Apple Juice
Apple juice key ingredient for hard cider. The quality and properties of the juice will play a major role in the quality of the cider.
Key Qualities
- Sugar Content
- How much sugar there is in to turn into alcohol. Anything left over will add sweetness to the cider. This is usually measured through specific gravity.
- Acidity
- This can be measured as both PH and titratable acidity. The main acid in apples is malic acid.
- Tannins
- These are hard to measure, but provide some of the flavor or body to the cider.
What to Look For
When buying apple juice or sweet cider, you want one that is free of preservatives which will kill the yeast. Pasteurized with ascorbic acid is safe to use and very common.