#2 - The first batch - Fuji

After my epiphany I quickly started doing my homework on how to make hard cider. I started where every other average person would start, google. I typed in "how to make hard cider"and clicked enter. The third link I looked up was a website dedicated to just that, how to make hard cider (howtomakehardcider.com). It had a lot information and I took my time going through it all, studying it, and taking notes. It told me the difference between cleaning and sanitizing, between fresh pressed juice and store bought, and even gave amazon links to all the equipment I needed. It took me a few days to comb through all I needed to know.

I dropped about $60 on my first bit of equipment. It wasn't all that I needed, but it was enough to get me started. My first order included 2 one gallon glass jugs, bungs, airlocks, sanatizer, and yeast. My next step was to find juice with out preservatives. I didn't want to go down the Mott's apple juice route. I wanted something alittle higher quality. My first find was pressed Fuji apple juice. I was excited. Fuji was one my favorite apples to eat. What I wished I had known was that Fuji is considered a dessert apple and juices from these apples don't always hold well. None the less, I cleaned and sanatized my equipment, filled my jug with the Fuji apple juice, and pitched my yeast (pitching the yeast refers to just pouring the yeast into the jug without shaking or stirring it into the juice).

It took it about 24 hours before it began to bubble. Granted it took me a day to discover my bung was not staying sealed into the jug. Which meant no carbon dioxide produced from the yeast eating the sugar was getting pushed through the air lock. It was escaping through the side. The problem was the sanitizer I was using. It is considered to be one of the best sanitizer for brewers, wine and cider makers. However, one of its draw backs is that it makes rubber bungs very slippery. The alternative sanitizer turned out to be vodka. I bought a small bottle of cheap vodka and soaked a new bung. After 5 minutes, I pulled it out of the vodka and dried it with a fresh paper towel. I then took the paper towel and dried the inner rim of my gallon jug. The bung now fit perfectly and firmly. No slippage.

My Fuji juice sat in primary for about 2 weeks. At this point I had bought some tubing, an auto siphon, and a bottle filler wand. After sanitizing all the equipment and my second gallon jug, I racked the juice. It had almost fermented to completely dry (very little carbonation and almost no sugar left for the yeast to eat). I was able to sample a bit. I was expecting something very bitter and dry. What I got was a little tart, a little bitter, and a little smooth. I was presently surprised that it wasn't that bad.

My cider sat in secondary for another two weeks before I bottled it. I have heard many people who have bottled and carbonated their cider naturally can sometime end up with cider bombs. Where people add too much priming sugar or leave the bottle at room temperature for too long and allows to much carbon dioxide to build up in the bottle. The bottle ends up exploding. I have never witnessed something like that so I wasn't sure how big the explosion would be, but I didn't want to chance turning my hard cider into a bomb. Instead of putting the recommended amount of priming sugar (1/2 teaspoon of priming sugar), I put 3/8 of a teaspoon. I filled the bottles and then scooped the sugar into the bottles using a 1/8 teaspoon. Immediately after the sugar touched the juice, it bubbled and overflowed. I am sure a lot of the sugar in the first scoop came fizzing over as well. I allowed the fizz to settle and placed another 2/8 teaspoon into the bottles and then sealed them with a bottlecap.

After another 2 weeks, I popped one open to check carbonation levels. It barely had any fizz. A little bummed, I capped the bottle and set it back into its container. A week later I checked another one. Same result. Very little carbonation. Bummed, again I placed a fresh cap back on the bottle. After yet another week, I popped another cap. This time is had a little bit more carbonation. I decided to cap it and place it the fridge so I could drink it later.

That evening, I popped my first bottle of cider for drinking. It was okay. It was tart and bitter with a little carbonation. It lacked flavor. One thing is did have going for it was it's aroma. As soon as you popped the cap, your nose was quickly filled with fruity aromas. It's color at this point had changed from it's pale cloudy color to darker and still cloudy apple juice color. Something you find in a bottle of mott's apple juice. I understood my first batch was probably going to turn out mediocre at best, but I was still disappointed.

My lesson learned here. Don't buy juice from a dessert apple unless you are planning to blend it with different types of apples.

#1 Pilot - Cider Making

Hello to any unfortunate soul who has stumbled upon this thing I am calling a blog. I apologize ahead of time that my proper English isn't very good. Please no grammar Nazis!  My name is Brandon and I love hard cider. It's really an addiction. I've been drinking cider for about 5-6 years now. My first experience with hard cider was actually with a fake cider. Redd's Apple Ale. Upon first sip, I absolutely fell in love with it. Not being a beer drinker this quickly became my go to when all my friends were drinking beer. I quickly progressed to Angry Orchards and Bold Rock. Soon after Richmond had it's first urban cidery open up. Blue Bee Cidery. They got their apples from Charlottesville and made their cider in Richmond. They created semi-dry cider and it was an eye opener. It was my first experience with craft cider and I couldn't believe cider could taste this way. It quickly became my drink of choice. I have had many ciders since and would drink them because I loved the way they tasted, however, I never paid much attention to the fine details of tasting notes and aromas. I just enjoyed a good tasting cider. I could drink with family and friends and enjoy what I was drinking.

A few months ago, my wife and I were on a cider/wine trip between Richmond and Charlottesville. Our last stop on our way home was Courthouse Creek Cider, a relatively new cider. It was our first time visiting them and we went in for a tasting. The woman that poured for us went into great details of each cider. She was very genuine and discussed each cider with a lot of passion. Come to find out the woman was the owners wife. She and her husband had moved to Virginia from California to open up their own cidery. As she is discussing their move and starting their business, it hit me like a ton of bricks ran my ass over. I should make my own cider! I could turn this into a business! I could open up my own cidery! It was a revelation. I was so excited, I started immediately. I did my homework, bought the necessary equipment, yeast, and juice. I am currently finishing my first batch of hard cider. I'll get into that more in later posts.

So where does this leave me now? I realized that if I was going to be a good cider maker, regardless if I was going to create my own business or not, that I needed to develop my palate. I felt like in order to describe what I had created, I needed to pull out flavor and aroma notes from my cider. My palate and sense of smell are severely underdeveloped. I know I need practice and time to develop them and I need a way to describe these flavors. With that said, this is the purpose of my blog. To share my experience as a cider maker and to review ciders in an effort to develop my palate. I feel that my blog will help me practice and document my cider experience.