This years cider (Post 1)

I'm going to talk about cider and sap wine for a few posts..

But first.. a word about.. well, words.. I am going to guess that there are conventions for naming, when discussing things like cider. In the U.S., "cider" is the juice from crushed and pressed apples. In the UK and perhaps Europe in general, "cider" is fermented apple juice. I am unclear on the rules of capitalization. In the U.S., "cider" is "hard cider".

I use "cider" when referring to "hard cider", at least partially because I suck at typing and will take any shortcuts I reasionably can, but also, and perhaps more importantly, there is already a single word that means "fermented apple juice" and this word has been around for a long tme, before we Americans co-opted it and changed it's meaning.

That doesn't mean I am a word-Nazi. I don't go around to local (New England, USA) cider houses and try to correct them about the word they use to describe their product (sweet juice made from pressed apples).. but, on this blog, "cider" is fermented apple juice, and "must" is apple juice intended for fermenting.. and "juice" is sweet, unfermented liquid meant to be consumed. "Must" is also used for other pre-fermented liquids, like the honey-water mixture that will become mead.

I also, as much as possible, will use the "right" words to describe the variations on each drink, with explanations as necessary for those readers new to this type of fermenting.

This assumes that anyone will actually read my blog...