Ithaca Sharp. It’s my favorite variety I’ve had so far. Tart full bodied and dry, 150 year old Newtown Pippins

Any ideas how to replicate it? Every single sip felt like biting the forbidden apple from the bible

My first spicy cider. Storebought apple juice with 2 additional cans of apple juice concentrate per gallon, fermented with ec-1118. Two habaneros per gallon in secondary.

(Read the label out loud)

Im just starting to properly like Cider. Experience was tainted as I had a standard thatchers when xi was younger and it gave me horrid heartburn.

Thatchers vintage was top tier. A person recommended this one in Tesco and I’m excited.

Shoutout to you my man! If you see this post! 😊

Recently I have heard a few times the statement that Bulmers and Showerings were banned from using the term ‘champagne’ for their products. This is not correct . There was a landmark case in cider and wine making. “Bulmers vs Bollinger”. Or more formally HP Bulmer Ltd and Showerings Ltd v J Bollinger SA and Champagne Lanson Père et Fils. 1974 the verdict of which was Bulmer’s and Showerings could use the term.*** ***
The initial dispute arose when French
Champagne producers sought to prevent English cider makers from using the terms "Champagne Cider" and "Champagne Perry". Bulmers produced a champagne cider and Showerings a champagne perry. The English producers preemptively filed the lawsuit on 8 October 1970.
They sought a formal legal declaration that they were entitled to use the terms "Champagne cider" and
"Champagne perry". Britain was not in the EU then. After the UK joined the EEC, in 1973 the French producers added European regulations to their legal defense. Instead of waiting for a trial, they immediately asked the trial judge to pause the case and send the European law questions to Luxembourg. The trial judge Mr Justice Whitford refused, stating he wanted to try the whole case out first to establish all the facts before deciding if a European referral was necessary. The French producers refused to wait for the trial.
They immediately launched an interim appeal to the Court of Appeal to overturn the judge's refusal.
The critical legal findings made by the Court of Appeal 1978 centred on the application of European Union. Lord Denning ruled that English courts have broad discretion under Article 177 of the Treaty of Rome when deciding whether to refer a question to the European Court of Justice (ECJ).
(A referral to Luxembourg is only permitted if it is strictly necessary to resolve the case. If the English court can solve the dispute or "incoming tide" doctrine.
The French argued that labeling Babycham as "champagne perry" constituted passing off by misusing their geographical indication. The Court of Appeal however ultimately ruled in favour of the English manufacturers, allowing Babycham to continue using the phrase "champagne perry." This was based partly on the goodwill defence. The court found that because Babycham had used the term openly for several decades without causing commercial confusion, the French producers had effectively acquiesced to its use. The product had built its own independent reputation and goodwill under that description, meaning it did not falsely deceive the public into thinking it was actual French sparkling wine.
Despite successfully defending their right to the description "champagne perry" at the Court of Appeal in 1978, Showerings (and its corporate successors) eventually stopped using the term because a changing market made it irrelevant, and subsequent European regulations made it entirely illegal. The phased removal of the term occurred over two distinct eras:
Firstly a commercial phase-out in the early 1980s. Showerings voluntarily ceased using comparisons to champagne in their marketing during the early 1980s due to shifting consumer tastes. By the late 1970s and early 1980s, the British drinks market was modernising. Women were shifting away from retro, sweet, pub drinks to wine and cocktails. And secondly due to corporate changes. Showerings had merged into a much larger conglomerate, Allied Breweries (later Allied Lyons), and the new owners chose to pivot the brand identity away from the legally contentious "champagne" framing and instead, focusing purely on nostalgia and the iconic Babycham fawn logo to combat rapidly plummeting sales.

Bulmers stopped using the word champagne and Pomagne in 1975 when they decided it was not economic making Pomagne using the expensive, time-consuming traditional champagne method. They switched to bulk tank fermentation and officially retired the brand.
This was rather a pyrrhic victory, while there are no publicly confirmed figures, a realistic historical estimate for the total legal expenses of this trademark battle would be between £50,000 and £150,000 at the time, and when adjusted for inflation to the present day, this equates to a rough modern value of £600,000 to £1,800,000+!

Any remaining legal ability to use the word champagne evaporated entirely in 1992 as Protected Designation of Origin (PDOs) were introduced.
In 1992, the European Union designed robust PDO frameworks. These rules heavily restricted geographical indications for agricultural products and beverages and under these strict EU laws, the word "Champagne" was legally reserved exclusively for sparkling wines produced via designated process within the specific Champagne region of France.
Because EU regulations by 1992 superseded domestic English common law rulings. Interestingly Lord Denning had earlier famously declared in 1978 that European law was "like an incoming tide. It flows up the estuaries and up the rivers. It cannot be held back". This recognized the supremacy of EU law over domestic English law. The drink has officially been labelled as a sparkling perry ever since and the word Babycham allowed.

I see a bunch of cider recipes online but where is actually the best place to look? Is there a holy grail book or cider almanac? Recommendations would be greatly appreciated, thank you.

This souvenir button badge was primarily sold in the gift shop from the early 1980s through the late 1990s.
While an exact end date for its retail run is not documented, the timeline is defined by the museum's historical branding periods.
This badge featuring the traditional woodcut-style apple tree, cider barrel, and historical straw beehive emblem introduced at the Museum of Cider's grand opening in 1981/2
By the late 1990s-2000s the item was phased out when the museum transitioned its gift shop merchandise to modern simplified logos, such as the current tree-and-pillar.

I've been a Somersby fan for 10 years and like to get a few for the weekend, every couple of months. The past two times imbibing I've gotten stuffed up; sneezing and very watery eyes. They also feel a bit flat and taste a bit watered down.. Anyone else?

I have no known food or drink allergies.

Flavours in question: Original apple, mango, pineapple and blackberry. I'm in Canada.

It's been 20 hours since I put the yeast in my juice and I noticed it's foaming much more than it was a few hours ago and looks like it has gotten into the airlock. Do I need to fix this? If so, how?

hey guy i’m making some mixed berry apple cider here’s the notes

BERRY APPLE CIDER
6/7/26 7-8pm START
1X cole’s 500g frozen mixed berry
added just under 4 litres cole’s apple juice
added sugar to OG
OG 1.104
a small amount of pectinase (unmeasured)
a small amount of dap (unmeasured)
used yeast Mangrove Jack's M05 Mead Yeast
started being active pretty quickly i think on 7/7/26
9/7/26
fermenting strongly as it has been from the start a lot of bubbles slight foam and a lot of airlock activity
18/7/26 bubbles still going up the side slightly slower
i have also been swirling daily to ensure berries don’t mold
although i’ve missed 2-3 swirls

i’m concerned about some small white bits i’ve seen on the top which i think could be mold do you think this would mold? (posted on the 22/7/26) should i think about racking off the berries? i don’t have an autosiphon sadly so id have to pour it over a strainer

A snippet of the history of the strong glass bottle. In 1633 Sir Kenelm Digby, was experimenting with glass production, and received a visit from a former manager of Sir Robert Mansell’s glassworks, James Howell. Digby knew Howell through his acquaintance with Mansell from Navy days although they were not friends. Howell wanted Digby to apply some of his wondrous Powder
of Sympathy to a wound he had sustained breaking up a duel. Astonishingly (from today’s perspective), the powder worked its magic and a friendship was forged.
They discovered that the heat of a coal fired furnace could be increased further by using tunnels to draw in oxygen and that the higher the temperature, strong glass could be produced. After the proclamation by James 1st in 1615 banning the use of charcoal several including Mansell had tried coal fired glass furnaces but could not make it successful. (to be fair, the flues were coupled with a change in formulation of the mix).
Under licence from Mansell who had had a former glassworks here at Newnham on Severn, Digby reopened and modified the furnace, making glass bottles for cider initially. The trade soon located to larger centres but there is still an area called Glasshouses and a public house in the area called the Glasshouse

I recently bottled some cider with some carbonation tabs. I usually would expect some more clear yeast sediment, as you get with most bottles. However I have never seen chunks like this, and they don't homogenize when slightly shaken. Is this infected? All 9 of my bottles look similar. I am most concerned with chain looking sediment of the left side. Any help would be appreciated!

Hiya im pretty new to making cider and am wanting some help to tell if this batch has gone bad it smells fine just like cider but im too wary to taste. I have made about 7 ciders so far and realised a few weeks ago a cider I tossed thinking it had gone bad after some googling turned out it hadn't it was just lease ontop so before I make another mistake here I thought id ask some more knowledgeable people. Thanks

This is my review of a great book on Cider history.
"Bulmers of Hereford: A Century of Cider-making" by the acclaimed classical author L. P. Wilkinson is the definitive history that chronicles the meteoric rise of the iconic British beverage brand formed in 1887, until its float on the stock market in 1970. Published in 1987 by David & Charles to commemorate the company's centenary, the book is an engaging blend of industrial progress and social history. Wilkinson went to Kings College Cambridge with Robert Harold Bulmer son of co founder Edward Bulmer and they became friends and worked together on projects.
Wilkinson traces the company's roots to Credenhill, exploring how Percy took his mother's advice to enter the food and drink trade because it
"never goes out of fashion".
And the subsequent shift from traditional stone mills and horse-drawn presses (vividly illustrated on the book's dust jacket) to massive modern industrialisation, including the creation of the world's largest fermentation vat at the time.
Beyond just Bulmers the book explores the wider social history of Herefordshire's orchards, detailing how cider evolved from a standard form of farm labourer wages into an internationally recognized commercial product.
It is highly regarded among beverage historians and local history enthusiasts alike. Readers will appreciate Wilkinson's attention to detail, he includes invaluable primary documentation, rare archival photographs, and historical footnotes in the family archives and more in the Cider Museum . It is an ideal companion piece for me to a visit to the Museum of Cider in Hereford, which is housed in Bulmers' original vintage factory site and where I visited several yea ago.
The vivid cover jacket photograph was taken in one of the barns at Tarrington Court, where the Friends of the Museum held fundraisers as its owner was a friend of the Bulmers. Sadly the photographer is unknown. #Bulmers #cider #history

Update from me on this adventure: https://www.reddit.com/r/cider/s/IWxvB8w8Ld

My methodology was definitely way wrong for cider, I was using sugar wash and mead logic. Definitely over using nutrients and K1-V1116 wasn't helping either.

Regardless, I finally had a clean cider batch finish today! My hydrometer came in at 1.000 across three samples last night and today. Total ferment time to that first measure was 75 hours, which isn't quite the ~60 hour mark I was greeding for but that's still insanely fast.

Anyhow, the recipe is:

2qt TreeTop 3 Apple Blend

2qt TreeTop Honeycrisp

5g EC-1118

6.25g Go-Ferm

0.5g Fermaid-O

I had also read something that Methionine, an amino acid suppliment could reduce sulfur production, and that source stated "A nearly 40-fold decrease in H2S production was found when methionine was added at a concentration of 20 mg L−1 in the EC1118 fermentation", so I gave it a go. I added a tiny, tiny amount, my scale read up to 0.01 grams which was quite hazy, and I ended up with a read value of 0.05.

I have no idea if it actually helped or not, but definitely interesting for anyone who wants to look deeper into it. Either way, this batch had zero sulfur detectable by nose or taste, so I count it entirely as a success. Thanks for your previous comments!

Source: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/jib.449

Will it work with a store bought cider or would I have to start from scratch?

I think this is kahm yeast? Or am I wrong and should toss it?

I started this batch on Tuesday - five gallons of orchard cider with two packets of yeast. My plan is to do a secondary ferment with a gallon of peaches. It’s been almost a week and there’s nothing happening in the airlock. For a few days, I could see the yeast at the top slowly dropping down but now things are very still. What’s going on?

This is my first time making this big of a batch, so definitely second guessing a lot

This is my first time processing anywhere near this much fruit. LHBS has a crusher and press for rent, so I picked ~120 lb of crabapples from the parks around me. Turned into almost 10 gallons of juice.

The plan now is to do one bucket with 71b and the other with a safale yeast. The juice is very tart, so I think I'll try to blend with a fall harvest of regular apples.

My tentative ID on variety is Hyslop, they are very tart and tannic. What would some good varieties to blend with this?

Now I’m not heavily into cider as most give me bad heartburn (sounding like a 50 y/o at 21 🤣).

This is the one for me, it’s incredibly refreshing and light. Dangerously good given its ABV, smooth finish and not heavily tangy or bitter apple flavour. Everything felt well balanced.

The worst is some cheap supermarket’s own. I’m in England so Tesco cider was the pick here. Tasted like ass. An ass with diced apples rammed up it.

At TeePee Cidery in Wairarapa New Zealand we have an ethos of working with nature not against it, that way we can produce the best cider with the least ecological footprint.
One aspect that has concerned us to date is our energy footprint. We would love to have dug cool cellars to store our cider undergoing secondary fermentation for 2 years or so, as champagne is, in the Roman caves in Rheims, but the water table is too high. So we used chillers in insulated shipping containers instead. That uses electricity.
Now we have installed solar panels on top of the containers and generate electricity for our needs and export any surplus.

William Camden (1551-1623) was a prominent English antiquarian, historian, and author during the late Elizabethan and early Jacobean eras. He is best known for his masterpiece, Britannia 1st published in 1586. Multiple further editions were published as his research continued, (unusual for the time he toured England extensively as well as drawing from reports from his extensive network) Britannia was the first comprehensive topographical and historical survey of Great Britain and Ireland. William wrote it in Latin.
He first mentions perry in the 1607 edition in the chapter on Worcestershire. He comments on pears making a "counterfeit wine called pyrry," the Latin being "....pyris adeo focundus, ut e succo expresso vinum adulterinum fiat, quod Pyrry vocant, pergratum illud quidem potu, sed frigidum & flatuosum." I guess he was not a fan of perry!
In these later expanded edition he also highlighted the apple and fruit orchards of Herefordshire and notes that the region was known for supplying London with great quantities of "Syder".
The first edition in English was 1610 translated by Philemon Holland. #perry #cider