Galaxy Dry Hopped Funky Cider

I post pretty much every recipe I ferment, but once in a while something gets missed. I started this cider in the fall of 2013. Fermented with Champagne yeast and a couple wild yeast isolates from Colorado Springs provided by Bootleg Biology. It was the spiritual successor to my first sour  cider; this time I skipped the bacteria, because without staggered pitching or a source for complex carbohydrates they don't produce noticeable acidity.

I'll post a tasting of the plain version soon, but I wanted to get to the half I dry hopped while it was still fresh. The idea of dry hopping a cider was borrowed from Citizen The Full Nelson (with Nelson Sauvin) and Millstone Hopvine (with Cascade). While both are delicious, I selected Galaxy for it's tropical fruity aromatics. I wanted the dry hopping to compliment the apples, without completely dominating.

Galaxy Funky Cider

Appearance – Dull yellow, slight haze. The head forms nicely, but despite the hops there simply aren’t enough proteins for it to hold for more than a few seconds. Looks like an authentic farmhouse cider to me.

Smell – Apple peel and slightly tropical. Doesn’t smell of hops specifically. There is a distant earthy-dirty funk. The hops take off the edge, brighten it up, without turning it into an India Pale Cider.

Taste – Dry, dusty, and tart Granny Smith apples. The bugs give the drinking cider depth. The finish does introduce resinous hoppiness. Still fresh thanks to the hops, but with a mature backbone.

Mouthfeel – Thin, quenching. Carbonation is slightly lower than it could be, ciders often benefits from some lift.

Drinkability & Notes – If you’re looking for the hop-lover’s cider, this isn’t it. The Galaxy dry hop is more a twist than a star. Happy with the way it turned out, a pleasant blend of apples, wild yeast, and cider.

Funky Cider 2013

Recipe Specifics
-------------------
Batch Size (Gal): 5.00
Anticipated OG: 1.048
Anticipated IBU: 0.0

Fermentables
----------------
5 gallons Apple Cider

Extras
--------
2.50 tsp Pectic Enzyme
0.50 tsp Yeast Nutrient

Yeast
-----
Red Star Pasteur Champagne Yeast
Bootleg Biology "Colorado Springs" Isolates

Notes
--------
Brewed 10/6/13

Fermenting with Champagne yeast, and two "Colorado Springs" isolates from Bootleg Biology. Likely: Backyard Garden Berries BB80907A and BB80907B.

1/26/15 Bottled 2 gallons with 47 g of table sugar with a splash of rehydrated Pasteur Champagne yeast. Racked the other 3 gallons onto 2 oz of Galaxy hops in a CO2 purged 3 gallon carboy.

2/15/15 Bottled the 3 gallons of dry hopped wit 2.5 oz of table sugar and a splash of ECY Dirty Dozen.

Sour Cider Tasting

Late in 2009 I "brewed" my fourth annual batch of cider, it was fermented with hefe weizen yeast plus a variety of souring microbes from the slurry of our first barrel aged beer.  Without the unfermentables of a beer I expected a light tartness at most, with more funk (I've noticed that Brett seems to be able to do its thing without much to work with, something lactic acid bacteria are unable to do).  There is some precedence for wild and funky ciders from Spain, although I've been underwhelmed by the few Basque ciders I've sampled (regrettably I didn't get the chance to try any more while I was in Madrid/Granada/Seville last week).

Sour Cider

Appearance – Perfectly clear “cider” yellow (love that pectic enzyme). With a hard pour it is initially able to inflate a half inch head, which quickly recedes.

Smell – Some fresh tart apples, but more reminiscent of going to a pick-your-own orchard after half the apples have been knocked to the ground. There are aromas that are earthy, hay-like, yeasty, and toasty, really complex (but not wholly appetizing).

Taste – The flavor is more restrained than the nose, and only slightly tart. The apple flavor is mild, but cleaner and fresher than the aroma. There is some of that toasty/yeasty character in the finish, but it is at a level that adds complexity. The finish is dry, but not bone dry.

Mouthfeel – Prickly carbonation pierces through the light body. Certainly more carbonation than many ciders (especially the Basque version which are generally still to petillant), but not to the point of being Champagne-like

Drinkability & Notes – Worth the wait, it has really improved over its first five months in the bottle. Hopefully the aroma continue to evolve and mellow between now and the fall. I think this sour cider concept has some merit, but I would probably go with a milder strain of Brett like claussenii the next time I brew one. I might add some malto-dextrin as well to encourage the production of more acidity.

Sour Cider

After good luck with a relatively straight forward cider last year it seemed like it was time for me to give a cider with some funk a shot (I am the Mad Fermentationist, right?). Some traditional apple ciders do have a bit of a wild yeast character because they were made from unpasteurized apples (the peel of most fruit are covered in sugar loving microbes), and if it doesn't work out I'm sure I could put 5 gallons of apple cider vinegar to good use...

As always hard cider is one of the easiest things to ferment at home. Just dump the cider into a carboy, add some pectic enzyme (I've used 1/2 tsp per gallon in the past, but this time backed it down to 1/4 tsp to see if I could still get a crystal clear finished cider), and pitch the yeast about an hour or two later.



In this case though instead of a clean cider/ale/wine strain, I used some of the slurry from the Wine Barrel Flanders Red (it started out life as Wyeast Roeselare Blend and Lost Abbey Red Poppy dregs ~18 months ago, but I have no idea exactly what is in there now). When fermentation didn't appear to have started after 48 hours I decided to pitch some hefeweizen yeast left over from my Weizenbock. Hefeweizen yeast may seem like a strange choice, but it is a somewhat popular choice these days. The idea is that the fruit esters will boost the aroma of the cider, and you won't get much clove spice because apples lack the precursor needed for the yeast to produce it.

My concern with the general concept of a sour cider is that the sourness will seem too aggressive since cider ends up so dry. That said, because cider is so easily fermented there may not be that much residual sugar for the bugs to eat. Sour beers are generally brewed to have lots of complex sugars that the primary yeast strain can't ferment, but cider can easily get down close to 1.000 even with a regular ale yeast. We'll see how it turns out, if it ends up too sour I may blend it with a malty ale for further aging (New Glarus Apple Ale is the only similar beer I am aware of).


I probably won't really know the results of this one until next fall, but I'd love to know if anyone out there has tried something similar.

Sour Cider

Recipe Specifics
----------------
Batch Size (Gal): 5.00
Anticipated OG: 1.048
Anticipated SRM: 6.2

Juice
-----
5 Gallons Pasteurized Kime's Cider

Extras
------
1.25 Tsp Pectic Enzyme

Yeast
-----
Flanders Red Slurry
WLP 300 Hefeweizen Ale Yeast

Notes
-----
"Brewed" 10/25/09 with Audrey

Added 1/4 tsp of pectic enzyme to each gallon jug about 2 hours before pitching yeast.

Pitched 16 oz of slurry from the wine barrel Flanders red.

10/27/09 Not much activity, so I added ~8 oz of slurry from my Weizenbock. Good fermentation after 12 more hours.

11/07/09 Racked to secondary, still had some activity and sweetness, but that should be fine for the microbes.

1/16/11 Bottled with 4 oz of table sugar, gravity down to 1.003 (not as dry as I expected).

6/1/11 Carbonated nicely, although it took a couple months. Not much sourness, lots of complex funk in the nose.

Imperial Cider - Two Ways

Well the fall, and with it cider season, is here once again. Last fall in addition to my annual batch of standard cider I did a batch of ice concentrated cider. Part of the ice cider was blended with a strong cider made by fellow homebrewer Steve Gale, which got its boost from the addition of a thick caramel syrup made by boiling down cider.

I've got a pretty bad flu at the moment (not sure if it is porcine or not), but I did this tasting over the weekend while it was just starting with a stuffy nose. As a results I may have missed some of the complexity. That said I though both ciders tasted excellent and I would highly recommend either method over adding sugar to your cider which adds alcohol, but does not enhance the apple flavor.

Collaboration Hard Cider

Appearance – Big initial head formation, but it drops to almost nothing in just a few seconds. The cider is a nice burnt orange, much richer than any other cider I have seen. It displays some legs in my snifter as well, a sign of both the high alcohol and sweetness.

Smell – Big caramelly apple nose with notes of ethanol. Much fruitier than a standard cider, which tend to be light on the apple character. Pretty clean overall (not much yeast character) or other aromas.

Taste – Very nice balance between sweet and tart. I can certainly taste some of those cooked notes from the apple syrup, it is similar to the sugary syrup that you end up with in an apple pie (minus any spices). A bit on the sweet side, but it isn't cloying. Still tastes very fresh, no oxidation (either positive or negative).

Mouthfeel – The carbonation does a lot to prevent this from being too sticky sweet. The body is much bigger than a standard cider, in beer terms this would certainly be an English barleywine (but it is more sugary than that).

Drinkability & Notes – A dangerous cider to be sure, the sweetness helps to tame the alcohol, and the carbonation tames the sweetness. I think these two blended together very well, thanks to Steve for coming up with the idea to match these two.

Ice Cider -Apple Champagne

Appearance – Almost no head formation despite streaming carbonation. This one is perfectly clear and a beautiful golden yellow (not much darker than a standard cider). Slight legs visible running down the side of the snifter on this one as well.

Smell – Moderate fresh apple aroma with some fresh bready/yeasty notes. There is also a slight sulfury character that may be from sitting on the yeast a bit too long. Not particularly complex (although that could just be the cold I am starting to develop).

Taste – Great balance, with just a touch of sweetness neither bone dry nor syrupy sweet. The apple flavor is not really that pronounced, more of a light fruitiness than a specific apple flavor. It isn't too far off of champagne, but it has a nice apple peel character in the finish that reminds you what you are drinking. Not much alcohol to speak of, but there is a nice warmth in the finish.

Mouthfeel – Pretty thin, but not as light as I would have expected for ~93% AA. Solid carbonation, a bit spritzy but not fizzy.

Drinkability & Notes – A pretty solid effort, not exactly what I was aiming for, but a well balanced strong cider. I'll certainly be giving something similar a try this year, not sure if I will aim for a higher gravity or not.

Caramel Ice Cider Collaboration

One of my favorite things about the homebrewing community is the camaraderie. Whether at a homebrew club, on an internet forum, or hanging out with friends, homebrewers love to get together and talk about their hobby. Talking about process and flavors is one thing, but when you get the chance to collaborate with another brewer (as so many pro-brewers seem to have recently discovered) that is when the fun really starts.

It was over on a thread at the Burgundian Babble Belt that SteveG (who runs the site) struck upon the idea of blending his sweet strong cider (which was concentrated by boiling pre-fermentation) with my champagne like ice cider. He figured that the dry finish in my cider would help cut through the syrupiness of his cider, and the residual sugars in his would fill my cider out.

Here are the details on Steve's batch:
My first go got up to about 1.115, though I don't have a gravity on batch 2. I reduced 5 gallons to 2.5, pitched some fermenting cider to inoculate then set out to reduce down another 5. Plus there was the 2 doses of "crystal" that went from 2.5 gallons to 20 oz. Anyway, I filled the carboy over the better part of a week, fermentation was going very well so there was no point where I could have taken a reliable gravity reading. I will say though the syrup I made appeared to reduce more than the previous batch, it was bubbly and caramel-like in texture. I would have to guess that if anything, batch two has 5 or 10 points on batch 1.

Steve shipped me two bombers of his cider to blend with mine. After a couple sample blends I carefully transferred (poured) his cider into a growler along with three 12 oz bottles of my ice cider and one of my regular cider. After a few weeks of sitting (just in case there was any more fermentation from the champagne yeast in mine working on the sugars in his) I bottled the blend with 1/2 tsp of table sugar per bottle for carbonation.

The resulting blend (although still uncarbonated) is better than the sum of its parts. The balance of sweetness and acidity is wonderful, and the alcohol (which I believe is around 10% ABV) is nowhere to be tasted. The sad thing about all of this is that it only netted us three bottles each. I'll certainly be playing with making my own caramel apple syrup next fall. I'll do a full tasting once it is carbonated.


Tasting of the blend 9/30/09

Cider 2008

After last year's attempt at cider making produced Rocket Fuel I decided to go back to the basics and attempt a plain, lower alcohol (it still reached over 7% ABV) cider this year. This batch also served to propagate yeast for my ice cider, which I finally bottled a few days ago.

The first change I made was to go with a pack of Wyeast's Cider yeast instead of bread yeast. I felt like after two less than terrific attempts at cider making it was worth trying a yeast that was actually selected for it. Next I left out the apple butter, since it just added sediment and not much apple/spice flavor. Instead I just went with high quality local apple cider from a farmers market, pasteurized, but preservative free.

I took some great tips from a cider making website called Lost Meadow Orchard and Cidery. The main thesis of the site is that making cider is not that similar to making beer. The author advocates using low temperatures, low aeration, and low nutrient juice to force a long slow fermentation which he has found preserves more of the apple character than a strong fast fermentation. I did not take his advice in full (I didn't have that sort of time or juice) but I did skew my technique in that general direction.

I didn't add any sugar/malt/honey to this batch so the alcohol would not get out of control. Well that isn't entirely true, I did add a 1/4 lb of lactose at bottling to add back just a bit of body and sweetness (the cider originally fermented all the way down to .996).

I also decided to solve my cloudy cider issue from years past by adding a couple teaspoons of pectic enzyme (1/2 tsp per gallon as instructed on the package). Pectic enzyme breaks down the pectin in the pasteurized cider (pectin is activated by heat and is responsible for the fruit gel we call jelly). I added the pectic enzyme shortly after I pitched the yeast, ideally I would have added it a few hours before the yeast, but I bought the cider before the enzyme and wanted to get the cider going. Despite this the enzyme worked giving me a brilliantly clear cider.

I'd suggest that anyone who wants to try their hand at making an alcoholic beverage begin with a cider. Starting a batch takes no more than 15 minutes including sanitation and clean up, and the only equipment you need besides something to ferment it in (a carboy/bucket) is bottling/kegging equipment.

Tasting 1/26/09

Appearance – Stunningly clear golden yellow, with some carbonation visible. The pectic enzyme certainly did its job chasing away the haze, but I wonder if I used more than is really needed (I have since read that the amount I used can cause a "fishy" off flavor). No head/lacing, but that is to be expected in cider where there is no proteins to form a foam.

Smell – The aroma is very subdued, just a hint of fresh apples and not much else. As it warms there is some alcohol, but it is not enough for me to call it hot.

Taste – Crisp (slightly tart) apples and a hint of sulfur/yeastiness (pectic enzyme?). Bone dry, although not to the point of being unpleasant. The flavor is fine, but the apple flavor doesn't pop like I want it to. To get more apple flavor next year I could try to keep the fermentation cold longer, or find some fresher/unpasteurized cider from a local cider presser.

Mouthfeel – The body is pretty thin, but it does not seem watery because of a light tannic roughness on the tongue. The carbonation is moderate, prickly, but not as strong as I intended it to be.

Drinkability & Notes – It is certainly more wine like than most commercial ciders that I have had, which tend to be sweeter, weaker, and bolder. This is not a particularly complex or interesting cider, but it is still pretty young (10 weeks since I "brewed it") for a cider so it will probably continue to improve for awhile to come.

Cider 2008

Recipe Specifics
----------------
Batch Size (Gal): 4.00
Anticipated OG: 1.055
Anticipated SRM: 6.2
Wort Boil Time: 0 Min

Juice/Sugar
-------------
4 Gallons Cider
0.25 lbs. Lactose

Extras
-------
2.00 Tsp Pectic Enzyme

Yeast
-----
WYeast 3766 Cider

Notes
-----
11/08/08 Added 4 gallons of pasteurized cider from the Arlington Farmers Market to a carboy, added an inflated pack of yeast. The only aeration was the splashing while pouring the cider into the carboy. Put it into the chest freezer @ 55 degrees. Added the pectic enzyme 1 hour after the yeast.

Small dots of yeast on the surface started to appear after 36 hours.

11/11/08 Decent krausen and activity, hopefully it can keep fermenting even though the freezer had to be dropped to 48 degrees for the lager.

11/16/08 Only down to 1.040. Moved it into the closet to let it warm up. It would probably have eventually finish in the fridge, but I don't have the time to wait.

11/26/08 Transferred to secondary, down to ~.996, very clear.

12/13/08 Bottled with 4.25 oz of cane sugar and 4 oz of lactose for a bit of sweetness/body.

5/16/09 Grabbed a third place (out of 9) at the 2009 Spirit of Free Beer, not bad for a cider I am not completely happy with.

Ice Cider

After really enjoying a bottle of Neige Ice Cider awhile back I decided to try my hand at making something similar this fall. Ice cider is much closer in character to an ice wine than it is to a regular hard cider (which many people liken to champagne). Ice Cider is rich, sweet, alcoholic, not to mention expensive.

Here is the designation reserved for ice cider in Quebec from Wikipedia:
« Cidre de glace » : "Cider ice" drinks produced by the fermentation of apple juice, which must have a concentration of sugar before fermentation made solely by the natural cold of at least 30 Brix and whose product has a residual sugar content of at least 130 grams per liter. Finally, the alcohol will be obtained over 7% and less than 13% alcohol by volume.

That is to say that the cider is frozen to concentrate the OG above 1.129, and the real residual extract is above .053. According to their website the bottle of Neige I had started at 1.159, has .060 of residual sugar, and 12% ABV (surprisingly similar numbers to Dark Lord Russian Imperial Stout from 3 Floyds).

A word about the legality of all this, what we are talking about here is not a form of distillation (as in making a Cider Jack or Eisbock). I am condensing the natural sugars the cider contains before fermentation. This is equivalent to boiling beer wort to condense the sugars before fermentation. The idea is to get enough sugar to go above the alcohol tolerance of the yeast and still have a pleasant amount of residual sweetness. If you froze a regular batch of cider it would get strong (stronger than ice cider), but it would still be very dry.

I started with 6 gallons of regular fresh/local cider (pasteurized, but preservative free). I added 1/2 tsp of pectic enzyme to each gallon. After allowing the enzyme to work on clearing the cider for a few hours I racked the cider into my bottling bucket. I then put it into my chest freezer which I had set to 20 F. It took just 24 hours to freeze the cider into a thick icy slush. I left it there for the next few days, because the freezer cycles +/- 3 degrees I was hoping this would be enough to let the sugary portion of the cider separate from the frozen water.


I took the bucket out of the freezer and tried to open the spigot hoping that like a frozen pond the ice was simply a layer on top of the cider. Sadly a ring of ice had formed around the edge of the bucket rendering the spigot useless. However, under 1/2 inch of ice the middle column was still liquid so I poured this portion out through a metal strainer. This yielded about 1.5 gallons of 1.082 cider (a 60% increase over the original juice). Not quite as strong or as much as I was looking for, but not a bad start.

Over the next hour the frozen cider slowly melted releasing more concentrated cider before the rest of the water (you can see how clear the ice the top got). I was able to pour off another .5 gallon of cider. Sadly at this point my apartmentmate decided it would be funny to put a slice of turkey on my shoulder as I bent over the bucket... as I was removing the offending meat it fell right into the cidery slush. I decided the risk of microbial invaders was enough that it wasn't worth continuing my extraction.

I was hoping to get 3.5 gallons of 1.082 cider which I could freeze again. Assuming another 60% gravity increase I would have been right at the 1.129 "minimum" original gravity.

With only 2 gallons to work with I decided that it would be simpler to just ferment it out as is. So after letting the cider warm up to 60 degrees I gave it a shot of oxygen, some yeast nutrient, and the yeast slurry from this year's batch of normal cider (nothing but cider, pectic enzyme, and Wyeast's Cider yeast).

Hopefully next fall I'll be able to put what I learned this time to use (namely to lock the door when I am working with the slush).

Cider Slurpee

Recipe Specifics
----------------
Batch Size (Gal): 2.00
Anticipated OG: 1.082
Anticipated SRM: 13.2
Wort Boil Time: 0 Minutes

Cider
-----------
6.00 Gallons Cider

Extras
---------
0.50 Tsp Yeast Nutrient
3.00 Tsp Pectic Enzyme

Yeast
-----
WYeast 3766 Cider

Notes
-----
11/30/08 Bought 6 gallons of cider, added 1/2 tsp of pectic enzyme to each and set the freezer to 30. After a few hours I racked them into my bottling bucket and set the freezer to 20.

12/04/08 Tried draining it through the spigot, but just got a trickle. Sliced up the ice with a knife and poured it through a strainer. Let it sit several times to melt a bit more. Gravity was a bit short of where I wanted, but not too bad (~1.082).

Let it warm up a bit then gave each jug a 30 sec shot of O2 and 1/2 cup of yeast slurry from the standard cider.

12/09/08 Down to 1.006 (93% AA, 10% ABV)

1/24/09 Bottled with 1 7/8 oz of cane sugar plus a few grams of EC-1118 Champagne yeast. Aiming for 3 volumes of CO2, hoping for more of a Champagne feel.

9/30/09 First Tasting, really coming along nicely.

Cider 2007

Not my best effort, but here is the recipe and tasting notes for this fall's batch of hard cider.

Despite the failings of the final product, it did show the apparent limit of the alcohol tolerance of Fleishman's bread yeast, a shocking 8.3%

Tasting:

Appearance – Honey yellow with a slight haze. When I first tappped the mini-keg a few hours ago it put up a momentary white head, but now it appears almost still.

Smell – Big apple nose with a strong whiff of alcohol. The alcohol has a bit of a floral character, similar to that of a mead. No sign of the spices from the apple butter. A pretty good nose overall for a big cider.

Taste – Ultra dry, with a bit of tannic astringency. There is some apple there as well, but it doesn't have enough sweetness to back it up. There is some acidity and alcohol presence as well. The lack of sweetness just throws the balance off of all the other components making them seem out of balance. The bread yeast seems to have been relatively neutral again.

Mouthfeel – Very thin, with only mild carbonation. It needs more of one or the other, as it is I think its too watery.

Drinkability & Notes – I should have back sweetened with apple juice concentrate and left it still. Many people at my homebrew club seemed to enjoy this one, but it just isn't what I am looking for in a cider. On the plus side the mini-keg seemed to work very well, I'll be putting beers into it on a regular basis from now on.

Apple Cider 2007

Recipe Specifics
----------------
Batch Size (Gal): 2.10
Anticipated OG: 1.063
Anticipated SRM: 12.8
Anticipated IBU: 0.0

Grain/Extract/Sugar
----------------------
2.0 gal Cider
0.50 lbs. Muscovodo
0.44 lbs. Apple Butter

Extras
-------
0.50 Tsp Yeast Nutrient

Yeast
-----
Generic Bread Yeast

Notes
-----
Brewed 10/14/07 by myself

Dissolved muscovado in 1/2 cup of filtered water, added the apple butter when the mixture reached a boil. Mixed this slurry with 2 gallons of good fresh cider from a local farm stand. Added 2 grams of Fleishman's Dried highly active bread yeast and placed in a 65 degree freezer.

Mild fermentation by 18 hours, thin krausen.

10/21/07 Gravity down to 1.004 (7.8% ABV), fermentation seemed to last about 5 days.

10/28/07 Bottled with 1.25 oz of corn sugar. Gravity down to a shocking .996 (8.3% ABV)

After about 2 weeks in the bottle a lot of sediment dropped in each bottle.

After a few months in the bottles I got sick of dealing with the sediment and the lack of carbonation, so I dumped all of the bottles into a 5L mini-keg with a bit of sugar and some lager yeast. Sadly, I knocked the pressure pin into the keg and ended up having to dump the cider out to get the pin back, probably causing massing oxidation in the process.

Cider 2006

With fall and apple season upon us once again I felt it was time to put up a cider post. Last Fall I brewed a very simple hard cider. I threw the recipe together spur of the moment before heading off to Denver for a few weeks. I added some malt extract to the cider to give it some residual sweetness and some yeast nutrient to aid the yeast. I used a packet of dried champagne yeast which makes for a very clean cider, but one that is pretty low in character.

I have a new batch fermenting now, that is a bit less traditional, but should have a bit more interesting flavor and hopefully won't take so long to get good.

My 1st Cider

Recipe Specifics
----------------
Batch Size (Gal): 2.00
Total Grain (Lbs): 16.75
Anticipated OG: 1.055
Anticipated SRM: 6.9

Cider/Extract
---------------
16.50 lbs. (2 gallons) Cider
0.25 lbs. Generic DME - Light

Yeast
-----
EC-118 (Champagne yeast)

Notes
-----
Made 10/31/06 by myself

Heated a cup of juice with 1 cup DME and .5 tsp yeast nutrient.

Cider was from Whole foods, pasteurized but no preservatives. 1/2 packed of yeast added straight into fermenter.

11/18/06 transferred to two 1 gallon jugs and stuck them in the fridge. 1.010, tasted pretty good with a sour twang at the end.

11/24/06 Bottled aiming for 2.5 volumes of CO2.

1st Tasting 10/17/07

Aroma - Sweet apples soaked in white wine. There is a hint of sulfur as well, but it is just a background note like is often present in many white wines (not sure if that is the only reason I thin.

Appearance -Nearly opaque it is so cloudy because I didn't use finings or pectic enzyme. The cider is yellow-tan with a thin white head that has surprisingly good retention. Personally I don't mind a hazy beverage, but if you do some pectic enzyme is important because it breaks up the pectin (the same stuff that is responsible for the thickening jams and jelly).

Taste - Tangy with a light apple flavor. Some apple skin as well. It still tastes pretty fresh, with no oxidation or other off-flavors apparent. It strikes a good balance between sweetness, dryness and acidity. However, the flavor is very mild to the point of being bland.

Mouthfeel - Prickly carbonation and a bit thin. There is a light tannic roughness on the tongue as well.

Drinkability/Notes - Finally getting pretty good after almost a year, but it is still rather bland. As time has passed the apple flavors have come more to the front which is nice, in fact I think this is the most I have enjoyed a bottle of this one so far. It really didn't turn out badly for a batch that I threw together on a whim and fermented while out of the state.

Why Canadian Food TV blows Rachel Ray and Bobby Flay out of the water

My third favorite (behind Good Eats and Americas Test Kitchen) food show, Food Jammers, just did an episode on making hard cider. They went the extra mile by building their own apple grinder and press and doing a natural fermentation. They also distill the resulting hard cider to make Apple Brandy, not clear on how legal that is in Canada. The show skips over some important details, but has lots of cool ideas and inspired nerdery.
Their website is: http://www.peacepoint.tv/foodjammers/

I made hard cider last fall, but went the safer root of using pasteurized cider and dried champagne yeast. Next fall I'll give the natural fermentation route a try if I can find a good local orchard.