Apple wine and cider

Although the taste of cider certainly takes some getting used to for newcomers, this alcoholic drink enjoys cult status, particularly in southern Germany. On hot summer days, it’s hard to beat a light cider spritzer as a thirst quencher. Whether you dilute the cider with water or soda is a matter of taste.

To make it, the apples are cleaned and mashed with the pome fruit grinder. The mash is pressed with the hydraulic press. The juice is filled in cider containers and closed with an airlock. After three to four months, the fruit's own yeast has converted the sugar in the juice into alcohol and fermented the apple juice, turning it into cider.

In recent years, cider has undergone a rapid renaissance. For years, only to be found in grandfather’s cellar, nowadays you can once again buy bottled cider in the drinks cash and carry. But let’s face it, only homemade cider is the real thing.

The ideal apples for cider grow in the orchards in southern Germany. Happy indeed is the man who has had the old family recipe handed down from his grandfather. Especially in Swabia, pears are usually still put into the mixture, This rounds out the flavor.

In any case, the pear content in juice and cider increases the further south you go: In the “apple wine” from Hessen, generally there are no pears at all. Swabian cider contains about one third pears. In Austria and Switzerland there are even perries made from one single variety and a culture of perry consumption that is more usually associated with wine.