I got a blend of juice and this was the breakdown. Ask your local homebrew store to get juice or shop online. The French harvest is October to December, so juice is usually available in late fall. Varieties were Frequin Rouge, Muscadet de Dieppe, and Binet Rouge. If you can’t get these varieties, use low-tannin culinary apples, which you can balance with tannins later in the process. Juice kicks off with a natural fermentation. On day 3, add the cultured yeast. Fermentation is slow. Ferment cool at 60–64°F (16–18°C).
Rack several times for clarity, and then condition on French oak cubes (I leave the cubes in for one to two weeks). Carbonate and keg or bottle—you can pasteurize bottles.
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