Sidra recipie?

[sundog14]

I was at a beer festival recently and got a taste of sidra from one of the vendors. Very interesting and refreshing. So, of course, I would like to try to brew some. I've looked on the interweb and this this forum and haven't really come up with a recipie. I suppose that I could ask the vendor? Anyway, has anyone tried one of these? I probably won't be able to get any crab apples at this point so is there a good substitute?...cranberries?

 

[TasunkaWitko]

Sidra is simply Spanish (as in Spain, not Mexico) for cider. I am guessing that any apple on the tart side would do.

The questions are, is it alcoholic (hard) or non (soft)? Carbonated (sparkling) or not?

 

[sundog14]

Well, I've been able to find information on it's history, culture, etc.,etc. It is a tart/lemony hard cider native to Asturis or Basque regions. It is made with local apples including crab apples from what I can gather. Obviously I cannot copy their local apples and probably not get any crab apples this time of year.
What I am looking for is a basic recipe for, say, a 5 gallon batch; quantity of apples, SG of must, preferred yeasts, if any, any added ingredients, preferred fermentation and aging methods, etc.,etc........

 

[TasunkaWitko]

It sounds excellent, something I would like to try.

My guess is that any tart apple will give you a good representation. I remember doing some sort of Spanish dish using apples and I think I settled on Braeburn, but I could be wrong.

If I can find anything out, I'll let you know. I ahve a couple of friends who live and/or work in Spain, and might be able to see if they can ask their local contacts.

 

[EthanH]

Don't forget the unique traditional pouring style. This is me in Asturias 2 summers ago.

* According to my host my pouring style was terrible. You need to hold the bottle more parallel to the ground.

 

[Max_Chavez]

From what I know,in most regions it is required to be naturally fermented.

I recently made a batch that contained 2.5gal fresh local cider, plus 1.5qts of fresh pressed crab apple juice plus sidra dregs(and a bit of brett dregs, also)
We'll see how it went. Fermentation was vigorous and has dropped very clear after 2 weeks. Probably bottling thurs.

I think you really need the right apples to make it happen. A (very) few places have cider apples available at their orchards. My thought was at least some fresh apple with some bitter/tannic quality was necessary.
I would imagine you'd be able to still find some crab apples around this time of year, no?

Good luck. It's delicious!

 

[sundog14]

Thanks for the responses.
Tasunka, if your friends have some tips, I would appreciate that.
Ethan, your style looks fine to me. most photos I see of this operation, show the glass inside of a tub or large pot....
MAx, I am not bold enough to try wild fermentation....yet. What yeast, if any, did you use? I have a cyser (my first) in primary and since I like beverages dry, I used Lalvin D47. It's still fermenting so I don;t know how that worked. I have some cider coming from a grower in Michigan on Saturday, but it will probably not have much in the way of tart apples, and since it may be difficult to get crab apples right now, I was thinking of subbing cranberries.....

 

[Magnus314]

If you want that traditional sidras dry-but-not-too-dry flavor along with some residual body, use low nitrogen, low oxygen juice.

My favorite sidras are also the ones that get a bit of body from aging on the lees.

 

[Max_Chavez]

You can check out the details in the post "brett and Spanish cider split"
Sorry, it's tricky to paste a link when using the app version.
Cheers!

 

[sundog14]

Magnus, what is or how do I get "low nitrogen, low oxygen juice"
Max, I found that link. Thanks. Not sure where to get "dregs" but I'll look into this. I have always used Lalvin yeasts for my meads and cyser (only one so far) but will look into Wyeast or White Labs. It's looking like this will be a fun experiment.....

 

[Magnus314]

Here in the US it usually comes from organic orchards with older, more mature trees. you have to ask, though, because some of them use organic nitrogen sources pretty heavily.

You really just want juice from trees that haven't been "pushed" with fertilizer to produce more, faster, because some of the extra nitrogen makes it into the juice and the yeast ferment like crazy and it's tough to make it stall before it goes way below 0.998 or so and turns into something more like edwort's.

If you cool the ferment, you can get the same effect from a slow cold "crash" where the ferment goes almost to dry then the yeast goes dormant. NOT aerating the juice helps.

Beyond that, the two best ways I know to increase the body are to put it (or just let it go) through a Malo-lactic ferment, or to age it on the lees for an extended time.

Both pretty common in white wine making, so you can probably google it.

I've been able to make a decent sidras-style cider even from store bought juice, as good as the one example I've tried from Total Wine, but of course the flavor isn't the same from different apples, so it's not like a clone or anything like that.

But with the body and a touch of residual apple flavor it's still pretty good.

 

[sundog14]

Thank you to all who responded.
I'll probably be trying a batch in a few weeks........