cider-msg – 1/10/08
Apple and other ciders. Cider presses.
NOTE: See also the files: cider-art, brewing-msg, fruit-apples-msg, fruits-msg, beverages-msg, mead-msg, perry-msg, wassail-msg, brewing-msg.
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This file is a collection of various messages having a common theme that I have collected from my reading of the various computer networks. Some messages date back to 1989, some may be as recent as yesterday.
This file is part of a collection of files called Stefan's Florilegium. These files are available on the Internet at: http://www.florilegium.org
I have done a limited amount of editing. Messages having to do with separate topics were sometimes split into different files and sometimes extraneous information was removed. For instance, the message IDs were removed to save space and remove clutter.
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Thank you,
Mark S. Harris AKA: THLord Stefan li Rous
Stefan at florilegium.org
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Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Subject: mead from pears?
From: una at bregeuf.stonemarche.org (Honur Horne-Jaruk)
Date: Fri, 31 Dec 93 07:50:01 EST
Summary: Make Perry instead! instructions included.
Greetings from Alizaunde-
Good gentle, there is no need to divert thy pears into so minor a brew as
mead. Fermented pear juice becomes Perry (as fermented peach juice becomes
Peachy) and stands, along with the justly legendary ciders, as the
foundation of England's non- honey `wines'. (Our grape wines, alas, bear
little investigation. Or flavor.) With Queen Mary so involved with her
Spanish suitor, these good native drinks are out of the fashion: how-
ever, I remember somewhat of their preparation, and my scribe will send it
thee. I wish thine undertaking all good profit.
A. de B.
-And from Honour, some practical tips:
Use wine yeast for Perry, not beer yeast (around here often bread yeast)
used for mead. Like English fermented cider, Perry is usually brewed
slightly `dry'; if the fruit is bruised, it must be brewed dry- get yeast
specifically bred for that purpose- as it would otherwise turn bitter.
the riper the pears are, short of over-ripe, the sweeter the Perry you can
produce.
I've made Perry twice. The first batch taught me not to use bread
yeast (it was still drinkable, in fact I got compliments, but someone tipped
me about using wine yeast next time). I didn't have access to a cider press,
so I used a food processer and a jellybag (a cloth strainer.) General con-
census: pleasant, but too `yeasty', and oversweet.
For the second batch I used commercial canned pear juice, and a
few wild
grapes for their captive yeasts. Everyone liked it more, most much more, than
the first. It had no yeast scent at all, and noone reported a yeast taste. It
only had one fault, in fact (aside from being only a month old); the solids
I didn't strain out caused really disgusting dregs.
I was badly hampered by the fact that I'm physically allergic to
alcohol, and thus can't taste stuff to see how it's doing. You'll probably
produce far better results, even if you can't get commercial wine yeast to
work from, just because you don't have that limitation.
Good luck- Honour(please tell me how it
worked.)
From: meastman
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Subject: Warmed or mulled Cider
Date: 18 Mar 1994 16:32 CST
Organization: University of Oklahoma - University Computing Services
Keywords: Spiced Cider:
Okay, here goes. This is my first post, so bear with me.
I have a recipe for a spiced *alcoholic* cider. This drink has been
well-received from one side of Ansteorra to another. Here is the recipe:
Golden Horn, by Lady Claryce;
1 gallon Apple Cider
2 cups White Rum (regular, *not* 151)
1 cup Apple Schnapps
2 Tablespoons orange peel
1 Tablespoon lemon peel
1 Tablespoon Allspice
1 Tablespoon Cinnamon
1 Tablespoon Honey
Let sit in a refrigerator for 36 to 48 hours. (Yes, It takes 2 days to make, but
the drink really is worth the time.) Pour drink off from sediment into another
container. This drink may be served chilled (excellent for those Ansteorran
summers, where you want something cold), or served heated, where it tends to
warm you inside out. Enjoy. The only request I have is that if you change the
recipe, change the name. I've had some truly horrid renditions of Golden Horn
because someone felt their recipe is better. It may be, but *please* don't call
it by the same name!
----------------------------------------------------
Lady Claryce Rapheal Orfevre
Kingdom Chronicler of Ansteorra
From: Kel Rekuta <krekuta at tor.hookup.net>
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Subject: Re: Hard (Pear) Cider
Date: 7 Oct 1995 04:42:00 GMT
Organization: HookUp Communication Corporation, Oakville, Ontario, CANADA
> I just aquired about 15lbs of pears, and was wondering...read
> hoping... that one of you wonderful people has a recipe for Hard Cider.
> I am thinking that an apple recipe could be used for pears, but I could
> be wrong. Any information would be greatly appreciated.
>
> Thanks in advance,
> Beatrix von Dunsel Turm
>
Oh Oh! Crush those lovely soft yellow plumpies up with a like amount of
apples, preferably tart cidery ones available right about now in most
northern lands. Pitch a champagne yeast on the must. Stir it up for
maybe five to eight days at room temperatture once a day. Keep it covered
to keep out the wee beasties.
Rack it through a sterilized (boiling in water) fine cheesecloth. Rack
this again after ten days to two weeks directly into champagne or beer
bottles. Some pressure will build up over the six to twelve months you
leave it carefully alone. Pop one every month just to see how wonderful
apple perry is as it ages to subtle, bubbly and fruity deliciousness
over the next few months.
If you are feeling generous, share your good fortune with your friends.
If they like light sparkling wines, they will be further endeared to you.
Wassail!
Ceallach
Ealdormerean Old Phart
(who is about to do the above mentioned activities)
From: Catherine A Hensley <hensley at lims1.lanl.gov>
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Subject: Re: Hard cider
Date: 24 Oct 1995 22:09:29 GMT
Organization: Los Alamos National Laboratory
rettig.4 at postbox.acs.ohio-state.EDU (Steven Rettig) wrote:
>
> Is hard cider period? I had some of the bottled stuff(the brand
> name escapes me...), and it was GOOOD! If so, is there a brewer's recipe?
>
> Steven "Bear" Rettig
Absolutely. Even if it weren't documentable (it is), common sense
would insist that it is period. If you make cider and don't drink
it within, say, two weeks, it starts going hard. This is often true
even with modern mundane refrigeration (although not with sterile
bottling techniques).
Early apple-pressing methods involved crushing the apples in a
trough with a trough-wide stone or wood wheel that rolled the length
of the trough (if linear) or around the trough (if circular). I
found one mention of a horse-mill, that is, a horse was hitched to
the axle that went though the mill stone, and then walked around the
circular mill, rolling the wheel over the apples as it went. Then
the pommace (crushed apples) was shoveled into cheeses (cloth bags)
and loaded onto the pressing area. Boards were placed on top, and
then stones on top of the boards to apply pressure. The juice drained
into a channel and then into containers.
By the Elizabethan era, screw presses were in use (like hobby presses
today).
To make your own hard cider, the easy way <g>, buy a gallon jug of
pasturized cider at the store (NO preservatives, please). Now comes
a choice: add a few grains of bread yeast (NOT a whole envelope), OR
drink a bottle of bottle-fermented beer (I believe Guiness works) and
add the dreggs to your cider. The bread yeast leaves the hard cider
with a slightly bready flavor (my dad used this method when I was a
kid [something he learned in the army, I suspect]). The beer method
gives a distinctly different flavor. You might also try a slosh from
a bottle of commercial hard cider--it may well still have some yeast
in it. Now, DO NOT SEAL the bottle again. My dad used to put a
children's balloon over the open neck of the jug to keep contaminants
out and allow the fermentation's CO2 to escape. The balloon would
inflate a bit, and then the gas would escape bit by bit. I'm more
scientific about it <g> with a fermentation lock, but the balloon
idea is easy and cheap. Watch your cider for bubbles, which indicate
that fermentation is under way. With only a few grains of bread yeast,
the fermentation should never really get out of hand; if you were
impatient and added a lot of yeast, expect vigorous, frothing
fermentation that will try to escape the jug. If this happens,
transfer your cider to a big soup pot (cover with a lid, or with a
plate) for a couple of days. A week or two after fermentation begins,
start drinking. It will be sweet, carbonated, and slightly alcoholic
the first week, and more tart, carbonated, and alcoholic as time goes
on. Expect your home brew to be cloudy and taste a bit yeasty. If
you want a clear brew in capped bottles, pick up a book on beer brewing
and read up about fining and bottling.
Hope this helps.
Aithne, Anlieplic Dun, Outlands
From: eoh at raster.kodak.com (Esther Heller)
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Subject: Re: Hard cider
Date: 25 Oct 1995 21:19:51 GMT
Organization: Eastman Kodak
In article <46jj02$ebm at news.tamu.edu>, robertsk at tamu.edu writes:
>In article <v01510102acb2dac44432 at [128.146.203.222]> rettig.4 at postbox.acs.ohio-state.EDU (Steven Rettig) writes:
>>
>> Is hard cider period? I had some of the bottled stuff(the brand
>>name escapes me...), and it was GOOOD! If so, is there a brewer's recipe?
>>
>> Steven "Bear" Rettig
> Ooooh... Bottled hard cider? Where did you find it, and what was the name
>of the brand? We've been making our own, but it never turns out even close to
>the same, sometimes it will carbonate and sometimes it won't. We started out
>with plain old gallon jugs of TreeTop Apple Juice, a little brewers yeast, and
>an airlock (we used vodka in the airlock instead of the little tablets you
>crush up in case it backwashed). I'm not sure if it is period or not. We've
>also made a batch of strawberry cider, unfortunately, it was an experiment, and
>only 16oz got made. There were 4 ladies fighting over what was left in the
>bottle.
>
>Fionna
While I don't tolerate serious alcohol (1/2 glass wine or equivalent = wierd
headache in 5-10 min.) I do like "cider" (in the US generally just apple
juice) that has been left at room temperature about 3 days. It gets a bit
fizzy and has a little bite but it takes several glasses for the alcohol
content to bother me. The problem in the last 10 years is that even when
you buy from farm markets that make it on site, it has been dosed with some
fraction of a percent of sodium benzoate so it won't "spoil" (actually
ferment). I have to ask questions and am now down to 1 or 2 places in a
major retail apple growing area to get juice that will ferment anymore.
Mayhap this is your problem? I have not had trouble getting undosed fresh
not pasturized juice in a tightly closed plastic milk jug to ferment all
by itself in 3-5 days at room temp. When the jug starts to look slightly
inflated it is time to refrigerate and drink.
Esther Heller eoh at raster.kodak.com
From: ALBAN at delphi.COM
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Subject: cider, distillation
Date: 27 Oct 1995 00:27:38 -0400
Arval asks, regarding cider and common sense:
>Are there period recipes for hard cider?
the following comes from the Larousse Gastronomique
(London; Hamlyn Publishing Group 1988), which,
although i don't have its bibilography handy, is a source i
consider reasonably reliable:
Calvados: "Brandy made by distilling cider. Cider
distillation is a very old tradition in Normandy - it was
mentioned in 1553 in the diary of Gilles de Gouberville, a
gentleman of the Cotentin. The best Calvados is made
with cider that is over a year old...It is not, however, the
same as the American spirit, applejack...."
Cider: "...In France regulations were introduced under
Charlemagne, and in the 12th century cider-making
established in Normandy and Britanny, where the
climate is very favourable for growing apples...Great
Britain also produces and consumes a great range of
ciders, generally pale in colour with a higher alcohol
content than in France, where processes sch as sweetening
and reconstitution with apple concentrate are
prohibited...."
Perry: "A fermented drink made like cider but with pear
instead of apple juice. It has been made since ancient
times in western France: Normandy, Britanny, and
Maine. Sparkling perry is an inexpensive alcoholic drink
in the UK.
"The French word (poire') should not be confused with
the pear alcool blanc, referred to in full as Poire William."
yeah, i know there are no recipes listed above, but, hell,
good cider requires apple juice and yeast. how much more
of a recipe does one need? <grin>
on the legality of distillation by private individuals, in the
united states: it isn't. i looked into this a couple of years
ago, specifically asking my lawyer if it were legal for me to
distill for educational purposes (i put it that way: i wanted
to know if i could get away with distilling small batches (a
gallon or two at a time) using period techniques and
period recipes, and writing the whole thing up, for this
historical educational group i belonged to). he checked
with his ATF contact in st. louis, and the answer came
back. lo and behold, distillation by private individuals is
illegal. period. you gotta get federal licenses, and state
licenses, and periodic inspections, and so forth, and so on,
if you distill *anything* alcoholic.
brewing, however, is just fine.
alban, <hic>
From: bjm10 at cornell.edu (Bryan J. Maloney)
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Subject: Re: Hard cider
Date: 27 Oct 1995 21:25:19 GMT
Organization: Cornell University
In article <v01510102acb2dac44432 at [128.146.203.222]>,
rettig.4 at postbox.acs.ohio-state.EDU says...
>
> Is hard cider period? I had some of the bottled stuff(the brand
>name escapes me...), and it was GOOOD! If so, is there a brewer's
recipe?
This is the "most period possible" recipe for hard cider:
Get some unsulfured, unfiltered cider.
Let it sit in your basement for a while.
Let the gas escape from the containers once in a while so you don't get a
KABOOM! and a big mess.
Sample with trepidation.
If you're lucky, you'll get ambrosia.
If you're not lucky, but not unlucky, you'll get vinegar.
If you're unlucky, you'll get food poisoning.
I don't make hard cider like this, myself.
Here is a "much less period, but far more controlled" recipe for hard
cider.
You will need:
Cider, 5 or 5.5 gallons. Get sulfured, unfiltered cider or unsulfured,
unfiltered cider.
1 Primary Fermenter with Air Lock
55 or so 12-oz brown long-neck beer bottles, clean and sterile.
55 bottle caps, also clean and sterile
Bottle Capper
Racking Tube
Carboy or Lauter Tub
Instructions:
Prime some non-attenuating ale yeast with a half cup of cider in a
sterile glass container until bubbles start to appear.
Pour all cider into your sterile fermenter. If cider is unsulfured, add
a campden tablet or two.
Pitch (pour) primed yeast into fermenter and seal. Put fermenter in
appropriate environment for ale yeast (dark, around 50 degrees F) with an
airlock on top, of course.
Monitor daily. When fermentation has stopped "rocking", rack into a
carboy or into your lauter tub (if you don't own a carboy). If you don't
own a carboy, quickly wash and sterilize your fermenter, then rack
"green" cider back into fermenter.
Allow to settle in the dark and cool (conditions as for fermenting) for a
couple days.
If you want a "still cider", bottl and age a few months in a dry, cool
basement. If you want a "sparkling cider", I prefer to "bottle
kraeusen".
If you want to bottle kraeusen, rack your cider into a sterile container
(fermenter or lauter tub), take that extra half-gallon of cider and prime
with a bit of fresh yeast. Add this to the fermented cider and bottle.
Age as above.
If you want a dry cider, use an attenuating yeast. I'm a sweet-tooth,
myself.
From: bjm10 at cornell.edu (Bryan J. Maloney)
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Subject: Re: Mulled cider recipe needed
Date: Fri, 08 Mar 1996 11:58:09 -0400
Organization: Cornell University
In article <4hnsjo$6j9 at news-e2b.gnn.com>, magary at gnn.com (Al Magary) wrote:
Historically Accurate Mulled Cider:
Take a great honking pot of cider.
Add whatever spices you could afford.
Heat to JUST ABOVE body temperature and hold there for about 15 minutes
(no longer, as the spice's essential oils would then evaporate and be
gone). Do not boil, do not head to scalding temperatures. It should be
just above normal body temperature, so as to infuse the essences and
aromas into the drinker's sensory array without burning the mouth.
Far too many people overheat their mulled cider, thus ruining it. The
only time that truly "hot" cider is good is when you're still outside and
still freezing. Once you're in a warm room, you don't want it to be
actually "hot", but at just above body temperature.
You don't need a thermometer to measure this, by the way--you've got a
finger and you've got a mouth. Sip a little from a spoon WITHOUT waiting
for it to cool. If it scalds you, it's too hot.
From: psobaka at mail.myriad.net (harry billings)
To: ansteorra at eden.com
Date: Thu, 17 Oct 1996 07:56:19 -0500
Subject: Re: apple presses
>Pug said:
>>Hopefully this time next year I'll have a press to make my own ciders
>>instead of having to buy it.
>
>Are you going to be making or buying this press?
>
>I can remember trying to use a blender to get the juice out of the
>apples. I ended up having to add so much water to make this work at
>all that what I got out was way too diluted.
>
>Stefan li Rous
If you are going to press apples for juice you have to pulp them first or
you will just break your press and/or not get much juice from them.
Plachoya Sobaka a most insignificant archer in Ravens Fort