Archive for October, 2008

29
Oct

10 Minute Hard Cider Recipe

   Posted by: admin   in Cider Recipes

10 Minute Hard Cider

What’s so cool about this hard cider recipe?

I have made this hard cider recipe a couple of times with great results. Every other Saturday night it is a bit of a tradition in our house to have some friends around for drinks or maybe dinner. These evenings have tended to vary in style from a formal dinner party to a BBQ to a somewhat inebriated evening where we will play silly games. The type of evening depending to a large extent upon the type of people we have invited and what we think they will enjoy. One particular Saturday I found myself responsible for organizing the drinks for the evening’s entertainment. This particular evening was to be a ‘come around for chat, drinks and snacks’ evening. We call this ‘the quiet Sunday after evening’, I’m sure you get the idea. Now I had a selection of beer and wine, the usual staples, but wanted to do something to make the evening different. I had some hard cider bubbling, brewing away nicely but it was at least a month away from being ready to drink. What to do?

It is not unheard of for us to play tricks on our guests and with that in mind I formed a plan.

A quick trip to the store and a raid of our cold room produced the ingredients I needed. I put a few cartons of apple juice into a large mixing container, added an assortment of spirits including Vodka and Rum, Cinnamon sticks, Honey and fruit and adjusted for taste. I then poured the concoction into a keg style barrel so that I would be able to serve the result as a draft beverage without anyone being able to see the mix before it hit their glass.

As our guests arrived I offered them a drink asking if they would like to try my latest brew. The typical response, especially from the guys was, “err, got a regular beer?” “Sure” I would say, “would you mind just trying a small sample of this hard cider and tell me what you think?” I then proceeded to pour a small, very small, tumbler of the mix. The one consistent reaction to the sample was a kind of eye rolling accompanied with an intake of breath. “More?” I would ask innocently reaching for a larger glass.

I feel no guilt whatsoever, probably because I have never admitted the true nature of this concoction before. Maybe I am simply an immoral person but I have created a whole mystic around my cider making abilities, embroidering the nature of this particular brew with comments such as “yep, that brew took me eleven months to ferment. It’s a secret recipe handed down through my family for at least three generations, I’m glad you liked it.”

This really is a 10 minute process from start to finish. Essentially it is actually a kind of fruit punch though it still has all the apparent attributes of a home brewed hard cider. I’m sure lot of hard cider enthusiast (read snobs), are rolling their eyes in dismay upon reading this far.

There was a scientific experiment conducted upon wine connoisseurs, where, with the usual double blind process, these experts were consistently fooled by white which was wine colored red. The experiment demonstrated that our vision will overpower other senses in deciding what is real. I think one of the keys to making this drink work so successfully was dispensing the liquid from a barrel as one would a draft beer.

Here is the specific recipe I used on that first evening, though I have to say the fun in this particular recipe is experimenting and making your own mix, adjusting to individual taste as you go. Also I would never suggest that anyone mislead others as I have unless you all share a good and strong sense of humor!

What is the essence of the recipe?

Yep, this really is a 10 minute, start to finish job. Normally apples are fermented to produce the alcohol however it this case the alcohol is added separately short circuiting the process. It is really better described as a fruit punch, however as it is made of apple juice and has alcohol in it can be referred to as hard cider. Take apple juice, add a spirit or two, maybe fruit and cinnamon and away you go. Great recipe for parties!

Ingredients

1 gallon apple juice

1 bottle of Vodka (750ml)

4 – 8 tbsps clear honey (according to taste)

Directions Nothing too strenuous here

Mix it up and chill

 

Considerations and variations

Real brewed hard cider is usually cloudy so using apple juice with pulp will add an air of authenticity. Any spirits will work, Port, Rum, Spiced Rum, Schnapps and Goldschläger can be particularly good. Avoid Gin as its distinctive aroma is a bit of a giveaway. Use the alternatives or additions to honey below to obscure the taste of stronger flavored spirits.

Try alternatives to honey to create your own unique result. Add cinnamon, cloves and or ginger. Add real fruit, liquidized fruit and or small proportions of other fruit juices. Use pear juice as an alternative to apple juice.

Keep quantities proportional, 10% – 20% spirit to apple juice works best. Typically one bottle of spirit per gallon of juice is about right. Add other ingredients to taste.

Use a brewing keg available for just $10-$15 to dispense. Appearance is everything, if you dispense from one of these your guests will not question your brews pedigree.

Lastly drop a few cubes of previously frozen apple juice into mix to keep the brew chilled all evening.

Gluten Free?

Hard Cider is a great long drink for Celiacs because it is made from apples which contain no gluten. This recipe can be made gluten free simply by being careful regarding which spirits are added. Here are some suggestions. It should be noted that because manufacturers can change their ingredients without notice care should be taken to check individually before use. As a guideline the following spirits are usually gluten free.

Potato Vodka, Rum, Sake, Ouzo, Grappa, Cognac, Brandy, Tequila

Vodka is usually made with grain but there are quite a few brands that make the potato version. Potato Vodka usually has a smoother taste, try it!

Rum is usually made with Sugar Cane

Sake is made from rice, though barley can sometimes be added to aid the fermentation process usually in the cheaper brands. Always check with the manufacturer.

Ouzo is made with Aniseed and often Fennel seed and other similar aromatic plants.

Cognac and Grappa are usually made from grapes.

Brandy is usually made from pears, raspberries, cherries, and other fruits.

Tequila usually made from the blue agave plant but again there are some cheaper brands where other products are used.

 

Some good links for more information regarding Gluten free spirits

The Gluten free Kitchen

http://gfkitchen.server101.com/GFAlcohol.htm#Tequila

Celiac.com

http://www.celiac.com/articles/222/1/Gluten-Free-Alcoholic-Beverages/Page1.html

 

 

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23
Oct

Why Make Hard Cider?

   Posted by: admin   in Make Hard Cider Easy

Why indeed, I’m a beer lover and so is my wife, so why on earth would we want to make hard cider? The reasons we discovered the secret art of cider making has to do with religion, and wheat.

It was many years ago when I first introduced my wife to real ale. It was a hot sunny day in the south of England; we had just spent a few hours hiking in the rolling hills of Hampshire. On our way home we did what most English people do, we stopped at a pub. English country pubs have a unique atmosphere that is at once sociable and calming. Not the sports bar environment so prevalent in the U.S. but more of a cross between a Starbucks and someone’s front room.

As we entered the pub we were greeted by a pleasant beer and hop smell, we were hot, pleasantly exercised and ready to relax. I watched as the barmen poured my pint of chilled real ale. This was not I should point out, cryogenically frozen to minus eight million degrees below zero and irradiated to remove all traces of life, it was not so to speak "American beer". As the amber nectar flowed gurgling into the glass my wife hesitated, clearly she could order her usual glass of white wine but somehow this just didn’t seem to fit the occasion, she needed a long drink.

"Go on, have a pint", I prompted. She hesitated not having really enjoyed it the last time she had what she considered "a beer" some time ago, actually it was a lager. I handed her my pint; she held it studying it dubiously. Both I and the barman stared at her, wondering what was going to happen next. In fact the whole pub went very quiet; everyone seemed to hold their collective breaths. English pubs really are that intimate. An older couple, sitting at a big wooden bench, their dog lying by their feet nodded in our direction. The dog’s ears pricked up noticing a change in the room.

The ale was crystal clear and was just beginning to develop a little frosting from the humidity as it hung in the air. As she put it to her lips I could see it was her intention to sip it as one would a glass of wine, then it happened.

Once the first mouthful washed in and down, her eyes widened and there was simply no stopping the rush. Within three seconds the pint was gone and with a sigh she put the now empty glass back onto the bar. Without so much as a pause the barman inquired "another"? "Yes", she nodded; the rest so to speak, is history.

I should explain, English real ale is flat, as in not carbonated. That is one of the reasons it is called ‘real’ ale, it is brewed in a similar way to how it was brewed hundreds of years ago, long before the time of carbon dioxide pressure systems. It is also non-pasteurized, it is a living drink. You cannot buy this stuff in cans or bottles. The evil elixirs they put in these containers are in no way equivalent to the real thing, not even close. This is why she was able to down the pint with such ease, no gas and no brain freeze!

In recent years much has changed with our personal circumstances. We have relocated to Utah in the U.S. and my wife has discovered that she is allergic to Gluten. She has plenty of company as a sufferer of this malady, it is estimated that around 1 in 133 Americans suffer from Celiac Disease (Gluten intolerance).

So here we are in LDS land, Utah! Utah’s unique licensing laws and gluten intolerance combine to make most beers undrinkable. What’s a girl to do? The answer my wife discovered is to make cider! Or more accurately, make hard cider.

Before I get into this I should point out that it is possible (technically) to purchase gluten free beer, and if you are the kind of person who will drink anything as long as the word beer is printed on the bottle and someone else is paying the inflated prices to boot I suggest you go ahead. For the rest of us, gluten free beer is a non-starter.

So, what’s so good about making and drinking hard cider? For starters, it’s easy and has no gluten. This is because it’s just apples. So what ingredients do you need to make cider? Get your pen out, find a large clean sheet of paper, at the top write carefully "INGREDIENTS NEEDED TO MAKE HARD CIDER" and under it write "Apples" and you are done!

There are other sound reasons it is a good idea to make hard cider. First hard cider tastes good, second is that hard cider tastes very good. Third, it can be made sweet or dry, strong or mild. So when I say it tastes good I mean it because you can make hard cider to your taste! For those people who prefer not to be able to stand up at the end of an evening 10%+ alcohol content is easy to achieve, for the less adventurous, a mild and warming 3% is probably the most appropriate and just happens to be quickest and easiest hard cider to produce. For those that have a sweet tooth, no problem, on the other hand if you like a dryer tangy flavor this is easy to achieve too.

Hard cider can also be made flat, just like real ale, it can be naturally bubblefied or it can be artificially carbonated. The only limit to the variations in the taste of your hard cider is your imagination. You can blend different types of apples together; this alone produces surprisingly different results. You can blend different juices together anything from pear, to lemon to orange. You can add honey, cinnamon, spices or raisins to your hard cider brew to get really unique and sophisticated results.

You can use store bought apple juice, press your own apples with an apple press, learn the process and buy your own fermenting equipment or if you are just starting, a good way to make the process easy is to use a complete hard cider kit.

Another great reason it’s a good idea to make and drink hard cider is it’s made from apples! Apples are good for you. It is thought that apples may protect against Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases. Apples have no fat, cholesterol or sodium, but they contain potassium. Many studies associate heart health and decreased blood pressure with apple consumption in part thanks to the potassium. Also low potassium is thought to cause muscle cramps, so hard cider can assist there too.

Bottom line, you really can say "I’m just taking my daily medicine"!

For all these reasons this web site is dedicated not just to the art of making hard cider but to make hard cider easy!

Make Hard Cider EasyDiscover the secret art of cider making. Packed with tips, tricks and expert advice this is an essential guide that could help you turn your hobby into a thriving business in one of the fastest growing segments of the beverage industry. Want an advantage in a down economy? Get your copy today!

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