HARD CIDER:

1
HARD CIDER

• What is It, and What is Needed to Produce a
  Quality Hard Cider?

2
INTRODUCTION

• Tulip Valley Vineyard Orchard
• Home of Red Barn Ciders and Lahar Wines
• Drew Zimmerman
• Cidermaker
• drewzimmer_at_comcast.net
• c206 321 9424

3
CIDER HISTORY

• Probably the first alcoholic beverage
• Romans found the Celts drinking cider made from
  local crab apples
• Special cider apples cultivated and propagated
  by monks in the middle ages
• Reached its peak during the 100 years war when
  wine could not be obtained from France
• Cider making tradition brought to the New world
  by colonists

4
CIDER TRADITION

• Became every day healthy drink
• Thomas Jefferson preferred it to wine, John Adams
  drank a pint a day for breakfast and lived to be
  91.
• Planting orchards required by Homestead Act
• Cider kept all year used as trade commodity
• Finest cider came from New Jersey, in 1810 Newark
  produced 198,000 barrels of cider.
• 1840 Wm. H. Harrison won the presidency 234 to 60
  with the Cider Campaign

5
THE DECLINE OF CIDER

• Temperance Movement started mid 1800s
• Fountain drinks, root beers and sodas became
  popular
• Cider was fortified and adulterated and gained
  reputation for causing fights and riots
• During prohibition cider orchards were destroyed
  and the word cider started being used for fresh
  juice
• After prohibition cider never regained
  popularity beer became the urban beverage of
  choice

6
WHAT CIDER ISNT(Or What It Shouldnt Be)

• Fresh juice
• Do we have wine and hard wine?
• Martinellis with a kick
• Is Merlot sweet and taste like fresh squeezed
  grapes?
• Cheap alcoholic soda pop made from concentrate,
  sugars, colorings and artificial flavorings
• Cider is not beer. Cider is not wine. It is
  something else.

7
WHAT CIDER IS(Or What It Should Be)

• A wine made by fermenting apple juice.
• A low alcohol (6-7), alternative to wine
• A low calorie, high antioxidant alternative to
  beer
• A crisp, rich and full, aromatic beverage with a
  lingering astringent finish
• A beverage more elegant than beer, more robust
  than wine

High tannin ciders Rick
Pipes, Merridale Cider
8
THE PROPERTIES OF CIDERfrom The Cider Makers
Handbook by J. M. Trowbridge, 1890

• A pure article of cider, skillfully made from
  select fruit in perfect condition, should have
  perfect limpidity and brightness, even to
  sparkling in the glass it may vary in color from
  a delicate straw to a rich amber color, more or
  less deep, but should never be a bright red, nor,
  indeed show much of a roseate tinge. It should
  be fragrant, so that when a bottle is freshly
  opened and poured into glasses an agreeable,
  fruity perfume will arise and diffuse itself
  through the apartment, with a benison on the
  giver. It should be tart, like Rhine wine, and
  by no means sharp or harsh. It should have a
  pleasant, fruity flavor, with aromatic and vinous
  blending, as if the fruit had been packed in
  flowers and spices. It should have mild
  pungency, and feel warming and grateful to the
  stomach, the glow diffusing itself gradually and
  agreeably throughout the whole system, and
  communicating itself to the spirits. It should
  have a light body or substance about like milk,
  with the same softness and smoothness, and it
  should leave in the mouth an abiding agreeable
  flavor of some considerable duration, as of rare
  fruits and flowers.

9
ISSUES AND IDEAS
Which Apples Make the Best Hard Cider?

• What ever apples you happen to have
• think about it.

10
ISSUES AND IDEAS (cont.)

• Apples for Hard Cider
• Classification Sweet, Sharp, Bittersweet,
  Bittersharp
• Most dessert and culinary apples are Sharps
• Braeburn, Gravenstein, Granny Smith, Jonagold
• Some are Sweets
• Fuji, Tsugaru, Red Golden Delicious, Gala
• Cider apples are bitter
• Vilberie, Madaille d Or, Dabinett

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ISSUES AND IDEAS (cont.)

• Fruit Type and Quality
• Use highly flavored apples
• Russets, Gourmet apples, Heirloom apples
• Blend sweet and sharp apples
• Add Bitter sweets and/or Bittersharps if you have
  them, up to 20-30.
• Add Crab apples or wildlings in small amounts.

12
ISSUES AND IDEAS (cont.)

• Cider variety trials at WSU NWREC, Mt. Vernon
• 74 varieties of cider apples, 15 varieties of
  perry pears
• Collecting assay data on juice for direct
  comparison to Long Ashton data
• Making the cider to evaluate flavor
  characteristics

Contact Gary Moulton gamoulton_at_wsu.edu or see
website http//mtvernon.wsu.edu/frt_hort/ciderapp
les.htm
13
ISSUES AND IDEAS (cont.)

• Cider Making Courses at Mt. Vernon
• Offered Spring and Fall (provided there is
  sufficient enrollment)
• Taught by cider expert Peter Mitchell,
  Worcestershire, UK
• One beginning and two alternating advanced courses

See Mt. Vernon website http//mtvernon.wsu.edu/f
rt_hort/fruit_horticulture.htm Or Mitchell FD
Limited http//www.mitchell-food-drink.co.uk/cid
er_services.shtml
14
ISSUES AND IDEAS (cont.)

• Northwest Cider Society
• Loosely organized group of cider makers and
  enthusiasts
• Outings and gatherings
• North American Cider Competition
• E-mail list

Contact John Ross johnross_at_halcyon.com include
NWCS List and your e-mail address or Drew
Zimmerman drewzimmer_at_comcast.net
15
ISSUES AND IDEAS (cont.)

• Role of the Artisan Cider Pioneer
• Make a true, natural cider product
• Strive for quality and excellence
• Everyones cider will be unique
• Create a cider drinking culture
• Educate the masses
• There is a place for cider in the U. S.Western
  Washington is the best place