Introduction

I have never brewed a cider before, but it’s always been in the back of my mind. With the autumn season quickly approaching, I have actually begun to pick up whatever interesting ciders I find at the store. Ciders are a great beverage that act as a substitute or complement to beer. It’s flavorful, crisp, alcoholic, but also very light. I’m sure there are enough sugars and whatnot to make the caloric intake very similar to a beer, but a cider always feels light. Anyway, with all my home brewing recently, a cider is another concoction that can be easily shared with friends — particularly if they are not beer fans to begin with.

I’m in St. Paul now, home to many of my beer brewing friends. I don’t have my own equipment with me in the North yet, but I will be joining Shawn during his brewing adventures. Apparently his wife’s boss has an apple orchard and picked about 30 pounds of as yet to be identified type of apple and lent Shawn’s family a juicer as well. So our plan for this evening was to throw them in the juicer, and hopefully end up with about 3 gallons of apple cider. And then we are going to ferment it. read more…