Cidre Bouché

[SpaceInvadingMonkeys]

So I brought home some Graff this weekend for my family. It was a big hit. But my brother was wondering if I could make some of that French cider typically called cidre bouché. It is the kind you see in Champagne bottles. I know there is something different about it but I am not quite what...

Does anyone have any ideas? Or perhaps, someone has even tried making some?

 

[CvilleKevin]

Its a natural yeast ferment, done over several months at lager temps, often with keeving done beforehand to reduce the nitrogen and produce a stuck fermentation before the sugar runs out. Very similar to a farmhouse cider in the states

 

[SpaceInvadingMonkeys]

Awesome. Thanks for the info.

I will pass the information along to my brother. I might have to put my parent's basement to a good use.

Do you know of a way that a homebrewer can keeve some juice?

 

[CvilleKevin]

Everything I have read about keeving sounds like a huge PIA. But you can get something reasonably close by using cider from an "organic" orchard - ie no nitrogen fertilizer and preferably old growth standard sized trees - not the usual semi-dwarfs that are fertilized like heck for maximum production. You may have to do a bit of calling around to get the juice you want, but I'm pretty sure it will be easier than keeving. There are a couple of places that sell the keeving supplies online if you want to give it a shot tho.

If you dont keeve or cant find organic juice, it will still be similar to the bouche style, just drier, because most natural yeasts can ferment out all the sugar if they dont run out of nitrogen first.

Also, you could cheat a little and cold crash it when it gets to 1.008 or so, and then force carbonate it. I just did one that I crashed at 1.010 and it is not far off from the french style - or at least it will be once I carb it up in a keg. natural ferments are hard to keep stable tho, so I will crash this one again before kegging it.

natural ferments are a little more work because you have to be super careful with sanitation. The natural yeasts tend to start a little slow, so there is more time for other bugs to get a start. I've had pretty good success by either pressing the juice myself or showing up at the press early on press day so that the juice goes right into my carboys and doesnt sit around at all. Sanitize the heck out of everything and keep it as cool as you can. Good luck!

 

[SpaceInvadingMonkeys]

Excellent!

Thank you so much for the information! I will see what I can do!

 

[CvilleKevin]

Your question got me wondering just what was the sg of a bouché.

Seemed like a good excuse to pick up a bottle from the Beer Run. They had some of Etienne Dupont's 2007 Cidre Bouche, which is very tasty. On the label is says "All apples, predominautly (sic) Bisquet, Juretta, Avrolles, Frequin varieties are fully organic". The SG was 1.020 - not much less than JKS, but it tastes a LOT drier. The wild yeast definitely comes through, with lots of apple and a just a little bit of a brett taste in the background - overall it is very nicely balanced and carbed very strongly. I drank most of the bottle Friday, just opened the last of it and it still had a strong pop and good carb.

I like wild yeast batches crashed at 1.020, and they are not far off this, although my brewing friends keep cajoling me to go lower. So far the best one has been at 1.014. The wild batch I started a couple weeks ago got away from me - I crashed it at 1.010 and it tasted great, but I accidentally froze it halfway solid when I crashed it. I didnt have time to wait up for it to thaw so I racked it the next day, and by that time it had not only thawed, but since it was still on the cake, the ferment started right back up and took it down to 1.002, which is barely drinkable and way drier than I like.

Your brother might want to check out the Aspall organic and Samual Smith organic. Both are about the same sg as the bouches although the wild yeast taste isnt as prominent. For those, you could get close to the style by using fresh juice and an ale yeast on top of the existing wild yeast (dont pitch k-meta), so these would be easier to reproduce something close or maybe better.