Cider
Cider is an alcoholic beverage made from the fermented juice of apples. Cider is widely available in the United Kingdom and Ireland. The United Kingdom has the world's highest per capita consumption, as well as the largest cider-producing companies. Ciders from the South West of England are generally higher in alcoholic content. Cider is also popular in many Commonwealth countries, such as India, South Africa, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. Due to their fermentation, ciders can be thought of as a fruit wine of apples, though exact definitions of either beverage can vary by culture.
In addition to the UK and its former colonies, cider is popular in Portugal, France, northern Italy, and northern Spain. Germany also has its own types of cider with Rhineland-Palatinate and Hesse producing a particularly tart version known as Apfelwein. In the U.S. and Canada, varieties of alcoholic cider are often called "hard cider" to distinguish it from non-alcoholic apple cider or "sweet cider", also made from apples. In Canada, cider cannot contain less than 2.5% or over 13% absolute alcohol by volume.
The juice of most varieties of apple can be used to make cider, but cider apples are most desirable. The addition of sugar or extra fruit before a second fermentation increases the ethanol content of the resulting beverage.
Cider alcohol content varies from 1.2% to 8.5% ABV or more in traditional English ciders, and 2.5% to 12% in continental ciders. In UK law, it must contain at least 35% apple juice, although CAMRA says that "real cider" must be at least 90% fresh apple juice. In the US, there is a 50% minimum. In France, cider must be made solely from apples. Perry is a similar product to cider made by fermenting pear juice. When distilled, cider turns into fruit brandy.
Appearance and types
The flavour of cider varies. Ciders can be classified from dry to sweet. Their appearance ranges from cloudy with sediment to completely clear, and their colour ranges from almost colourless to amber to brown. The variations in clarity and colour are mostly due to filtering between pressing and fermentation. Some apple varieties will produce a clear cider without any need for filtration. Both sparkling and still ciders are made; the sparkling variety is the more common.Modern, mass-produced ciders closely resemble sparkling wine in appearance. More traditional brands tend to be darker and cloudier. They are often stronger than the mass-produced varieties and taste more strongly of apples. Almost colourless, white cider has the same apple juice content as conventional cider but is harder to create because the cider maker has to blend various apples to create a clearer liquid. White ciders tend to be sweeter and more refreshing. They are typically 7–8% ABV in strength. Black cider, by contrast, is dry amber cider which has an alcohol content of 7–8% ABV.
Etymology
The word cider is first mentioned in Middle English in biblical use as sicer / ciser "strong drink", "strong liquor" in the 13th century and as sither / cidre "liquor made from the juice of fruits" → "beverage made from apples" in the 14th century. It was probably first borrowed from Old French primitive form sizre "fermented beverage" and then from another younger French form cistre, later sidre, cidre "beverage made from fruits".The specific meaning "fermented beverage from apples" appears in Old French for the first time by the Norman chronicler Wace in 1130 / 1140. The Old French word *cisre is from Gallo-Romance *cisera found in Medieval Latin by the English author Alexander Neckam. It is an altered form of Church Latin sicera "fermented drink", itself borrowed from Greek sīkéra, ultimately from Hebrew šēkār, "intoxicating liquor".
The cognates in the different Romance languages : Spanish, Portuguese sidra, Italian sidro, etc., in the Germanic languages : German Zider, etc. are all from French and Breton chistr, Welsh seidr probably too. By the 19th century, in the United States, cider referred to the expressed juice of apples, either before fermentation as sweet cider, or after fermentation, a hard cider.
Cider styles
Geography and origins
Cider is an ancient beverage. The first recorded reference to cider dates back to Julius Caesar's first attempt to invade Britain in 55 BCE where he found the native Celts fermenting crabapples. He would take the discovery back through continental Europe with his retreating troops. In the cider market, ciders can be broken down into two main styles, standard and specialty. The first group consists of modern ciders and heritage ciders. Modern ciders are produced from culinary apples such as Gala. Heritage ciders are produced from heritage, cider specific, crab or wild apples, like Golden Russet. Historically, cider was made from the only resources available to make it, so style was not a large factor when considering the production process. Apples were historically confined to the cooler climates of Western Europe and Britain where record keeping was not yet common. Cider was first made from crab apples, ancestors of the bittersweet and bittersharp apples used by today's English cider makers.English cider contained a drier, higher-alcohol-content version, using open fermentation vats and bittersweet crab apples. The French developed a sweet, low-alcohol "cidre" taking advantage of the sweeter apples and the keeving process. Cider styles evolved based on the methods used, the apples available and local tastes. Production techniques developed, as with most technology, by trial and error. In fact, the variables were nearly too widespread to track, including: spontaneous fermentation, the type of vessels used, environmental conditions, and the apple varieties. Refinements came much later when cider became a commercial product and the process was better understood. However, since there is growing popularity in ciders, the production of specialty styles has begun to increase.
Modern ciders
Modern ciders are made from culinary apples and are lower in tannins and higher in acidity than other cider styles. Common culinary apples used in modern ciders include McIntosh, Golden Delicious, Jonagold, Granny Smith, Gala, and Fuji. A sweet or low alcohol cider may tend to have a strong aromatic and flavour character of apple, while drier and higher alcohol ciders will tend to produce a wider range of fruity aromas and flavours. Modern ciders vary in color from pale to yellow and can range from brilliant to a hazy clarity. Clarity can be altered through various cider making practices, depending on the cider maker's intentions. There are even Rosé ciders from apples where the skins and flesh are red.Heritage ciders
Heritage ciders are made from both culinary and cider apples, including bittersweet, bittersharp, heirlooms, wild apples and crabapples. Common apples used in heritage cider production include Dabinett, Kingston Black, Roxbury Russet, and Wickson. Heritage ciders are higher in tannins than modern ciders. They range in colour from yellow to amber ranging from brilliant to hazy. Clarity of heritage ciders also depends on the cider making practices used and will differ by cider maker as well.In Canada, some cideries market "Loyalist-style" ciders, which are notably dry and made with McIntosh apples, a Canadian heritage varietal.
Speciality style ciders
Speciality style ciders are open to a lot more manipulation than modern or heritage style ciders. There is no restriction to apple varieties used and the list of specialty styles continues to expand. Listed on the USACM Cider Style Guide, specialty styles include: fruit, hopped, spiced, wood-aged, sour, and iced ciders. Fruit ciders have other fruit or juices added before or after fermentation, such as cherries, blueberries and cranberries. Hopped cider is fermented with added hops, common hop varieties being Cascade, Citra, Galaxy, and Mosaic. Spiced ciders have various spices added to the cider before, during, or after fermentation. Spices like cinnamon and ginger are popular to use in production. Wood-aged ciders are ciders that are either fermented or aged in various types of wood barrels, to aid in extraction of woody, earthy flavours. Sour ciders are high acid ciders that are produced with non-standard, non-Saccharomyces yeast and bacteria, which enhance acetic and lactic acid production, to reach a sour profile. Ice ciders can be made by using pre-pressed frozen juice or frozen whole apples. Whole apples either come frozen from the orchard, dependent on harvest date, or are stored in a freezer prior to pressing. When the pre-pressed juice or whole apples freeze, sugars are concentrated and mostly separated from the water. Whole apples are then pressed to extract the concentrated juice. For the pre-pressed juice the concentrated solution is drawn off while thawing occurs. Although, according to the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau cider producers can only label a product 'Ice Cider' if it is produced from apples naturally frozen outdoors.Two styles not mentioned in the USACM Cider Style Guide are Rosé and Sparkling Cider. Rosé cider can be produced from apple varieties that have reddish-pink pulp, like Pink Pearl and Amour Rouge. Rosé ciders can also be created through the addition of food-grade red dyes, previously used red grape skins, like Marquette with high anthocyanin concentration, red fruits, rose petals, or hibiscus. Lastly, sparkling ciders can be produced through methods of direct carbonation, addition of carbon dioxide or by Méthode Champenoise to re-create the traditional Champagne style.
Specific cider styles
Production
Scratting and pressing
Apples grown for consumption are suitable for cider making, though some regional cider-makers prefer to use a mix of eating and cider apples, or exclusively cider apples and West of England. There are many hundreds of varieties of cultivars developed specifically for cider making.Once the apples are gathered from trees in orchards they are scratted into a pulp. Historically this was done using pressing stones with circular troughs, or by a cider mill. Cider mills were traditionally driven by the hand, water-mill, or horse-power. In modern times, they are likely to be powered by electricity. The pulp is then transferred to a cider press where the juice is extracted.
Traditionally, the method for squeezing the juice from the apple pulp involves placing sweet straw or haircloths between stacked layers of apple pulp. Today, apples can be quickly pressed on a mechanized belt press. The juice, after being strained in a coarse hair-sieve, is then put into either open vats or closed casks. The remaining solids are given to farm animals as winter feed, composted, discarded or used to make liqueurs.