More Love of Crispin

I was checking out the Flying Saucer calendar today and - how timely ...  On the last week of March, Wednesday night is Crispin glass night and Thursday is Four Musketeers night. Though the shape of the glass is still unknown (maybe it's this one!), they're tapping kegs of all four Four Musketeers - all at once - on Thursday the 31st. Descriptions of each are below, taken from Crispin's site.

Athos: Stately, courtly, bold, noble and elegant. Aged in a Cabernet Sauvignon barrel.
A deep plum color lends into the aroma of clover honey with a hint of anise. An elegant refined sweet start moves to a plum honey flavor, with hints of black licorice and a clean rich finish on your mouth.
ABV: 5.7%
Appearance/color- plum, deep purple.
Aroma- clover honey with hints of anise.
Mouthfeel- very full upfront with a clean soft finish.

Porthos: Fun, lively, very full bodied & robust. Aged in a Zinfandel barrel.
A rich red Rose' colored cider with an aroma of elderberry, cranberry & oak. Upon swirling it in your mouth you get a rich, full, lightly sweet feel. Opens to tart, round fruit & rolls into light tannin, with a rounded full finish.
ABV: 6.8%
Appearance/color- Rosé & rich, while still remaining translucent
Aroma- Elderberry, Cranberry, vinous oak
Mouthfeel- Rich, full, slightly sweet

Aramis: Sexy, smooth and silky, fragrant & perfumed. A slightly dangerous edge. Aged in a Merlot barrel.
Pinkish hued with a slight haze, Aramis has an aroma of rose & pomegranate. With a delicate, soft roundness in the mouth, and a light lingering bite. The flavor is subtle with a soft vinous start, while the middle is semi-sweet fruit.
ABV: 5.3%
Appearance/color- light pink, slight haze
Aroma- rose, fruit, pomegranate
Mouthfeel- delicate, soft roundness with light crisp bite.

D'Artagnan: Spicy, lively. Peppery temperament. Aged in a Pinot Noir barrel.
Soft, light, peachy appearance & hue. The aroma is of spicy ginger with faint hints of fruit. A slightly sweet flavor with light ginger notes up front & a round honey dew like finish with a slight hint of warmth.
ABV: 4.8%
Appearance/color- Soft, peachy, light
Aroma- Spicy, ginger, faint fruit
Mouthfeel- Velvety & soft with a backbone of ginger warmth.

See you at Flying Saucer on the 31st!

For the Love of Crispin

I haven't been much of a cider drinker the past few years, despite the prevalence of cider in the area. We have plenty of options with Woodchuck, Strongbow, Ace, Scrumpy's, Hornsby, and Blackthorn. We even have several varieties of Aspall, which is a fantastic cidermaker out of England. Additionally, Magner's has made its way into the metro area's liquor stores, yet I haven't tried it anywhere but The Gaf on tap and was satisfied with it but not overwhelmed.

Enter Crispin (which also owns Fox Barrel). I tried my first Crispin cider at the National Homebrewers Conference last year in Minneapolis and thought it was quite good, despite it being served over ice. It took a little while to try some again, but on a whim a while back I picked up a bottle of The Saint - apple juice and maple syrup fermented with Trappist yeast (presumably Westmalle). It's very interesting; sweet, spicy, earthy, and fruity - not at all like your typical cider. 

Crispin extends its line of Artisinal ciders brewed with ale yeasts with Landsdowne, a cider with added molasses and fermented with Irish stout yeast. I've had it twice, and honestly didn't care for it. The molasses overpowered the aroma and the flavor, and really took away from the depth of flavor. Disappointing, as it sounds more interesting than it actually is. You won't see this here in KC (yet?), and honestly aren't missing much. The Saint & Honey Crisp (cider & honey) are far better, and available at most liquor stores with craft beer as well as Brookside Market.

Those are in the Artisinal series and earn points for creativity, but their Blue Line and Import ciders are just as wonderful and more in line with what you'd expect with cider. I'm a huge fan of the Blue Line brut cider, as it's clean, crisp, and dry and very refreshing. However, I prefer the Brown's Lane traditional English cider. It comes in a 500ml can, and is fermented with both cider yeast and Brettanomyces. It has a strong apple flavor and aroma, but the finish is moderately tannic, completely dry and slightly earthy.

Now where to get it... I've seen Crispin's Artisinal & Brut ciders at Cosentino's in P&L, Brookside Market, and Royal Liquor, but Rimann in Prairie Village has the broadest selection I've seen in the area. They carry a couple of the blue line labels (brut & original), the Brown's Lane, and the Saint & Honey Crisp artisinals. As mentioned, I haven't seen Lansdowne here nor have I seen their limited "Jacket" cider (a blend of all their Artisinal ciders that is aged in bourbon barrels - fantastic cider and highly recommend it if you come across it).

Pick some up for a slightly different take on cider. It's worth it.

Cider and Perry Make Me Merry

Last weekend, we drove out to Fieldstone Enterprises in Overbrook, KS and bought 15 gallons of apple juice & 10 of pear. The apple blend we got was made from four varietals: Spitzenburg, Seek No Further, Neuho, and Bramly. The pear juice is made from four varieties of Asian pears.

With our 25 gallons now in our possession, we dug out 5 fermenters while the juice thawed. We'll do a dry (still) and a medium-dry (sparkling) for both apple & pear, leaving one apple batch that we'll split in the summer when other fruits are ripe. I'd like to add blackberries to one split batch; the other one is still TBD but I think we might do persimmons.

So how do you make cider? At the easiest end of the spectrum, you can buy preservative-free apple juice at the store, put it in a sanitized fermenter, add yeast, and let it go. Done right, it'll ferment completely into a very dry apple cider that is much less sweet than the commercial ciders on the shelves today. However, if you want a cider with a balance of sweetness, tartness, and tannin, you can do a few things to manipulate the outcome.

First, get preservative-free 100% juice and check its pH. A quality cider that has enough acidity to balance the sweetness of the apples will be somewhere around 3.2 -3.8. Any lower than that will likely be too acidic, and higher than that will lack the tart finish, depth, and complexity good ciders possess (it'll be "insipid"). Malic acid, calcium carbonate, and low-acid juice are common approaches to altering pH. As a side note - malic acid stinks. I spilled a little on the floor (maybe 1/2 tsp) and it got wet; a few minutes later, the entire area smelled like a gym bag. Not awesome.

Once you have your pH set, check your starting gravity. It should be between 1.045 and 1.070 and can be manipulated via dilution or the addition of sugar. Our starting gravities all hovered around 1.042-1.048 which were lower than we wanted. The addition of simple syrup to each carboy put all our starting gravities around 1.055-1.060.

Next, kill off wild yeast & bacteria to avoid bacterial infection and to ensure only the yeast you want are fermenting your juice. We added potassium metabisulfite (campden tablets) which is probably the most accessible approach. The juice's pH will determine how much sulfite to add and we followed the guidelines laid out by Andrew Lea in his book. You can find similar information on his website.

Since apple juice is nitrogen-deficient and yeast need nitrogen to thrive, I also added yeast nutrient and energizer per my mead measurements:  1 tsp diammonium phosphate (DAP) and 1/2 tsp Fermaid-K per 5 gallons. I won't be doing staggered nutrient additions; a one-time addition for cider & perry should be fine.

That's pretty much all the hard work and requires about as much precision as you want to give it. The more precise you are, the closer your end result will be to what you want. The sulfited juice needs to sit for 24 hours before the yeast is pitched so that you don't kill off all your cultured yeast along with the wild stuff.

I used all Lalvin wine yeasts; for the apple ciders, I selected 71b-1122, K1-V1116, and EC1118. The 2 perrys are fermenting with 71b-1122 and EC1118. Specific properties of these yeasts can be found on Lallemond's site.

Unfortunately, there just isn't much information at all on making perry. About the only information I've gleaned is that it's similar in process to making cider, but has a higher starting pH. For more information on making cider, the best resource I've found to date is Andrew Lea's book, "Craft Cider Making." I got another book by Proulx and Nichols and it's perfect for learning more about specific apple themselves - growing, harvesting, pressing, etc. While the authors do cover cidermaking to a good extent, the Lea book was much better. With those two books, you'll be familiar with dozens of apple varieties and how to take them from seedling to cider.

Beer of the Week: Cider

Yeah, I know cider isn't beer. I debated naming this "style of the week" but didn't want to limit myself to BJCP styles (or have to dump a bunch of stuff into category 23). And now here I am thinking I should have gone with Style. Oh well.

Anyway. Now that our bizarre warm weather appears to be behind us, it definitely feels like the time of year for those comfy winter drinks. Winter Warmers, mulled wine, hot toddys, hot buttered rum - and cider. We're getting ready to make a few batches of cider and perry (pear cider) and wanted to try some true English cider so we picked up a bottle of Aspall Dry yesterday at Lukas in Martin City. Consensus? Both of us agree this is the best cider we've ever had, and at $6.99 per bottle it's a deal.

I've had probably close to a dozen different ciders, none of which are authentic cider styles (Wyder, Blackthorne, Strongbow, Magners, Ace, and so on). Real apple cider should drink more like a wine and have a completely different profile than its unfermented cousin. It should not taste like alcoholic Mott's, much like wine should not taste like boozy Welch's (well, good wine anyway). The typical cider options we have are poor examples of good cider; they're the Arbor Mists of the cider world. That isn't to say they're particularly bad, they're just not what I'd consider proper cider.

Apple cider should have a clear appearance, though it's still ok for it to be somewhat hazy for a more "natural" style. It should also be a bit acidic with a bit of tannin to provide body and substance to the cider. This is, I think, what is missing from most commercial ciders and why I tend to prefer the drier ones (Wyder's Pear & Strongbow Dry). The tannin really helps add some complexity to cider, much like hops add depth to beer.

Apple cider has a long history in both England and France, but enjoys its own legacy in the US as well (thanks to European settlers in the 17th century). While we're all familiar with common sweet apple varieties such as Fuji, Honey Crisp, or Braeburn, there are dozens of other varieties more suited to ciders - and definitely not good to eat. Apples are split into four categories: sharp, sweet, bittersharp, and bittersweet. Each contributes to different qualities in cider, and are typically blended to create a balanced taste in a cider. There are few apple varieties that contain all of the desired flavor qualities (sweetness, acidity, astringency/tannin), such as Kingston Black, and they're not easy to find. Therefore, nearly all cider you'll find out there is made with a variety of apples (just as many beers are made with different malts to achieve desired characteristics).

If you're interested in making your own cider, it's extremely simple to do so. We found an orchard out in Overbrook, KS that we'll be visiting next weekend to pick up both pear & apple juices. This year's harvest wasn't that great, but you can start making plans for next year. They publish their harvest dates on their website so that you can plan your trip around different varieties. Alternately, you can bring a bucket or carboy to Louisburg Cider Mill and they'll fill it for you. Just call them a few days in advance to make an appointment; they'll tell you what apples they'll be pressing and will arrange a time for you to come by and get the unpasteurized juice. (A note on that - you can ferment both pasteurized & unpasteurized juice. Each will result in different flavors and you might experiment with both to see which you like best.) If you don't want to wait until next fall, you can make cider from preservative-free apple juice at the store (preservatives will prevent fermentation).

The steps to make cider are pretty straight-forward:

1. Buy juice & pour it into a sanitized fermenter
2. If using non-pasteurized juice, add campden tablets (1 per gallon of juice) to kill any wild yeast or bacteria in the juice & wait 24 hours
3. Pitch yeast
4. Wait a few weeks for fermentation to finish & add finings for clarification
5. Rack to another container, let clear a bit more, then package (keg or bottles)

The process can be much more complicated than this, but that's the basic concept. Using different yeasts will result in different cider flavors. Adding juice & halting fermentation will create a sweeter cider; adding acid, oak, or tannins will change the cider further. Of course cider can be either sparkling or still, and the addition of spices will add a seasonal flair to your finished product.

If you're interested in learning more about cider, here are some great references to get you started:

1. BJCP Guidelines for Style 27
2. BJCP Guidelines for Style 28
3. Andrew Lea's book on Craft Cider Making
4. Andrew Lea's website (now with frames!)
   
5. Another well-regarded book on cider by Proulx and Nichols
6. A great webcast on making cider with Jamil Zainasheff, Jon Pliese, and awesome guest Gary Awdey

I'll follow up at a later time on our own experiences making cider. My meads & braggot are coming along and I'll post more on that when they're ready to drink (just a few more months!). In the meantime... beer it is!