinegar or busted the secondary barrels).
2) Is this kind of cider is much more like the idea of a Scrumpy? Are there two types of Scrumpy? (a) The nostalgic, to be proud of type at ~6% abv made of nothing but apple, wild or wild and cultured wine yeast pitched immediately to cloudy un-keeved juice. (b)And the modern commercial kind that is really just dry booze chaptolized with sugar, then back-sweetened and sulphited.
Can anyone from Europe set me strait about what a "real skrumpy" is? Does anyone know how American ciders were made in the 18th and 19th centuries the way we know about Cream Ales, Steam Beers, and Pre-Prohibition Pilsners?
Traditional cider is not just fermenting some juice. Or is it?
Keeving (in English) and Defecation (in French) using real apples is not complicated, but is akin to mashing in beer. And, it makes cider actually become a store-able stable food stuff without chemicals or pasteurization. 200 years ago without campden tabs or starsan, how would you make a drinkable one year old product? The answer is they allowed all comers in terms of micro-flora and manipulated the growing medium to favor yeasts first and bacteria second. You want an apple with a lot of acid because it is a malo-lactic fermentation in the end that makes the cider good and provides carbonation in the bottle, unlike the priming sugar thing we do in beer and modern American home-brew cider. The whole process takes a year!
Now, I try to make some nice juice and add in crab-apples for tannin. I don't sulphite hoping to let some of the wild stuff affect my cider and immediately pitch something like 71B, Safale 04, or US Chico 1056/ US05. I keg and force carbonate in the end- one month tops. I have yet to do an intentional Keeve (spelling verb?); however, one of my ciders split (Pectin on top and debris/ yeast on the bottom) on its own after cold crashing the yeast.
Here are my questions:
1) Did American settlers assisted by Johnny Appleseed engage in keeving their ciders? I am sure some did, being immigrants from the old world, but I am suspicious that the whole of American cider culture did? If they didn't, they must have fermented warm and fast (relative to English/ French cider) like we do with beer, for two weeks or so. They would have racked off and stored a dry cider? Was American cider more like a 6% abv wine then? If so, it would only be the acid and lack of O2 keeping spoilage at bay. (I am speaking generally, obviously a lot of it turned to vinegar or busted the secondary barrels).
2) Is this kind of cider is much more like the idea of a Scrumpy? Are there two types of Scrumpy? (a) The nostalgic, to be proud of type at ~6% abv made of nothing but apple, wild or wild and cultured wine yeast pitched immediately to cloudy un-keeved juice. (b)And the modern commercial kind that is really just dry booze chaptolized with sugar, then back-sweetened and sulphited.
Can anyone from Europe set me strait about what a "real skrumpy" is? Does anyone know how American ciders were made in the 18th and 19th centuries the way we know about Cream Ales, Steam Beers, and Pre-Prohibition Pilsners?