What is Reddit's opinion of The New Cider Maker's Handbook: A Comprehensive Guide for Craft Producers?

From 3.5 billion Reddit comments

I highly recommend this book:

The New Cider Maker's Handbook: A Comprehensive Guide for Craft Producers https://smile.amazon.com/dp/1603584730/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_RVzLFbKTE573Z

He goes into great detail about natural cidermaking- timelines, testing, residual sweetness, natural carbonation. It’s all covered in this book.

It sounds like you may be overthinking it for your first go. Instead of experimenting with spices, start by experimenting with yeasts. Split your batch into smaller amounts and try pitching a few kinds of yeast. Wine, ale, saison, kviek, Brett, and lambic blends have all been used successfully. If the juice is (super) fresh and unpasteurized maybe even try a natural fermentation. You will be amazed by how much the yeast will effect the cider.

Also experiment with the sugar source you use. I prefer honey but I again suggest splitting your batch and running different sugars with the same yeast.

Sweet and sparkling is a tall order for your first cider. Personally I use a keg to achieve it. It’s pretty hard to do in bottles.

Check out this book, he talks in detail about how to achieve a sweet and sparkling traditional cider in a bottle.

The New Cider Maker's Handbook: A Comprehensive Guide for Craft Producers https://smile.amazon.com/dp/1603584730/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_WqBIFb7Q744AS

I'm using Wyeast 4766 and its chugging away at 45F. Not sure about Lalvin 1118 but a lot of the books I've read use this yeast without any problems at temps between 45-50. Good call on the temp though, I had some problems doing a cider with Saison yeast without doing my homework and not realizing it did better at warmer temps.

I think your set up will work just fine if you just make sure the temp doesn't go above 50F. Check out this book for a great reference The New Cider Maker's Handbook: A Comprehensive Guide for Craft Producers https://www.amazon.com/dp/1603584730/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_3Td.xbMAE80TZ

It's very technical but will tell you everything you need to know. Also books by Lea are great.

cider season is almost upon us in the states. You could wait for cider mills to start doing their runs, and if you're lucky enough you might have a quality producer in the area with the right kind of apples you want.

This book has a lot of good references and information to help you decide which apple varieties to go for.

Late season varietals that harvest into september/october are typically going to be the highest sugar/acid apples you can get, which imo is what you want for making a cyser.

This one is really good.

I'm a newbie also. I've started out with apple juice. I just bought a bunch from costco and went from there. It might be a bit easier as it's pasteurized from the factory and you don't have to deal with microbes and the such that would be on the skin of apples.

If you go with apple juice, make sure that it's only preservatives is vitamin c.

Also a good place to read up is this book. I read it first before making my first cider.

https://www.amazon.ca/New-Cider-Makers-Handbook-Comprehensive/dp/1603584730

​

Keep experimenting. I found that fermenting several mini-batches with something different about each one helps with finding certain desirable characteristics in a cider.

I also write detailed notes about my process and observations. For example, I'll note the starting gravity and final gravity, temperature, yeast, nutrient schedule, precise weight/volume of ingredients, tasting notes, dates and times, etc. If you want to get technical, you can start measuring acidity, and make adjustments.

To improve fruit cider, finding the proper fruit-to-cider ratio is important. If you're using fruit juice, then using a graduated cylinder, which are available at most homebrew shops, helps with determining blending ratios.

Also, choosing to allow the added fruit to ferment or not will make a significant difference in the final outcome. For example, fermenting blueberries can create a geranium character (geraniol) in the cider, whereas adding the fruit after the base apple cider has fermented and preventing the blueberry from fermenting will preserve the natural blueberry flavor.

Nutrient additions can be helpful depending on the yeast and starting gravity of the cider.

To improve 100% apple cider, apple selection is important, if you have access to cider apples and press them. Here again, finding the proper ratio of apples to use is important in improving the cider.

Others have mentioned important things too like yeast selection, fermentation temperature, aging, tannins, etc. Those are all great suggestions.

I think a great resource for improving cider is a good book. I would recommend Claude Jolicoeur's The New Cider Maker's Handbook: A Comprehensive Guide for Craft Producers

https://www.amazon.com/New-Cider-Makers-Handbook-Comprehensive/dp/1603584730

I’m in 8b (PNW) so pollination times will be slightly different for you, but there is excellent information on different varieties here:

https://cider.wsu.edu/ciderweb/#l-r

And as far as making the cider and perfecting your blend, I’d look to this book. I have every book I can find in cidermaking and this one is hands down the most comprehensive.

The New Cider Maker's Handbook: A Comprehensive Guide for Craft Producers https://smile.amazon.com/dp/1603584730/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_fabt1_slRUFbEDF0SQ7

I have every book I can find about making cider and this one is the most complete:

The New Cider Maker's Handbook: A Comprehensive Guide for Craft Producers

https://smile.amazon.com/dp/1603584730/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_fab_pBZDFb0PDGXJK

I have this: https://www.amazon.ca/New-Cider-Makers-Handbook-Comprehensive/dp/1603584730 And this: https://www.amazon.ca/Craft-Cider-Making-Andrew-Lea/dp/1904871984

The basic keys to avoid bad batches (I found out by making bad batches) are: - Avoid contamination... get sulphite into it asap, keep everything hospital-clean. -Keep primary fermentation temps low, like 12-15 deg. celcius

I didn't use any splenda, so mine is very dry, pretty tart... but no vinegar or off-flavors....

Honestly, I didn't even check the spec. gravity when I racked... But I think cleanliness and temps are way more important than most other factors.

I came here to recommend the same book! Here's a link to it on Amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/The-Cider-Makers-Handbook-Comprehensive/dp/1603584730/ref=pd_bxgy_14_img_2?ie=UTF8&refRID=1P8SN20X1P4XJRWMP1SD

First, do you have a hydrometer? If not get one, no point trying to make alcoholic ferments without one.

You've got a few strategies if you want to make a fizzy alcoholic ginger beer with residual sweetness. Adding more ginger is easy enough if you're looking for more zing, so I'll focus on the sweetness and carbonation.

Two beginner strategies are:

1) You can start with the amount of sugar needed for the desired ABV, let it ferment to dryness and backsweeten for carbonation and sweetness. This is how most beginner homebrewers approach beer and cider. So after your initial ferment has gone completely dry, you'll be adding more carefully measured sugar (often called priming sugar) and then bottling in sealed vessels. Fermentation will recommence because of the new sugar. This fermentation in the pressurized environment of the sealed bottles is what carbonates your ginger beer. However, if you want it to carbonate in the bottles and yet retain sweetness you'll have to halt the fermentation in the bottles once the desired carbonation level has been reached. An easy way to tell that your bottles have carbed up is by filling one disposable plastic water bottle, it will be squishable at first, with your fingers, but once it's carbonated it will be hard. this process can take a week or months, depending primarily on the yeast and the temperature. Once your bottles are carbonated you'll want to stop fermentation or else your end result won't be sweet, and more importantly it may also end up over-carbonated, possibly resulting in exploding bottles. The easiest way to stop fermentation once you've reached the desired level of carbonation is to stick your bottles in the fridge. But if someone takes one out and leaves it on the counter overnight, it might blow up, so don't do this if you plan on giving any away. Another method to stop fermentation in the bottle is pasteurization. Just be careful not to go over 65 degree F or you'll end up with caramelized sugars and a cooked flavor.

2) If bottle conditioning seems intimidating you can always use a soda stream to force carbonate. In this case you can either do as above and ferment to dryness and backsweeten or start with all the sugar needed to both produce the desired ABV and sweetness... either way you'll halt fermentation at the desired sweetness and abv through cold crashing, pasteurizing, or potasium metabisulfite and then force carb on demand with the soda stream.

There are of course more advanced techniques, but they involve more equipment. If you're interested in learning more about making carbonated alcoholic beverages, I'd suggest learning about cider making, it's far more accessible than beer making and doesn't (generally) need all the special equipment. One of the best books is The New Cider Maker's Handbook... it's both accessible and comprehensive, with the utmost respect for slow craft fermentation.

Also /r/homebrewing and /r/cider are great place to ask questions as well. If you post this same question to /r/homebrewing I'm sure you'll be inundated with responses. (though give them the disclaimer that you are new to alcoholic fermentation, don't own a hydrometer and are a total noob looking for recipes and advice, they'll be more helpful that way)

And lastly, I just now, belatedly read the recipe you used, and it's pretty lame. The foodnetwork is not a great place to learn how to make alcoholic beverages. Google 'alcoholic ginger beer recipe', search /r/homebrewing for 'ginger beer', search homebrewtalk.com forums... there are dozens of better, more detailed recipes out there. Trust me, if you do, it will be better next time around.

This was according to http://www.amazon.com/The-Cider-Makers-Handbook-Comprehensive/dp/1603584730 The book is well worth a read.