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This is all subjective, of course, but I am just about to bottle three batches of cider using the same culinary apple juice blend. However, each batch has a different level of added tannin so, I thought it worth sharing the outcome since this should also relate to ciders made from “store bought...

I have sometimes added DAP at about 0.5g (1/10 teaspoon) per gallon (5 litres) halfway through fermentation to ensure complete fermentation, or sometimes even lower SG if stalled when using S04 (a high nutrient demand yeast). Small quantities of Fermaid (repackaged into 100g packets) have...

This is a bit long, but a few weeks ago when there was some discussion about the “usefulness” of the squeeze bottle test to assess carbonation, I suggested that I had trial taking place about this and would post about it. So here it is. I normally use a test bottle and pressure gauge to monitor...

This is another lengthy "rave on" by me. I have covered much of this recently in responding to posts. However, there has been a bit of discussion and questions raised lately by newer members of HBT (welcome, by the way) in a variety of posts regarding carbonation and bottle pressure. So, I...

Hello Beer People… I am from over the fence in the HBT Cider Forum where there has been a bit of discussion on bottle priming for carbonation. There is a difference between the “rule of thumb” that is commonly used for cider, and various on-line beer priming calculators, so I wonder if anyone...

I have two relatively young apple trees (Cox's Orange Pippin and Bramley's Seedling) which started to blossom early in Autumn (Fall). They have small fruit forming and it is only a week away from the start of winter. The other trees are behaving normally with any fruit and leaves on them falling...

Is this too left field??? One of my batches last year was mostly Red Delicious, because I had a surplus of them. We had used a lot of the Red Delicious apples for pies, preserving etc, so I fermented on the left-over skins because that is where most of the tannins live. The result was markedly...

Back in February I put forward the idea that including Fuji apples in cider because of their relatively high level of sorbitol (a natural sweetener) might be a way to end up with a sweet, carbonated cider without the need for pasteurising or artificial sweeteners. This is the outline of a trial...

I thought it might be worth sharing a bit of interesting information I have stumbled across. I have posted recently about my poor apple crop and the need to buy in some juice to blend. The juice arrived and after doing the usual SG, pH, TA stuff, I noticed that the Fuji juice nutritional...

Down here in this upside part of the world, no-one seems to be carrying Cote des Blancs any more. I was able to get it a few years ago but Google and eBay searches don't turn anything up. It is getting close to the start of cider time here in Oz. Because of my failed apple crop this year, I...

I was recently reading about some high-quality ciders (that sell for $$) produced using batonnage, literally stirring with a stick. There has been a bit of traffic on the forum lately about improving flavour so I thought it might be worth throwing batonnage into the mix. It is a bit of a...

Due to adverse weather conditions last spring, most of the apple trees in our district lost their blossoms and are producing hardly any fruit. I will be lucky to have 50 assorted apples from my trees this Autumn, not even enough for a gallon of cider. In fact my Fameuse/Pomme de Neige has none...

A short time back Andrew Lea (Author of Craft Cider Making) made an observation in response to a comment from a past member of his forum who was getting back into making cider, "Yes there are still a very few of us from the old days here. But the daily traffic is not what it once was. I think...

Back in July, I posted about a problem I had with a batch of cider failing to carbonate. After some more research I think I have zeroed in on what had gone wrong and thought it worth posting the outcome for others who might strike the same problem. The short answer seems to be… Fermentation...

There have been a few recent posts about unexplained failed carbonation. I have just fallen victim to the same thing. Any thoughts as to why this can happen since I can't see any reason? This 5 litre batch started on 5 June with a mix of Pomme de Neige (Fameuse), Cox's Orange Pippin and wild...

I have scratched around and can’t really find out why beer on-line calculators appear to “understate” how much priming sugar is needed. Although, it does seem that they take into account the amount of C02 in the beer on completion of fermentation, but cider rarely gets a mention. For example...

After spending the best part of a day grinding and pressing the first cider of the year, I wondered if (cheap) technology has advanced to the point where domestic juicers are worthwhile for small batches of cider. Has anyone used a modern juicer, what are your thoughts, etc, etc? I have an old...

Things are a bit quiet in “cider land” this time of the year. However, it is getting close to “cider season” down here in Oz as we are getting a few frosts and some apples are starting to fall. I have just carried out a comparison of two popular yeasts, and just for fun I thought there might be...

Can anyone tell me if demineralised water is suitable for making up a NaoH solution for titration. It seems that distilled water has been replaced by demineralised water in supermarkets, auto stores etc as it is cheaper and quite suitable for car batteries, preventing buildup of deposits in...

Yep, I am one of the dummies, as my background certainly isn’t chemistry (and hasn’t been since High School basics many moons ago). In simple terms, titration is carried out by adding a known amount of alkali to neutralise a sample of acid (i.e. cider), then using this information to calculate...