Ice Cider

moonwolf · #1 10/30/04, 12:37 PM

I was listening to our CBC radio and a person from Quebec talked about making Ice Cider. From the interview, she mentions harvesting apples and exposing them over the winter to freeze/thaw fermentation and collecting the sweet concentrate to make a delicious cider the following spring. Takes a year for the 'wine' to be ready to drink.
Sounds pretty interesting.

Anyone make Ice Cider before?

Rich

SRSLADE · #2 10/30/04, 12:42 PM

Sounds like hard cider.

moonwolf · #3 10/30/04, 12:44 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SRSLADE

Sounds like hard cider.

How would it taste if made from crab apples???

Freeholder · #4 10/30/04, 01:30 PM

Actually, it sounds like applejack, which is hard liquor. Hard cider is no more alcoholic than wine. Understand, I'm not speaking from experience, at least not with applejack (we've had a jug of cider or two go hard over the years), just from what I've read!

Kathleen in Oregon

moonwolf · #5 10/30/04, 01:44 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BlueJuniperFarm

Actually, it sounds like applejack, which is hard liquor. Hard cider is no more alcoholic than wine. Understand, I'm not speaking from experience, at least not with applejack (we've had a jug of cider or two go hard over the years), just from what I've read!

Kathleen in Oregon

I don't have any experience with making cider, either.
But isn't hard cider made from crushing fresh apples and processing it from there. In the case of ICE CIDER, apparently it's the element of freeze/thaw keeping the apples over winter time and not using the fresh apples. She also mentioned that Mackintosh apples were best used for this, and the alchloic content was that of wine. I think they collected what remained of something like 12 quarts of apples to make a liter of the concentrate which then seemed to be processed in fermenting it like wine. That was done in early spring, so by the next late summer or fall ended up with this delicious 'ice cider'. They definitely called it ICE CIDER and not Hard Cider or Applejack?

SRSLADE · #6 10/30/04, 04:29 PM

Hard cider. Squeeeeeze apples all sorts together. Emmmmmmm. Put juice in a wooden barrel put bung in barrel. Let stand in cool place untill hard. I think about4-6 months. This is very strong. Yes, maybe like wine. If you like somthing stronger let cider get hard then freeze barrel put hole into center of cider and you will get some pretty hard booze. As alcohol does'nt freeze.Next we could talk of sap beer. real birch beer and other such things.Lets start a post how to make the booze of your area.

moonwolf · #7 10/30/04, 06:20 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SRSLADE

Hard cider. Squeeeeeze apples all sorts together. Emmmmmmm. Put juice in a wooden barrel put bung in barrel. Let stand in cool place untill hard. I think about4-6 months. This is very strong. Yes, maybe like wine. If you like somthing stronger let cider get hard then freeze barrel put hole into center of cider and you will get some pretty hard booze. As alcohol does'nt freeze.Next we could talk of sap beer. real birch beer and other such things.Lets start a post how to make the booze of your area.

Again, the lady talked about this particular method which didn't involve Squeezing apples before putting in a cool place. It specifically called for a process of the weather in freezing and thawing conditions 'naturally' that breakdown the apples into a concentrate (the water is removed at some point of thawing..I'm not sure at what stage that is, though). The concentrate (with less water) was not alcolholic until the concentrate was used in fermentation to make a 'wine'.
I know ICE WINE is made from certain grapes nipped by frost and then mashed to get the juice for fermentation. This apple ICE Cider isn't the same idea.

Jen H · #8 10/30/04, 06:48 PM

A friend of mine who runs a different cidery is trying ice cider this year. His plan is to grind the apples, freeze them, and collect just the syrupy liquid at the very bottom of the container - very similar to the way ice wine is made. Just the syrupy concentrate will be fermented. He's doing this with Esopus Spitzenburg, Golden Russet, and Hyslop crab apple.

I haven't heard of anyone just freezing the whole apples and letting them break down by themselves. I might have to try that next year (all my apples are squished now).

seedspreader · #9 10/30/04, 07:06 PM

Found out from google, that Ice Cider is highly revered by our neighbors to the north (Uhh, that's Canada for those who don't know better).

Here is a quote from a site that sells it:

Quote:

Tout comme le vin, le cidre peut vieillir et, comme le vin de glace, on peut faire du cidre de glace. Cider matures, just like wine, and may also be processed as ice cider, using frozen, late-picked apples, or simply by freezing picked crops. Whether in juice or must form, the freezing principle still applies, i.e. conserving the fruit's natural water content.

Ice cider goes very well with dessert dishes and is usually served in small port glasses.

That was from this site: http://www.domainesteinbach.com/en/cidre.html

There is some more info here: http://www.talisman.com/cider/curyr/1118

And finally the best place to find info (I think) is to send an email to this guy: drbeer@doctorbeer.com who seems like the man in the know.

SRSLADE · #10 10/30/04, 07:55 PM

How do you know she was a lady? Booze is Booze.

moonwolf · #11 10/30/04, 07:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SRSLADE

How do you know she was a lady? Booze is Booze.

:haha:

moonwolf · #12 10/30/04, 08:05 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jen H

A friend of mine who runs a different cidery is trying ice cider this year. His plan is to grind the apples, freeze them, and collect just the syrupy liquid at the very bottom of the container - very similar to the way ice wine is made. Just the syrupy concentrate will be fermented. He's doing this with Esopus Spitzenburg, Golden Russet, and Hyslop crab apple.

I haven't heard of anyone just freezing the whole apples and letting them break down by themselves. I might have to try that next year (all my apples are squished now).

Thanks, Jen H
Yes,This is more on the track. Perhaps the 'natural' method to leave them out to freeze and refreeze makes it a bit different taste by breaking down gradually.. I'm sure they said that apples were whole and by freezing eventually released liquid to the bottom. It's a winter time process over months. They also mentioned that natural exposure to sun and the dark long night freezing was an element that gave Ice Cider it's best taste. I'de like to hear how the outcome is.

Jen H · #13 10/30/04, 10:38 PM

"I'de like to hear how the outcome is."

I know I can get a sample of Drew's (my friend) ice-cider when it's done. I'll let you know what it tastes like. This is definitely something I need to play around with next year...

moonwolf · #14 10/31/04, 12:33 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jen H

"I'de like to hear how the outcome is."

I know I can get a sample of Drew's (my friend) ice-cider when it's done. I'll let you know what it tastes like. This is definitely something I need to play around with next year...

Let us know, Jen.
I want to try making ice cider next year, too. That gives me plenty of time to study up on it, maybe figure out where that drunk 'lady' from Quebec can give further details. :haha: Mackintosh isn't as tart as a crab apple, but I'm curious how it would work using crabapples, or maybe the less tart Rescue crabapples which are also a little bigger.