Students experiment with hard cider
Trial and error necessary in creating alcoholic beverages from scratch
Michael Mayday
Issue date: 11/19/09 Section: Focus
For adventurous students on a budget, there are few things more satisfying, cheap or interesting than brewing your own hard cider - especially with the low cost of entry and effort.
"It's so easy, it's sort of embarrassingly simple," senior Raymond Spiotta said.
Spiotta began brewing hard cider at the beginning of the semester for "cheap booze and a local economy of friends." He even gave his brew a name, "Johnny Jump Up," after an Irish song about hard cider and its effects.
"I've discovered that it's delicious," Spiotta said. "It's probably the most conveniently brewed alcoholic beverage I know of."
Spiotta said all one needs is a five gallon bucket, yeast, apple cider or juice, sugar, a rubber tube and a jar with vodka in it to store and sterilize excess carbon dioxide.
While vodka is used to clean hard cider it is also used in another, more potent drink - absinthe.
Senior Tristan Van Maren mixes his own absinthe and is currently on his second batch. He said his absinthe isn't really brewed, but rather a tea-like mix of alcohol and herbs.
"Actually, it's disgustingly simple," Van Maren said. "All it takes is the right combination of herbs, vodka and Everclear and the right amount of days."
Van Maren said a typical bottle of absinthe can cost $60 to $70. Given the security of knowing what goes into his own mix, he said he finds it much cheaper to make his own.
It isn't always fun and games, Spiotta said, when crafting your own brew.
Spiotta said he discovered this with a particularity nasty concoction which caused its containers to explode twice - once in a glass wine jug in his house and the other a few days later, in a wine bottle he gave to Associate Professor of History Bradley Birzer as a gift.
"He came up to me and asked if I knew of the explosion, and thinking he was referring to the one in my house, I said yes," Spiotta said.
Spiotta said he learned his lesson pretty quickly afterwards, and was sure to keep the incidents from repeating.
Senior John Brewer also brews hard cider. He started before homecoming to share his cider with returning friends because it was easy, cheap, turned out well, and it helped to pass the time.
"I saw something about it on the internet and I thought it'd be fun to try," Brewer said.
He said the drink's popularity has made it a drinking staple after homecoming's end.
"Friends don't let friends drink cheap beer," Spiotta said. "So you make them hard cider instead."
"It's so easy, it's sort of embarrassingly simple," senior Raymond Spiotta said.
Spiotta began brewing hard cider at the beginning of the semester for "cheap booze and a local economy of friends." He even gave his brew a name, "Johnny Jump Up," after an Irish song about hard cider and its effects.
"I've discovered that it's delicious," Spiotta said. "It's probably the most conveniently brewed alcoholic beverage I know of."
Spiotta said all one needs is a five gallon bucket, yeast, apple cider or juice, sugar, a rubber tube and a jar with vodka in it to store and sterilize excess carbon dioxide.
While vodka is used to clean hard cider it is also used in another, more potent drink - absinthe.
Senior Tristan Van Maren mixes his own absinthe and is currently on his second batch. He said his absinthe isn't really brewed, but rather a tea-like mix of alcohol and herbs.
"Actually, it's disgustingly simple," Van Maren said. "All it takes is the right combination of herbs, vodka and Everclear and the right amount of days."
Van Maren said a typical bottle of absinthe can cost $60 to $70. Given the security of knowing what goes into his own mix, he said he finds it much cheaper to make his own.
It isn't always fun and games, Spiotta said, when crafting your own brew.
Spiotta said he discovered this with a particularity nasty concoction which caused its containers to explode twice - once in a glass wine jug in his house and the other a few days later, in a wine bottle he gave to Associate Professor of History Bradley Birzer as a gift.
"He came up to me and asked if I knew of the explosion, and thinking he was referring to the one in my house, I said yes," Spiotta said.
Spiotta said he learned his lesson pretty quickly afterwards, and was sure to keep the incidents from repeating.
Senior John Brewer also brews hard cider. He started before homecoming to share his cider with returning friends because it was easy, cheap, turned out well, and it helped to pass the time.
"I saw something about it on the internet and I thought it'd be fun to try," Brewer said.
He said the drink's popularity has made it a drinking staple after homecoming's end.
"Friends don't let friends drink cheap beer," Spiotta said. "So you make them hard cider instead."
Viewing Comments 1 - 1 of 1
Joy Pavelski
posted 11/20/09 @ 11:51 AM EST
Ok, I know this is Focus and all, but there've been so many drinking stories of late (Dry frats, all the features on wine and wineries, the new Charger bar) that you might want to lay off. (Continued…)
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