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Each year we like to play with at least one yeast we have not used before. This years it was 58W3. So far it seems to make a cider that is very early to drink as well as preserving a lot of appleness even though its fermented. I think this one might join our regularly used yeasts. WVMJ

I now have a freezer on a temp controller, cider now fermenting away at a cool 59F. Normally would just let it finish, rack and age for a year. But now since we have temp controller I thought we would try cold crashing. There seems to be a lot of different ways people cold crash. Should the...

http://normsfarms.com/product/dried-elderflowers/?mc_cid=5337dc38ae&mc_eid=f12e01b8b8 For you guys that want to try and elderflower cider a good source of dried elderflowers. WVMJ

Our local orchard is done selling this weekend, got a few bushes of Winesap and Goldrushes. The Winesaps have an almost peach/apricot aromas while eating them. The Goldrush acids are already starting to drop a little. I think we are going to let these guys rest in the basement a while, maybe a...

Scott Labs 2015-2016 Cider Guide was in the mailbox today, such a great guide for making cider. WVMJ

Characterization of Polyphenol Composition of 20 cultivars of cider, processing and dessert apples grown in Virginia. Dept food science and technology, VPI. by Katerine A. Thompson-Witrick. From the abstract it looks like they examined a lot of different apples for the tannins etc. Published...

There are more and more beeks joining which is very good for a mead forum. Sometimes beeks run across some stinky smelly honey. You cant blend too much of it into the stuff you are going to sell or it might give an off taste. I think a lot of beeks just let stinky honey in the hive for the bees...

Yopper had an interesting idea in her beginners cidermaking sticky that I have been thinking of trying. That is fermenting on the apple skins after they have been crushed but before pressing like in a red wine. What is your procedure for doing this? Add KM while crushing to knock down the wild...

We got ahold of some Staymans and Smokehouse apples in October and just racked them, its a deep golden perfectly clear cider with the most body we have had in one of our own ciders so far,its got as much body as a very good wine, maybe even more. It begged for an oak stave for a couple of weeks...

Dropped into the local real ciderworks this weekend, Distillery Lane Ciderworks in Jefferson MD, they had pressed Roxburry Russets, Golden Russets and a few Redfields and aromatic apples for a very complex sweet mix, so good it was hard not to just freeze it all to drink this winter. We are...

The Complete Guide to Making Mead by Steve Piatz. Got this book this week, very nice modern noboil enhance the varietal essence mead making book from a beer brewers outlook, good SOP on yeast nutrients and SNA. My only major difference with this book is that we use KM more readily but we...

Every shop seems to just carry oxygen barrier caps. Are there different grades or qualities of caps? We hope to bottle age mead for over 5 years and some ciders and dont seem to see any options for different grades of caps, if there is an option? WVMJ

Stop cooking your cider! Craft cidermakers and winemakers use potassium metabisulfite in their juice to knock down bad bugs if they are not doing a wild ferment. I know this is a beer forum and you guys are used to cooking everything to kill off the bad bugs in your wort. When you cook cider you...

As far as I know the only real cider is made from apples. I know they sell peach cider or cherry cider, if its unfermented its just peach or cherry juice, not really cider, its just a marketing ploy to get people to buy it, cider sounds so much tastier than just plain old juice. I have seen...

Just passing this along to cider makers: http://www.greatlakescider.com/glintcap2014.html

I have 7 gallons of cidermakers cider coming to room temperature in my basement. We got this cidermakers cider from a very cool ciderworks near Jefferson Maryland that grows Eurpoean cider apples and antique early American varieties. They grow those bittersweet, bittersharps, sharps and sweets...

sorry about double post

We had 3 gallons of extra crabapple cider after blending other ciders and decided to make a cyser from it. They are wild crabs, SG of just the juice is 1.052. Tastes very applely until the acid at 1.9% and tannins kick in! We used QA23 to preserve the apple flavor but man this batch is tough...

Got a scratter, it sucks big time. Our wild apples are a bit hard and crisp not soft. We dont spray but pick from the wild triees, a standard scratter just doesnt cut it. Has anyone used an apple crusher that looks like a regular grape crusher like one on MoreWine? WVMJ

Do you usually add pectinases to your milled apples before pressing or only after to the actual cider? WVMJ