Mostly Not About Beer

One of the fun things about homebrewing is that if you stay in it long enough, your home brewing friends start to upgrade their gear or leave the hobby and many of the things you spent money on early on start being offered to to you for free. This is how I found myself with a plethora of fermenters. A couple of them I have never even used until recently.
When the guys at the meadery next door to the brewery where I currently work mentioned they were about to make a hard cider with the 600 gallons of frozen cider that had just been delivered I mentioned I had always wanted to make a cider. They offered to give me some of their cider so I could do my little experiment and I jumped at the chance. Fast forward 3 days (because that’s how long it took to defrost the 600 gallon blocks of cider), and I had in my hands a bucket with 3 or 4 gallons of Newtown Pippin apple cider. They even gave me the organic yeast nutrient I would need.
Now, at this point, it is worth taking a moment to review what goes into the process of making beer.
Farmers grow the grain, it goes through a fairly precise and controlled process of malting involving allowing the grain to sprout, then halting the growth of the grain, removing the acrospire (the little root let that starts growing), then kilning the grain to achieve a specific level of caramelisation to impart sweetness, roasted flavors, or just a nice, crisp malt character.
While all of that is going on, different farmers are growing hops. These are harvested, dried in a kiln, pelletized, packaged in vacuum sealed bags, and shipped to breweries across the world.
When brewers get the grain, we then grind it to access the carbohydrates stored in the kernel. Then we add warm water to activate the enzymes in the grains so they will convert the starches in the grain in to sugars which then dissolve into the water which is now called wort.
The wort is transferred into a kettle where it is boiled and combined with hops at specific times to extract either bitternessto balance the sweetness from the grain or flavors to ad depth and interest. After boiling, the wort is cooled and transferred into a fermenter and yeast is added. After the yeast has converted the sugars into alcohol, the beer is packaged and is ready to drink.
So, with that process in mind, I approached the process of making a hard cider with some trepidation as I was expecting a new, similarly involved and controlled process that I would have to learn. Imagine my surprise when I learned that there was no mash, no boil, no nothing. The entire process of making a hard cider is: Grow some apples, harvest them, crush them, put the juice in a clean fermenter and add yeast. Add half of the yeast nutrient the next day and the other half the day after that. Wait about 2-3 weeks until the yeast does its job. Package. Done.
“That’s it??!?!?”
“Well, you can add some other fruit or flavors after fermentation if you want, but yeah, that’s it.”
“And you charge $20 for 12 oz?”
”Yes.”
Facepalm.
In any case, I followed the directions I was given, used one of my “excess” fermenters, added some saison yeast harvested from a beer I had made, added the proscribed nutrient at the specified time, and 3 weeks later I had hard cider. It was SUPER dry and didn’t taste of much, so I decided to add 7 pints of blackberries which I boiled to make a compote. That sat for 2 weeks, then it was bottled and allowed to condition for 2 weeks. I bottled 2 magnums for Christmas, one to be given to my nephew who can’t drink beer because of gluten, and one to serve at Christmas dinner. The rest I put in 16 oz bottles.
Now, I’ve got about 10 bottles left and based on the positive feedback I’ve gotten both at work and from family, I’m debating entering it in some competitions. And given that the process is the same for mead, I’m planning to buy some honey at the farmers’ market to try my hand at that particular beverage. Especially since mead sells for even more than cider.
Of course, if I open a brewery, I won’t be able to make cider or mead there without getting an additional license because fun with laws … who knows, maybe that will be “Phase 2”.