What is Cider?

Cider in its simplest form is fermented apple juice. Sometimes sugar or raisins may be added to raise the alcohol content and sometimes spices are added for flavors.

In the United States, cider is known as "hard cider", and "cider" refers to dark colored apple juice. In other English-speaking countries, "cider" is assumed to be an alcoholic beverage, and unfermented apple juice is simply called apple juice, regardless of its color.

Main articles

 Apple Juice
 Cider making Process
 Cider Equipment
 Styles of Cider
 Serving your Cider
 Cider Glossary
 Terms and abbreviations

The History Of Home brewing Cider

For at least 2,000 years, humans have been making apple cider wherever they could grow the fruit. In America between 1650 and 1850, almost every Yankee farmer had a basement full of cider barrels, and hard cider was on the table for each meal. By the mid-19th century, however, cider was being supplanted by beer, and cider making was eventually singled out for suppression by the temperance movement. In most apple-growing regions of the world today, the term cider means a beverage made from the juice of milled apples that has been collected in large barrels and fermented with yeast, like grape wines. Only in North America is fresh or sweet cider a popular drink. Elsewhere, fresh cider is either processed into apple juice, fermented to make hard cider, or fermented and then distilled and blended to make apple brandy, applejack, or eau-de-vie.

The Makings of a Good Cider by Ian A. Merwin