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What's With All The Apples?

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Zuljin

I come from the water
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Reds. Johnny Appleseed. I think there's another new one. Woodchuck has been around for years. Apple beverages are being marketed like crazy right now.
 
A friend of mine who just started brewing stated he started because he wanted to make a hard cider like he got at a bar(probably Woodchuck)

I live me some Apfelwein.
 
Yep. Its all in what they decide people want now. They have ridden the lemonade malt drink wagon into the ground. Shandy has been made a year round drink and now they are saying why not hard ciders? They are sweet and can pack a punch.

I agree on the Apfelwein. Good stuff. Not sweet enough for the masses though.
 
The North American market is waking up to cider as a drink. So just like with craft beer, the big boys are jumping on it to avoid giving up any market share.


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I think it has to do with everything being advertised as "Gluten Free!!!!" these days. (BTW, I have a good friend and an aunt who have full-blown Celiac, so I'm not insensitive to the issue.) Beer and all the malt-based alcopop drinks come from gluten-having grain, so this is part of that bandwagon.
 
From wikipedia:

By the 18th century apple cider was a staple at every family table-in one of his letters to his wife Abigail, John Adams complained explicitly about the quality of Philadelphia alcohols and being homesick for her cider. Ciderkin, a slightly alcoholic beverage made from cider pomace, could also be found on colonial tables, and was often served for breakfast. The taste for hard cider continued into the 19th century in pockets of the East Coast, but with the double blow of immigration from Eastern Europe, where lager beer is the traditional staple, and the later advent of Prohibition hard cider manufacturing collapsed and did not recover after the ban on alcohol was lifted. It is only in recent years that interest has been renewed in hard cider.

In current U.S. usage the term can be used for both fresh-pressed juice and fermented productsApple juice, meanwhile, refers to a clear, filtered, pasteurized apple product.

For instance, in Pennsylvania, apple cider is legally defined as an "amber golden, opaque, unfermented, entirely nonalcoholic juice squeezed from apples". Imitation "cider" products may contain natural or artificial flavours or colours generally recognized as safe, provided their presence is declared on the label by the use of the word "imitation" in type at least one-half the size of the type used to declare the flavour. Cider containing more than 0.15 percent alcohol by volume is classified as hard cider.

Cider may rarely refer to sparkling apple juice, which is often filtered, such as Martinelli's sparkling apple cider, once touted specifically as "non-alcoholic cider", a leftover appellation from the Prohibition Era. Martinelli's is sold as "cider" or "juice" depending on regional usage.

Due to tax legislation in the US, a cider becomes classified as a fruit wine when sugar or extra fruit is added and a secondary fermentation increases the strength.


Regards, GF.
 
Smith and Forge billboard this spring in Lansing while attending a Music and Microbrews festival. Intrigued, I looked it up. MillerCoors.

The describe it as a less sweet alternative to the other ciders out there, and they make is sound a bit more traditional. I'm curious enough to taste one if I can ever find it around here in singles.
 
A lady at the grocery store was offering tastes of that Smith and Forge stuff. I thought it was very sweet and cloying. Got home and saw a commercial that said "Not too sweet." Are they kidding?
 
Reds. Johnny Appleseed. I think there's another new one. Woodchuck has been around for years. Apple beverages are being marketed like crazy right now.

Apples are the second most produced fruit in the world, just behind tomatoes. Probably more than 50% of them are just left to fall to the ground and rot, so we might as well use them for something.
 
Apple-beers and sweet ciders are the new chick-drinks. Goodbye Mike's Hard and raspberry-kiwi-tini-Smirnoff-malt-beverage.

I love a good cider, but most the the commercial stuff is a joke. Way too sweet.
 
Smith and Forge billboard this spring in Lansing while attending a Music and Microbrews festival. Intrigued, I looked it up. MillerCoors.

The describe it as a less sweet alternative to the other ciders out there, and they make is sound a bit more traditional. I'm curious enough to taste one if I can ever find it around here in singles.

I'm thinking a build my own six pack of ciders now.

Apples are the second most produced fruit in the world, just behind tomatoes. Probably more than 50% of them are just left to fall to the ground and rot, so we might as well use them for something.

And that something may as well be booze! :tank:

Because it tastes so good with a shot if Fireball in it!

Speaking of chick drinks... that I will try :D
 
It's reallllly good with the Angry Orchards Cinnful Cider, if you can find it. That's one of their seasonal ciders. I did see some at BevMo yesterday though. A shot of Fireball in a wine glass, pour in the cider, repeat til you can't remember your name. :ban:

Or, just take a few shots of Fireball and chase it with a nice dry cider...

I recently made a mead and added some crushed cinnamon hard candies. There is a small amount of cinnamon flavor in the sample I took (The bottom of the carboy is redder than the top, which makes me think the cinnamon flavor is all at the bottom...)

I might try adding some fireball to the next batch!
 
Some of the ciders are good. SWMBO likes them, and I've been known to steal a bottle from her.

What I don't like is all of the weird mixes they do. I don't want an elderflower/pomegranate/lilac infused cider.


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Drank an Angry Orchard a yesterday. Great apple flavor. A bit sweet, even to me and I like sweet. I'd drink it again.

Speaking of elder something. I had Magic Hat Elder Betty last night. Sweet. Tart. Sort of grape tasting. It was good.
 
Most commercial ciders are too sweet for me. Angry Orchard has one labeled "Crisp." In my mind crisp means dry. In their mind, crisp must mean cloying.

Sorry, but I'm not into drinking apple flavored sugar cubes. So I'll stick to drinking my own.
 
Yeah they are all pretty sweet. I don't mind them that much, but I too prefer a little less sweet. Get gut rot otherwise.

I've had a few smith and forge. Tasty, but sweet.

My favorite seems to be strongbow. It's been a while sense I last had one, but I remember it being a lot drier than a woodchuck or smith and forge.

Has anyone tried Stella cidre? I jus can't get myself to pick a sixer up of it


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What I don't like is all of the weird mixes they do. I don't want an elderflower/pomegranate/lilac infused cider.

Yeah. It sounds just a weird to me when people put spices into cider. It's an alcoholic drink, damnit, not a dessert.
 
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