Grandfather made and was known for his hard cider but unfortunately passed away before his technique was passed on. Never cared for the commercially available stuff that I would occasionally sample - too syrupy and over carbonated with too many questionable ingredients.
I ended up with a bottle of commercially made hard cider recently and initially just shelved it. Came across it recently and on reading the label saw there were only 2 ingredients, organic apples and yeast. The ABV was listed as 6%. It was JK's Scrumpy Hard Cider. Figured it was worth a try.
It was great. Tasted to me like what I imagine old school back in the day hard cider might have been. Simple ingredients and good tasting without a bunch of presumptions, it might have been like what Ben Franklin praised or why John Chapmen planted all those trees. And i learned a new word - scrumpy.
I plan on trying to make something similar (hopefully) with the minimal ingredients folks used back when. We'll see how it goes. Never brewed anything before so it should be fun.
If anyone has experience with making hard cider I'm certainly open to tips, suggestions and the like.
