[Sca-cooks] Stefan finally succeeds in making cider

[Craig Jones]

Just my 2 pennies here.  Yes, there are some good stories on cider
making with wild ferments. But for every good ending, there are ten bad
endings.

I love making home made hard cider from apple juice.  It's really easy
and a lot of fun.  I always add a good, appropriate yeast and a little
yeast nutrient and the results I get are nearly always positive (I've
had one go off, cause unknown, bad lactobacillus infection) and
repeatable.  Apple juice is not cheap, my time is always invaluable
(it's a commodity beyond value because once it's gone, it's gone for
good) and thus I try my best not to make expensive failures that have to
be poured down the sink.

My best recipe involves pasteurized apple juice, a kilo or two of honey
boiled in a little water (just enough to make a syrup), some citric and
malic acid to make the apple juice tarter (cider apple juice is tarter
than normal commercial apple juice), some cassia bark (works better than
cinnamon - a more perfumed aroma I find), the yeast and nutrient...

My household demands regular kegs of the stuff...

Drakey.  

> -----Original Message-----
> From: sca-cooks-bounces+drakey=webone.com.au at ansteorra.org
[mailto:sca-
> cooks-bounces+drakey=webone.com.au at ansteorra.org] On Behalf Of Micheal
> Sent: Wednesday, 5 January 2005 11:04 PM
> To: Cooks within the SCA
> Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Stefan finally succeeds in making cider
> 
> Greetings
>   A friend of mine a Lady Penelope, once tried to make spiced cider
for a
> revel. She bought 3 gallons of raw apple juice from a local farm. She
> placed
> a cinnamon stick onto each jug. Put the jugs into her garage and
promptly
> forgot about them until spring. She looked with worry upon them and
> decided
> what the heck lets try. Ran it through a filter to clean out the
sludge.
> Much to hers and our enjoyment she had an incredible good tasting hard
> cider
> .
>   So I have to agree sometimes you get real lucky. Some times it is
best
> just to leave it alone, and let mother nature have her way.
>  Da