To make the hard cider I mentioned in my previous post, I very carefully sanitized my primary fermenter, and I added Campden tablets to the cider to kill off any wild yeasts and bacteria that might give it an off flavor. I let it sit for 24 hours and then pitched in a packet of Red Star champagne yeast and put an airlock on the fermenter.
To make cider vinegar I poured cider into a carboy, slapped an airlock on it, and ignored it.
The cider for hard cider took 3 days to start fermenting, but after a week it had fermented all the sugars out. I opened up the fermenter and pulled a sample to taste. It tasted… a little funny. Sort of thin and sharp and not really like apples at all.
The cider for vinegar on the other hand burst into fermentation. From the first day there was 3 inches of foam on top of the cider and the airlock was popping every few seconds as the wild yeasts turned the apples’ sugar into alcohol. I opened it and pulled off a taste. It tasted… splendid! It was bursting with robust apple flavors. Rich and fruity and earthy.
I’m hard-wired and tend to stick with what I planned, but hit me over head hard enough and I’ll alter my plans. The fermented cider intended for hard cider is now the vinegar cider, and the naturally fermented cider for vinegar is now going to be the hard cider for drinking.
My goal in things I cook and ferment is to make them authentic. I’m not trying to recreate a store-bought hard cider, I’m trying to make a cider that tastes exactly like it was made on Skunk Hill. I’m learning less intervention, not more, is the way to get there.
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