CIDERCRAFT Magazine

When the harvest gives you less, you learn to savor what remains.

After a devastating late frost swept through Pennsylvania’s South Mountain Fruit Belt, Ploughman Cider is entering its 10th anniversary with a smaller crop, but plenty worth celebrating.

Seven generations of farming and a decade of thoughtful cidermaking have shaped every bottle. Now, Ploughman is marking the milestone with orchard dinners, special events, and Stark X Barrel Reserve, an anniversary cider that brings the story full circle.

Read the full story through the link in our comment section.
Story by Stasia Brewczynski

REPOST

Thanks to for tagging us and giving us a glimpse of this brilliant red-fleshed Malus niedzwetzkyana from Vista Ridge. Major bonus if you show us baby sheep. 🐑

Cidermakers, keep the harvest scenes coming. Tag CIDERCRAFT Magazine and use to be featured and shared on our channels.

A cider is bone dry. So why does your brain swear it tastes sweet? 🍐

Part of the answer may be esters, aromatic compounds created during fermentation that contribute fruity and floral aromas to cider.

Think pear, banana, pineapple, berries and even candy-like notes. Because our brains associate many of those aromas with sweetness, they can influence how sweet a cider seems, even when very little residual sugar is present.

Acid enters the equation, too. Higher acidity can make a cider feel sharper and drier, while softer acidity can allow those fruity aromas and flavors to read sweeter.

In other words, “dry” on paper and “dry” to your senses aren't always exactly the same thing.

Cider makers and cider drinkers: Have you ever had a cider you swore tasted sweet, only to find out it was technically dry? What do you think was fooling your palate?

What started with a family, an unused piece of land and an unexpected frost has grown into one of Ontario’s most exciting cider stories.

At 1818 farm and cidery, wild apples and community support laid the foundation for a cidery now rooted in 680 cider-specific varieties, slow fermentations, and a distinctly local sense of place. Just a few years in, their flagship Golden Child was named Canadian Cider of the Year.

Read the full story to discover how a family farm in Carp is helping shape the next chapter of Ontario cider. Find the link in the comment section!

Story by Emily Hutto

Tonight’s side dish could use a splash of cider!

These spiced cider-braised carrots show off cider’s savory side with warm spices, creamy feta, fresh mint and pistachios.

See what happens when cider hits the roasting pan! Find the recipe in the comments!

Recipe by Maya Alderman
Featuring: Downeast Cider House's Imperial Original

Long before backsweetening, modern filtration and today’s cider-making technology, there was keeving.

This centuries-old technique uses a long, slow fermentation process to essentially deprive yeast of the nutrients it needs before it can consume all of the apple’s natural sugars. This results in a naturally sweeter cider with residual sugar still coming from the fruit itself.

Sounds simple enough. It isn’t.

Keeving is notoriously time-consuming, labor-intensive and unpredictable. It involves maceration, the formation of the wonderfully named chapeau brun (“brown hat”), careful racking and a whole lot of patience. But when everything goes right, the result can be an incredibly complex expression of the apple.

We dug deep into the mysterious craft of keeving back in 2018, and with all the recent conversation around sweetness, tannins and cider technique, we thought this one deserved another pour.

Cidermakers, we want to hear from you: Do you keeve? Have you experimented with it? And is it worth the trouble?

Read the story from our archives at the link in our comments.

HARVEST IS AMONG US!

Cideries, we want a behind-the-scenes look at what harvest looks like for you!

From apples and pears coming off the trees to bins rolling in, pressing, fresh juice, fermentation and everything in between, take us along for the ride.

And don't just show us the pretty stuff. Give us the muddy boots, sticky floors, early mornings, long days, temperamental equipment and all the beautiful chaos that comes with harvest.

Share your photos, videos, Reels and Stories, tag CIDERCRAFT Magazine and use so we can follow along.

We’ll be sharing our favorites throughout harvest season, giving cider and perry lovers a peek at the people, places and hard work behind what ends up in their glass. 🍎🍐

Consider this your annual warning: the fall ciders are coming.

Pumpkin spice. Apple pie. Cinnamon. Maple. Cranberry. Maybe even a few things that didn't grow in the orchard. 😉

And you know what? We're here for it.

We love a beautifully made cider that lets the apple do all the talking. We also love seeing cider makers experiment with fruits, spices, botanicals and flavors that give us something completely different to drink.

Because wouldn't cider be awfully boring if everyone made it exactly the same way?

Drink the dry cider. Drink the funky cider. Drink the single-varietal cider. Drink the pumpkin-spiced cider that tastes like fall in a glass.

There's room at the table for all of it.

And cider makers, we want to hear from you! What special fall or seasonal releases do you have coming? Tell us what's hitting the taproom, tasting room or shelves this fall so we can start making our must-try list. 🍎🍂

Portland Cider Co.
Nine Pin Cider
2 Towns Ciderhouse
Seattle Cider Company
American Cider Association

Look for structure. Ciders with noticeable tannin and bright acidity are often better equipped to evolve over time. Traditional cider apples, including bittersweets and bittersharps, can provide the tannins that soften and integrate as a cider ages while acidity helps keep things fresh and lively.

Farmhouse, bottle-conditioned and higher-alcohol ciders can also be good candidates for the cellar, depending on how they're made.

And what happens while you're waiting? Sharp edges can soften, tannins can become more integrated and fresh fruit flavors can evolve into deeper, more complex notes.

Of course, aging isn't automatically an upgrade. Some ciders are at their absolute best young, bright and fresh.

The best clue? Ask the cidermaker. If they tell you a bottle has aging potential, buy two: one for now and one to forget about for a while.

What's the oldest bottle of cider you're currently holding onto? Drop into the comments and tag the cidery it's from!

What’s your favorite cider apple?

Is it basic to say Kingston Black? Asking for a friend. Bittersweet, bold, and basically made for cider, there’s a reason this little apple has earned such a big reputation.

But we want to hear yours. What cider apple gets your vote?