A Tale of Two Ciders

Last fall we reaped a bumper crop of apples, and one beautiful weekend in October pressed them to cider. We ended up with six carboys – about 30 gallons – ready to ferment over the winter in the cool of the cellar. We pitched one with champagne yeast, because we were curious to see what difference natural versus commercial yeast would make.

We’ve never used commercial yeast for our cider before, just trusted to nature. That’s despite the grim warnings from the experts. Those random yeasts in...