This clear, concise guide covers all the steps, from building your own press to properly storing your homemade cider for year-round enjoyment. Delicious recipes, too. Focuses on the making and fermenting of hard cider. . Table of Contents Introduction A Word on Apples Cidermaking History Building the Press An Autumn Day's Cidermaking The Right Mix of Apples Washing and Preparing the Apples Milling and Crushing the Apples Pressing the Apple Pulp Fermentation Blending, Storing, and Serving Troubleshooting Drinks and Recipes Preserving Pure Apple Juice Making Cider Vinegar Appendix 1: Glossary of Terms Appendix 2: Making Perry Appendix 3: Malolactic Fermentation Appendix 4: Using the Hydrometer Appendix 5: Pasteurization and Stabilization Appendix 6: A Note on Patulin Appendix 7: Cleaning/Sterilizing Wooden Vessels Index Excerpt from page 28 Cider Fruit Cider fruit needs to be considered, however, to discover what makes a really good cider. Traditionally, such apples might very well have been eaten or used for cooking, but were often especially valued for making cider. They are most closely related to the wild crab apple, often appearing unattractively blotched or scabby, but having the characteristics in their juice that make them excellent for cider. The juice has a sweetness and acidity and a high level of tannin that imparts a bitterness and dryness in the mouth, referred to as astringency. It is these three ingredients found in real cider apples that confer a range and complexity of flavors to the cider and are at the heart of a really good cider. Depending on the balance of tannin to sweetness or acidity, cider apples are generally divided into two categories: bittersweets and bittersharps. These days, bittersweets are the preferred type of cider apples used most often commercially in Britain. Sweets and sharps are two further low-tannin categories used in describing cider fruit
