A "Traditional" Experiment with Blue Bear's Brother
When I first made the decision to work with blueberries for a new cider 3 years ago, I really didn't know what to expect. Blueberries are an interesting fruit to co-ferment with cider because their aromas and flavours are more delicate and subtle than raspberries or strawberries. Often times they can be a bit of a secret additive. I have had to following conversation with people more times than I can count:
"Is it grape? No, it must be currants? No.... Oh, blueberries, yeah now that you mention it, that makes sense. Yeah, blueberries for sure."
Taste can be so subjective and everyone's pallet is a little different, but one thing is consistent: blueberries make for a tasty, fruit-forward cider. As always, Blue Bear's Brother is bone-dry and unfiltered. However, we did something a little different this year.
Rather than simply dosing the still cider with sugar and letting yeast do the carbonation for us, we added an extra step, which is sometimes referred to as the 'traditional method' of cider-making. It follows the same process as champagne: Bottles are filled with still liquid, and a dosing of yeast and sugar. Over the next 3 - 4 weeks, the yeast consumes the sugar to create natural carbonation in-bottle. Bottles are then tipped upside down, to let all the yeast and fruit sediment settle out to the neck of the bottle. We actually left the bottles upside overnight in - 3 degree celsius weather to ensure that the liquid was super cold for the next morning.
We came in early to 'disgorge' these bottle of their yeast and sediment. That (very messy) process involves cracking the cap off of all 1200 bottles, allowing the pressure within the bottle to shoot the solids out of the bottle's neck. The bottle is then topped up and re-capped; the end result is a relatively clear, naturally carbonated cider. Was it a lot of work? Yes. Was it worth it? Absolutely. This is the first time that we have attempted the traditional method, and we had a blast doing it.
We hope you'll "gush" over this cider as much as we do.
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