All You Need To Know About Hard Cider

http://thethrillsociety.com is your link to Thrilling Stuff! This article is just a taste!

Brief History

Hard Cider is prepared from the fermented juice of apples. Although any variety of apples can be used but the juice of Cider Apples is heavenly and makes the best hard cider. The beverage is popular among the citizens of United Kingdom. The history of fermenting apples goes back as far as 55 BC when the Romans reached Kent, England and saw the English enjoying this drink. Hard Cider was considered as the Holy Grail among the English and was so sacred to them that they baptized their children with it. Between the 14^th and 17^th century the around a quarter of the working population in England were paid in cider.

In the 18^th century a missionary John Chapman commonly known as Johnny Appleseed – orchard starter takes the brought cider apples to America. He made nurseries of cider apple trees in Ohio River Regions and The Great Lakes. It was a matter of time when a small nursery of cider apples could be spotted in most of the homes.

Making Of Hard Cider

Scratting and Pressing: Cider-makers who believe in producing the best Hard Cider prefer to use cider apples exclusively. With time and experience cider making has become an art, selective breeding is now used to cultivate cider apples to enhance the taste of the final product.

The apples collected from the orchards are scratted and made into pulp or pomace.Electricity has replaced the traditional methods of scratting where it was done by using stones or in traditional cider mills run on horse-power or driven by hand. Layers of cider pulp known as cheeses is transferred in cider press and built into a block. The set of block is then exposed to high temperature till all the juice is drained from the pomace. Before being put into casks or large open containers the juice is strained through a large hair-sieve and left for fermentation.

Fermentation: “Slow and Steady Wins the Taste” is what we can say for Hard Cider. It is believed to taste best if it is allowed to ferment’s slowly. Hence a temperature of 4-16 degrees C (40 – 60 degree F) is considered best for its fermentation. Yeast such as Saccharomyces bayanus is added for fermentation of the beverage or it is left to the natural yeast to do their job.

Just before fermentation can consume all the sugar the juice is racked into new containers leaving the grime at the bottom of the old containers. It is made sure to fill the containers to the brim making sure there is no space for air so that the liquor does not come in contact with acetic bacteria. The remaining sugar in the liquid produces carbon dioxide forming a layer on it and protecting it from air contact. More sugar can be added at this stage specifically for this process. Racking can be repeated if the liquor is found to be cloudy.

Various flavours or fruit purees of fruits such as cranberry, grape, cherry and raspberry are used to make variations. The Hard Cider is ready to drink after three months but for better result it is left to mature in the casks for three years or more to get the flamboyance in the liquor.

Blending and Bottling: Ciders made from different varieties of apples are blended to suit the taste of market. High quality of ciders is made by using the champagne method, which is an expensive process as it requires special bottles, corks and other equipment. People who make cider at home normally use beer bottles for bottling which is economical.

read more at: http://thethrillsociety.com/all-you-need-to-know-about-hard-cider/

Tequila – Get Educated Before Your Next Shot

http://thethrillsociety.com is your link to Thrilling Stuff! This article is just a taste!

History and Where It Is Made

Tequila is a drink that is known to have originated from the Western sides of Mexico. The drink is highly valued in Mexico and consumers of the drink tend to praise it as far as term it as the best spirit in the world. It is an agave base spirit and it is created or manufactured mainly in the areas around Tequila, Jalisco. This area is approximately 65 kilometers towards the area of the northwest of Guadalajara. The area contains plenty of volcanic soils and the presence of it makes it possible for supporting growth of the cactus-like-blue plant called the agave. The area around tequila, thus produces an amount of approximately 300 million of the cactus like blue plant in a year that is used to make tequila. By the law of the Mexican state, tequila should only be produced in the areas around Jalisco. Other permitted areas are few in number and they include areas around the states of Guanajuato, Michoacán, Tamaulipas and in Nayarit.

History

The history of tequila is known to date back to the 16th century in the area near the city of tequila. The city was officially established in the year 1666. There was a creation of a fermented beverage that was made from the agave plant. This beverage was made a long time by the Aztec people even before the arrival of people from Spain. This was the path to the founding of tequila.

About a time of 80 years from then, a rich ranch owner called Don Pedro Sanchez de Tagle, started the creation of tequila in large amounts at a factory that was situated somewhere in today’s Jalisco. The products produced by the factory of Don Pedro were good and they sold to a lot of customers in the region and some from outside the region. The colonial governor of Nueva Galicia noticed this and even started taxing Don Pedro’s products.

The first official license to be handed to a producer that was handed to the Cuervo family by the king of Spain at that time was known as Carlos who was the fourth of his name. Don Sauza was the creator of Sauza Tequila and he was also the president in terms of the municipality of the town of tequila. The first exportation of tequila to the United States was mainly masterminded by him. After this, Tequila became modernized very fast and legitimate companies and distributors emerged to form the current worldwide demand, manufacture and distribution of Tequila.

How Tequila is Made

Tequila is made from the blue agave plant. Piña is extracted from mature blue agave plants. The hearts of the piña are then opened by splitting them; afterwards they are steamed in huge pressure cookers. The extracted fluid from the pressure cooked heart of the piña is left to ferment and takes about 12 days. The time of fermentation depends on the amount of sugar, water, temperature and the type of yeast.

After fermentation, the fluid is taken through a double distillation process. From this process, the product derived is potent, high-proof tequila. The color of the tequila until this point is of a colorless nature. The different colors of different tequilas can then be added using different processes to bring out the desired color. For example the gold tequila is made to be so in color by adding caramel coloring. Some of the different tequilas are colored by allowing them to age for either a longer or a shorter period depending on the suitable color. 

Types of Tequila

There are two main types of tequila, the Tequila Mixto which is a mixed type and the 100% Blue Agave. Tequila Mixto consists of about 51% of blue agave and the other part of it is from different sugars mostly from sugar cane. Mixto tequila allows the additions of other products like the caramel color, the oak extract flavoring, sugar based syrup and glycerin. Dividing the two categories of tequila, one can derive other types including;

Read more at: http://thethrillsociety.com/tequila-get-educated-before-your-next-shot/

Gin – 500 Years And Still Going Strong

http://thethrillsociety.com is your link to Thrilling Stuff! This article is just a taste!

What is gin?

Gin, which can also be described as flavored vodka is a neutral grain spirit re-distilled with botanicals along with a predominant juniper flavor. Juniper berries the fruit after which the spirit is named, is the primary source of gin. Coriander, licorice, angelica root and seed, bitter almonds, orris root, cinnamon, nutmeg, and anise are some other common gin botanicals.

Gin was first invented for an utterly different purpose, as a medicine to help in treating several diseases including stomach problems, gout and kidney disease. In 1650, Franciscus de la Boe, a Dutch doctor produced gin in Holland for medical purposes. In the mid 17^th century gin was most likely to be available in a medical pharmacy than a liquor store. Like other spirits, the distinct flavor of gin quickly gained popularity among the people and it became popular internationally.

Types of gin

Gin is one of the most widely used liquors and is more than 500 years old. It’s available in four different styles and these are London Dry gin, Genever or Dutch gin, Old Tom gin and Compound gin.

London Dry gin– This is most familiar ‘gin’ and is a widely available gin type. London Dry gin is light in body, heavily juniper flavored, very dry and aromatic. During the second and third distillation process, London Dry gin is infused with several other aromatic ingredients to bring the botanical and flowery flavor.

Genever or Dutch gin– History says Genever or Dutch gin is the first style of gin which is made from a base of malt grains rather than the combination of cereal grains. It gives the Genever gin a dark color and flavor similar to whiskey.

Old Tom gin– Another style of gin which is sweeter than Genever and recently it has fallen out of production and favor. Old Tom gin comes in somewhere in between Genever and London Dry gin. The main difference between the Old Tom gin and other styles of gin is that sugar is added in the re-distillation process and it makes Old Tom gin sweeter than others.

Compound gin– This was the most common style of gin in the early days during gin production as it was the first choice of beverage to the labor and people out-of work. Turpentine was one of the essences from which Compound gin derives its flavor. Comparatively cheaper essences are added to neutral grain spirit in Compound gin with no re-distillation.

Production methods

Gins are produced following several methods however, the processes are less or more same. Like vodka, neutral spirit is the base ingredient of gin, the thing that makes vodka different from gin is the addition of juniper and other botanicals during the distillation. However, the inclusion of botanicals varies with the gin styles.

Next step is called maceration where the botanicals are soaked in a neutral spirit in order to extract the flavors and aromas from the botanicals. It results a gin called bathtub gin or infused gin which is the last stage of producing gin to some gin makers while some other makers follow one more step in order to make the gin smoother and cleaner.

In this stage, most of the gin makers refine the macerate in a pot still which creates distilled gin or dry gin. Furthermore, some distillers put the required botanicals in a pot high up in the still and keep it away from any liquid. The extraction of the aromas and flavor is carried out by the evaporated spirit as it blows past the botanicals in the still which is called vapor evaporation.

The product is then sent for quality control checking to make sure it meets the required specification. After distillation, only required amount of sugar, alcohol and water are added.

Read the rest of the article at: http://thethrillsociety.com/gin-500-years-and-still-going-strong/