It hasn't been until the last 15 years that cider has become more popular in the U.S. which is a bit strange because our founding fathers drank cider regularly. John Adams used to begin each day with a large mug of hard cider.
Last winter, Deeann and I brewed our first batch of beer at home, Puppy Dog Pilsner, and it turned out pretty well. She started making a batch of wine a few months ago with a friend of hers, and just started making a batch of Amber Ale. It occurred to me that I could try my hand at making my own batch of hard cider! Yay for me!
The process for making beer, cider, and wine is quite similar. They all require fruit as the source of flavor, and tis also the source of sugar for the yeast. Add yeast to your fruit juice, cover to keep impurities and unwanted bacteria from joining the party, vent it so the carbon dioxide can get out without causing an explosion, and wait for 2 weeks to 2 months for the fermentation to run its course. The amount of alcohol produced is in directly proportional to how much sugar was in the original solution. A hydrometer is a weighted glass cylinder that measures the specific gravity of a solution. Water has a specific gravity of 1.0. As sugar is dissolved into the solution the specific gravity increases and by looking at the various scales on the hydrometer you can determine how much sugar you need to have to have a particular percentage of alcohol. It's like Betty Crocker and Chemistry class rolled into one!
I am extremely fortunate that I have an apple orchard only 3 miles from my house, and they were able to squeeze me 5 gallons of apple juice that had no preservatives and was unpasteurized. This saved me a lot of time trying to squeeze all the moisture out of nearly 2 bushels of apples.
We took a trip to the cities to a brewing shop to ask a few questions and pick up a few supplies like bottles for the finished product. I would have liked to get some clay jugs so I could just hoist one up on my shoulder and have a swig when I wanted, but they didn't have any. By the way, in case you were wondering (and I know you were) the X's on the jug were put on by the local brewer (moonshiner) to indicate how many times it had been distilled and filtered. The more X's, the smoother and stronger it was.
My son, Brian helped me with the actual making of the cider, meaning he got to do all the heavy lifting and dirty work and I supervised. He will be back in town for Christmas, and hopefully by then it will be ready to be bottled and consumed. Who knows, it may become a new Christmas tradition!
The hardest part of the whole process may be deciding what to name my cider. My favorite name brand here is "Hardcore Cider" which I like on many levels, but would not feel right using. I thought about "Sippin' Cider" because I like the way it sounds, but Deeann wasn't too thrilled. The major brands in the U.K., Magners and Bulmers, are named after their owners but "Lufkin Cider" has no ring to it. The other big brand there is "Strongbow" which is named after the region, but "Minnesota Cider", "Rice County Cider", and "Northfield Cider" have no pizzazz. I've been doing a lot of reading lately, and I thought that maybe I could name it after an historical character or author. After much consideration, I chose to name my cider after the author of some remarkable books, such as "A Tale of Two Cities", "Oliver Twist", and appropriately for the season, "A Christmas Carol". Charles Dickens. I have therefore decided to name my home brew "Dickens Cider"I hope it tastes as good as it sounds.
