Customer Reviews

Cider: Making, Using & Enjoying Sweet & Hard Cider, Third Edition

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I purchased this book as an experienced homebrewer interested in branching out (I also bought The Compleat Meadmaker, which is excellent and helpful). I was *sorely* disappointed. It has nothing of value to teach about brewing of hard ciders. It does have lots of Foxfire-type info on building a cider press, planting an orchard, choosing cultivars, etc. But there is no real guidance for fermenting cider beverages.

If you have a farm and want to press sweet cider, this would seem to be a good book. But if you are interested in "something a little harder," look elsewhere (wish I knew where!).

This is a good book, but more for the orchardist who has apple trees and can make barrel quantities of cider. If you are a 5-10 gallon brewer, this book is not for you.

I am a long time beer brewer, who suddenly decided to switch to cider.
This book starts with planting trees. I didnt want to wait that long.
I wanted recipes! The section on yeast was a real disapointment, it listed one yeast not to use. Elsewhere I have read of the debate over English Ale yeasts or Champagne yeasts. This was the info I wanted.
If you have NEVER brewed this is your book. If you have ever brewed and want to make a batch skip this one, get Paul Correnty's "Art of Cidermaking". Yes its out of print and runs nearly $50.00, but its worth it.

[Review written in Jul 2005]

From a home winemaking standpoint, this book is fairly solid offering - as evidenced by the fact that it's now reached it's 3rd edition (as of this reading, I only own copies of the 1st and 2nd editions).

The authors do a good job of covering all of the essential bases on this topic ... including apple cultivation, the selection of apple varietal blends for making various types of cider, an overview of the pressing and brewing process, an overview of common cider & sanitation problems, how to bottle, etc. I was also impressed by the reasonable level of competence demonstrated in their sections on sulfiting and pH/Acid balancing - topics that all too many amateurs (and more than a few novice pros) gloss over, or naievely (and maddeningly) avoid altogether.

I was blessed with having grown up with a local {fresh-sweet} cidery within easy driving distance, and I've made my own hard ciders and cysers on more than a few occasions ... and this book was very helpful when I was learning the ropes.

I only have a few minor complaints:

1) PERRY: It would have required only minimal effort to expand to book to also cover perry (cider made from pears).

2) NON-DRY SPARKLING HARD CIDER: Most homebrewers who make sparkling cider for the first time invariably wish to retain some residual sweetness in their finished product. Commercial brewers have access to techniques like glycol-chilled centrifuges, large-scale plate filtration, and chaptization combined with force carbonation. Homebrewers on the otherhand, who attempt to bottle a semi-dry cider with the usual 'classic' method of adding priming sugar to a freshly fermented semi-dry cider frequently end up playing Russian roulette with bottles that begin exploding after a few days/weeks/months. It's not pretty. I dont remember (it's been a few years since my last reading of the book) if the earlier editions included information on plate filtration and force carbonation, or, if such was absent, if it's since been added to the 3rd edition. The bottom line is that without force carbonation, the only type of sparkling hard cider you can make with any degree of reliability is bone dry.

3) MINIMUM ORDERS: Prospective homebrewers who approach a local cidery with a request for a custom pressing of a custom blend of apples are usually greeted with either blank stares or with a polite nod, followed by an explanation that they have to meet a certain minimum order size. In the case of my local cidery, the minimum order they'll accept for a custom pressing is 100 gallons ... which far exceeds the capacity of most home brewers (who are usually interested in 5-15 gals a pop). The authors can, and should, have given readers a polite heads up on such things, so that they can be prepared for it and line up some fellow homebrewers to do a group buy-in/brew-in. It's a hard hobby for suburbanites like me. I'm sure I wouldn't have the same problem if I lived in more rural areas ... particularly places like Vermont, Southern England, and Normandy France, all of whom have strong cidermaking traditons.

4) PASTEURIZATION: I dont recall if the authors covered the trend adequately in their earlier editions, and I dont know if they addressed it adequately in their latest edition, but there's a growing problem confronting prospective homemakers of small-batch hard cider. In recent years, in response to a damnably lawsuit happy public, many local cideries have stopped selling unpasteurized fresh sweet-cider to the general public ... most cideries pasturize their cider prior to sale now. Here's an example of a local cidery's announcement. Unfortunately for homebrewers like me, the pasteurization process weakens/mutes (or destroys completely, depending on the method used) many of the delicate flavor nuances that don't emerge from a sweet cider until AFTER you ferment off most of the sugar. It's like playing a scratch-n-sniff game ... you sometimes don't know if the result is good until weeks/months *after* you ferment off the sugar masking all the fine nuances.

In any case, even though (if I recall) the authors gloss over a few minor areas, they do give you most of the tools you need to make great cider. For those who've never had the pleasure of experiencing it, the difference between a hard cider made from unpasteurized juice (from custom blended single varietal apples), as compared to that made from pastaurized juice from generic all-purpose 'sweet' cider blends is akin to the difference between a fine artisan cheese and an insipid block of velveeta. It's worth the effort.

Bottom line: I can firmly recommend this book to any homebrewers who wish to experiment with cider. It's a good choice, for both amateur and hardcore (pun intended) brewers alike,

Now in a third and expanded and revised edition, Cider: Making, Using & Enjoying Sweet & Hard Cider by collaborative authors Annie Proulx and Lew Nichols (who is the owner and operator of the Vershire Cidery in Vershire, Vermont) is a straightforward, "user friendly", step-by-step handbook to building an apple press, creating delicious apple ciders (including sweet, hard, blended, and sparkling ciders), using cider as an ingredient to enhance kitchen cooking, planting a personal home orchid, and more. Cider is an enthusiastically recommended history of cider, as well as being a superb and all-inclusive resource, an accessibly written how-to manual, and a specialized cookbook for anyone who enjoys and appreciates the delicious taste of a homemade cider.

This book has most of the information you would need. A detailed plan to build your own press is included, but so are pointers on obtaining the services of a local orchard's press. Advice is given in selecting apples to grow, rootstock considerations, planting and soil fertility, while also suggesting that others might have some worthwhile advice, like local growers or nurserymen. (I personally suggest, for northern growers, St. Lawrence Nurseries.) Descriptions for classic American apples used in cider are geared toward the cider-maker or grower, and since many of these cannot be grown succesfully in Canada, there are apple recommendations for cider-making in Canadian Provinces. Mention is made of European cider apples, but since these are hard to come by (another suggestion for a source of trees is Cummins Nursery - they also have a smart range of dwarfing rootstock options,) why not grow some of your own cider varieties from seed? A good description and illustration of grafting is given, which can be a good way to replicate trees that you've found to be useful in cider-making. I find in this book, possibly because it is a 3rd edition and written by a pair of authors, that different perspectives are explored: As a cider-maker, do you blend and press your apples all together, or, can you achieve greater control by making individual presses and blending them at bottling? All options are explored. Instructions for making apple cider vinegar are here. There are also, for historical purposes, descriptions of how apple brandy and applejack are made, as well as some great-sounding recipes utilizing cider. Results of a tasting-panel sampling of several commercial hard ciders is shown, along with an introduction to having your own sampling, or taking individual tasting notes of ciders. A few sections could use a mild editing by a horticulturist; an example being about pruning: they say to make pruning cuts flush to the trunk, but actually it is best to leave that small projection where the branch is flaring out (the collar), else it doesn't heal quickly. But it would also be a mistake to leave too much stub. This is why I said at the beginning, that this book provides most of the information you need. Other sources might be University Extension bulletins or a good book on growing apples organically, which makes sense for cider-making, not requiring picture-perfect apples. Of course, there are probably dozens more known apple varieties that would make fine cider that the size of this book just didn't allow to be described. Another book I've read mentions that 'King David' makes a great hard cider all by itself. Sixty varieties are described in "The Best Apples To Buy And Grow", which I've also reviewed, and might be a good companion book to Cider.

The book on cider making by Annie Prolux has been extremely helpful and a lot of fun to read. The author starts with a step-by-step outline of the process, so you can 'jump right in', but then proceeds with lots of additional information, depending on how sophisticated you want to be about the process. She supplements with pictures and tables where necessary. As a homebrewer, I really appreciated her discussion of the chemistry of the fermentation process and the different add-ins. After reading the book, I feel very comfortable approaching the Fall apple season!

This is an excellent book. Starting to explain which equipment you need and how to do it. Shows the way steb by steb to make fresh and delicious sweet and hard ciders, including blended and sparkling ciders.Gives you the necessary information to choose the appropriate apple varieties. Plan and Plant your very own home orchard for the freshest batch of cider ever and finally shows you how to build your own cider press.

This book explain with detail everything you need to make delicious cider

I suggest everyone to have this book.

This book seems most appropriate for someone who wants to have their own orchard AND make cider. A lot of the information is all about planting and establishing an orchard leaving little real estate to actually talk about making cider. It was a little disapointing to me because I was expecting it to be the cider equivalent of Home Cheese Making: Recipes for 75 Delicious Cheeses or Charcuterie: The Craft of Salting, Smoking, and Curing, which talk about how to make these products in an artisanal fashion but not about the raising of the animals.

The bottom line is this, if you're interested in opening your own orchard and going through the whole process from seed to bottle this could be valuable. However, if you're only interested in cidermaking you will find that a lot of the book is dedicated to growing apple trees and not specifically to making great cider.

I've been making cider for over thirty years and my family for generations. I've learned a few things about cider I never thought about before and I'm a stickler for details. Novices should consider this as their number one source for information unless they can get in touch with me. ;-)