Accidental Hard Cider, On Purpose

Last weekend we pressed cider, put 10 gallons down for fermentation, and have been drinking or have given away another six gallons of sweet mill cider.

Two years ago when we pressed we had a happy accident; three gallons got left in a carboy on the back porch on Sunday night, by Monday night the heat of the day had started the natural yeast fermenting and blown the stopper off, further exposing it to our local wild yeast.

Not knowing what else to do we let it work.

It sat on the back porch for a week, blowing its cork daily for awhile until I jammed a fermentation lock into it. Still we didn’t have time to get it into the house and settled, and since it had sat for several days in 90 F weather, with at least an hour or two of late afternoon direct sun, we figured it was pretty much ruined.

So we let it work.

By the next Saturday, we had a three-gallon carboy full of pretty clear cider with an inch of sediment working vigorously. Although we considered dumping it, it seemed to be doing fine, so we brought into the house, topped up the lock, and let it work.

We fussed and fiddled with the remaining 10 gallons we put down, adding honey and other exotic ingredients. Five gallons were undrinkable for nearly a year; the remaining five proved explosive (popping pint beer bottles from time to time in the basement) and not very good.

The little jug of forgotten cider, however, sat on its lees for several weeks (or was it months?), as we just let it work.

When it finally slowed up, and we racked it and bottled it, it had the best unmatured flavor of the bunch. And in fact as it matured it developed into a delicious, clear, sparkling, strongly apple-tasting cider with no hint of the usual yeast overtones that take months to die in the bottle.

That year, the day we pressed had been an unusually cool weekend. We had a fire in the fire pit, and the wood smoke wafted over us as the family washed and sorted apples and watched as the cider poured from the bottom of the press. Then, on the Monday after pressing, with our little lost three-gallon carboy sitting outside, unseasonable 90F + weather struck.

We had already resolved to try to recreate our happy accident, so it was lovely and fitting when, the Sunday of our big pressing. we had an overnight low of 45 F (!) and the Monday after it dawned 90F plus!

I left the cider in the heat again, although I did pop an air lock on sooner this time to avoid getting vinegar and general contamination (hoping that our wild yeast either came on the apples or lived on the press or settled during pressing).

Yesterday, I brought both bottles into the house after a week of sunshine-semi-pasturization. This morning, they are both working well, and clearing, indoors. Cross your fingers!

If all goes well we will be bottling 10 gallons on our semi-traditional Christmas Eve (or at least Winter Break) with good drinkable cider by February and great cider by March.

Or not. The brewing gods are like that; stay tuned!