This is the second season using "au natural" fermentation, this time with ice apples. I learned this technique from an 1872 article in Atlantic Magazine by Henry David Thoreau, titled "Wild Apples".
Thoreau described methods the western homesteaders were using to make alcohol from apples. I did take it a bit to extreme with the frozen apples, but it has turned out to be my best "fizzy hard cider" yet.
There are a few old trees I have access to, that hold onto most of their apples until after the leaves have fallen, then we wait until the fruit has frozen and thawed a few times, before shaking them off the trees onto tarps below on a cold morning - easy peasy. By the time we have the apples back to the press, they are nearly thawed, and we proceed to press them whole - no need to run them through the crusher. They give up the sweetest cider of the season, and I ferment the cider straight from the press into a carboy - no boiling, no yeast, just like old times. The natural yeast in the skin of the apples does the job, and when finished, I bottle it with some added sugar, so it carbonates in the bottle for a nice bubbly hard cider.
Cheers!
MT
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