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The last time we were in London, we stopped into Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese Pub at 5 Essex St. just off the Strand Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese is one of the few pubs in London that can justify the Ye Olde in its name. Approached through a narrow alleyway (Wine Office Court) the Cheese beckons you into a bygone world. By the entrance a board lists the reigns of the 15 monarchs through which this grand old pub has survived. The dark wooden interior is an enchanting warren of narrow corridors and staircases, leading to numerous bars and dining rooms. There are so many even regulars get confused. The ground floor bar is the most interesting. This small room is very dark, with black timber paneled ceiling and walls. There's an open fire beneath a high mantle and above that the portrait of a waiter who started at the Cheese in 1829.
On a high shelf behind the bar are the leather- bound visitor’s books. They contain the signatures of prime ministers, ambassadors and peers. Other patrons include Thackeray, Boswell, Dickens and Dr. Samuel Johnson, whose house is just around the corner.
The pub was rebuilt after the Great Fire (1666) destroyed its predecessor. A tavern is known to have stood here from at least the 16th century and a 13th century Carmelite Monastery once occupied this site. The vaulted cellars are thought to belong to that building.
This is a wonderful place and we met a lovely couple there and entered into a great evening of food and drink. The gentleman introduced us to real British Hard Cider, a wonderful drink. Our favorite was "Scrumpy Jack." From then on, the remainder of our week was trying out and enjoying all the varieties British Hard Ciders.
Real cider is essentially the fermented juice of the apple with nothing added and nothing taken away. At the moment the majority of the cider sold in the UK is mostly made from imported apple concentrate, is full of artificial colorings, sweeteners, and preservatives, is filtered, is pasteurized to render it inert and is kept and served under carbon dioxide pressure. Don't assume that if it is served through a hand pump that it is real cider.
To protect traditional English varieties of cider and perry,* the Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) set up a sub-group, the Apple and Pear Produce Liaison Executive (APPLE). APPLE publishes the Good Cider Guide which lists pubs in Britain where real cider and perry are available. APPLE have defined two categories of real cider (and perry), anything which does not fall within these categories is not considered to be real cider (or perry*). * A light and fruity sparkling alcoholic drink similar to cider but made with pears rather than apples. Waitrose Vintage English Perry (500ml) is made in rural Herefordshire from specially selected English Perry pears, grown in this region since Norman times. It is fermented and matured in old oak vats, where it develops its special strength and unique flavor.
Category A
A definition agreed by APPLE to denote the very best of cider and perry, with nothing added or taken away.
Category A - must:
• not be pasteurized before or after fermentation
• not be filtered
• not receive enzyme treatment
• not contain preservatives or coloring
• not have the natural yeast replaced by a cultured yeast
• not have a nitrogen source added unless essential to start fermentation
• not be diluted
• only contain sweeteners if labeled Medium or Sweet, and then only if they are shown to be safe and do not affect the taste
• be produced from only freshly-pressed fruit, and
• not contain concentrate
• not contain extraneous carbon dioxide
Category B
Category A covers the majority of cider makers but only a small proportion of the total amount of cider made. A larger number of real ciders differ in some small respect from Category A ciders but are sufficiently authentic to be designated real cider since the taste and character of the cider is unaffected. These are Category B ciders.
Category B - must:
• not be entirely made from concentrate
• not contain extraneous carbon dioxide
North Americans use the term sweet cider to mean freshly-pressed apple juice, and hard cider to mean fermented apple juice, ie what in the UK would be termed cider.
Scrumpy
Scrumpy is a term often used to describe certain types of cider. It is one of those terms for which everyone has a definition and everyone's definition is different. Originally it was cider made from windfalls (scrumps). For most people it means a rough, cloudy and unsophisticated cider. It is most often applied to young cide ie that which is only a few months old and has yet to undergo the maturation phase (including the malo-lactic fermentation). For other people, including some cider makers, it can mean the finest cider, from selected, better apples, slowly fermented and matured for longer than ordinary ciders.
When is it a cider and when an apple wine? This is a frequently asked question. There is no definitive answer to this. The best that can be said is that first of all apple wine falls outside of the definitions given above.
Secondly, apple wine will almost always be made with dessert (sweet) apples. This materially affects the flavor of the finished drink. Cider apples contain high levels of tannins and significant amounts of malic acid. These are not found to significant levels in dessert apples.
Therefore a cider has a sharpness (due to malic acid) and a bitterness (due to tannins) which is simply not found in apple wines. Commonly people will refer to the qualities that these components give to the cider as the "bite".
This is not apparent in apple wine. The final distinction is the alcohol content. Cider generally has an alcohol content which does not exceed (about) 8 percent by volume. Apple wines can commonly have higher alcohol contents. These wines will inevitably have been fermented using wine yeasts, not natural or ale yeasts, since only wine yeasts are tolerant to the high alcohol levels. The wine yeasts will impart their own flavor profile to the apple wine, moving it further away from a true cider. Note that in some countries the distinctions may be regulated by law on the basis of alcohol content alone.
Apple cider had been popular with the people of Great Britain going back to the time of the Celts. By the time the English had settled in America, the art of cider brewing was very well known to them due to centuries of consumption of apple cider.
During the Colonial Era, hard apple cider was by far the most popular alcoholic beverage in America. There were many reasons for the immense popularity of apple cider at that time.
First of all, apple cider is relatively easy to make. In addition to that, the early English colonists in America brought a great quantity of apple seed with them to plant in the New World resulting in an abundance of apple trees. By as early as 1629 there were already many apple orchards in Virginia and the Massachusetts Bay Colony. The reason for all this growing of apple trees was not to eat apples but to drink them in the form of hard cider.
Unlike many other alcoholic beverages, apple cider could be consumed at any time of the day. In fact, John Adams, second president of the United States, drank it regularly at breakfast to soothe his stomach. The fermentation of apple cider killed the bacteria in that drink which made it preferable to drinking well water in that era because water was often contaminated and therefore less healthy than apple cider.
Apple cider continued in its popularity well into the 1800s due in part to the efforts of the legendary Johnny Appleseed who planted many apple trees in the Midwest. As a result, apple cider brewing spread into that area of the country. By mid century, beer was a distant second to apple cider in popularity. However, soon a series of events took place which was to diminish the consumption of apple cider and make beer the most popular alcoholic beverage in America.
One of the factors that caused the gradual demise of hard apple cider is as the settlers moved further west; it became more difficult to grow apple trees in those arid regions. Later, as more people moved from the country to the city, there wasn’t adequate transportation to deliver apple cider from the farms to the urban areas. Meanwhile, German beer with its faster fermentation process was introduced into America. The German immigrants also set up large sophisticated breweries for producing beer in great quantities while apple cider production remained limited to the small farms.
What ultimately led to the demise in the popularity of apple cider consumption was the Temperance movement. Because the Temperance movement was religiously based, many of the church going farmers gave up their drinking of apple cider. Many of them even went so far as to chop down the apple trees on their farms.
When Prohibition finally became the law, this marked the death knell for apple cider. Although beer staged a quick comeback following the repeal of Prohibition in 1933, apple cider brewing was effectively destroyed and remained only on a very few family farms for many years to come.
We personally are happy with the growing popularity of microbreweries in the 1990s, alcoholic apple cider is once again enjoying resurgence in popularity. Although apple cider is nowhere close to the popularity it enjoyed in the Colonial Era, the consumption of apple cider did double in just one year from 1995 to 1996 with renewed public interest in this brewing process considered to be so much a part of Americana.
As I have said, hard cider was once the drink of choice in early America. Today, sweet cider is enjoyed at harvest time and the hard stuff is making a comeback. The secret to making sweet or hard cider is the blending of apples at pressing time. A balanced blend of sweet and tart apples is needed. Hard or sweet, it's another great activity to enjoy at home.
Unfortunately for the home cider and apple wine maker, the addition of stabilizers to fresh pressed apple cider is becoming common. This is being done to extend the products shelf life. Cider which has been treated in this way will spoil before it ferments. The secret to making a great tasting cider is in the blending of apples prior to pressing. Making hard cider from a single type of apple will result in a bland drink with no real character.
Apple cider mills usually guard their secret recipes well. Basically, you use a blend of at least two apples mixed by weight at a ratio of 2:1. For sweet cider, use 2 parts sweet variety and one part tart. Reversing the mixture will make a dryer cider.
While the ratio remains the same, you can add more complexity and character by using more verities of apples. Our local supplier uses 6 varieties and that's all he's saying. Making hard cider is very much like making wine. Fresh pressed apple cider is fermented without the addition of any sugars. The starting gravity should be between 1.040 and 1.050. This will produce a dry cider with about 4.5% - 5% abv. The key to success is using fresh pressed cider that has not been treated in any way. Cider purchased at the super market will almost always contain preservatives and will rot before it will ferment. State and local laws require producers to treat apples with anti bacterial sprays prior to pressing and many require that stabilizers be added prior to sale. You must ask your supplier for wine or hard cider grade juice. Arrange to pick up your cider the day you will start to make it. The fresher the better!
Here is a recipe for making hard apple cider. Secure apple cider without preservative. Most apple cider for hard cider should be a blend of 3 or more varieties.
Fresh cider should be in clean containers. Wooden barrels make the best hard cider as the wood breathes and gives the cider proper aging.
To the cider add 1lb. of sugar per gallon for a dry hard cider (not sweet) or 1 1/2 lbs. for a sweet drink. Honey can be substituted for sugar on a pound per pound basis. Sugar and honey should be dissolved by warming some cider and mixing the sugar and honey until completely dissolved; then mix with the cider.
Natural yeast in the juice will ferment the sugar to alcohol. Yeast need not be added, although it can without any problem. Some fermentation processes call for killing all the yeast in the pure cider with sulfur dioxide, waiting 24 hours and then adding wine yeast. For the homeowner this is not necessary.
Put air lock on container and keep at 60-70F for a couple of months. Lower temperatures take longer for product to change from sugar to alcohol.
After 2 months the juice should be decanted off (siphoned out of the container), the container washed, and the juice put back into the container. Do not use siphon hose closer than 4" from bottom of container as this is where all the sediment is resting.
After decanting, store at 40 - 60F in a wooden barrel and wait for proper aging -- 6 months to 6 years, depending upon desires.
Once juice is in container, the container cannot be moved as it will put sediment back into solution, and the result is a cloudy product.
Beet, grape, raspberry juice, etc. can be added for color.
Raisins can be added for sugar.
If cider is made in a 50-gallon wooded barrel, and you plan to draw it off over a 6-month period, a sulfur dioxide dispensing bung should be put on top bung hole once barrel is in use. This keeps the air space germ free and prevents off taste on the last used product.
For the average person making hard cider, glass or plastic gallons or five gallon jugs, or clean wooden barrels, are satisfactory. An air lock is needed to keep air out and let gas produced by the reaction escape. This can be done by purchasing an air lock from wine makers supply merchants.
Another method is to drill a hole in the bottle stopper, insert a plastic tube that fits tightly, and put the other end of the tube in a container of water. This will let the gas bubble out and keep air or oxygen from getting in.
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Author Bio Box: Arlene Wright Correll
 Resources: Excerpted from “Food For Thought Series” by Arlene Wright-Correll
For more gardening or cooking information click http://www.learn-america.com/ and click on Arlene’s Books you can download or buy my gardening & cook books. All my royalties from the sale of my books go to the St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital and we thank you for your attention to this site.
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