The Producer: Kim Johansen @ Pomona

I met with Kim at his office located in historical surroundings at the old Carlsberg area here in Copenhagen. Until 2008 millions of beers was brewed here every year. The location is no coincides, cause Kim knows beer. As a teacher at the Scandinavian School of Brewing is teach the magical processes of brewing.

Beside his profession as teacher Kim brew cider on license. Why do a man with so much knowledge in beer brew cider?

Kim was inspired to do cider after a trip to Somerset in England. After some years as garage brewer Kim teamed up with a big apple must factory to do cider.  In 2002 he launched his first cider named Pomona.

Kim way of making cider is far away from what’s seen elsewhere. The apples come from orchards around Fyn and from locals garden (they trade 4 kg of apples for 1 liter of must). After pressing the must is pasteurized. Sugar is added to the must together with a secret yeast strain that Kim chose himself. After fermentation Kim added lactic acid bacteria that convert the sharp malic acid into the weaker acid lactic acid. Kim does this to give his cider a more pleasant acidity. Finally unfermented pasteurized apple must is added to the cider and it is then filtered, added carbon dioxide, bottled and pasteurized.

Kims way of making cider is quite unique and very different from the French approach that most of the Danish brewers follows.

Read more about Pomona cider @ http://www.pomona.dk/English.htm

Some years ago Kim did an article on how to brew cider after a field trip around Europe. Download it here for free.

Step 3: Washing

All apples were washed in cold water to remove any dirt from the orchard and storage.

Washing of the apples

Step 2: Final Maturation

The apples were stored in cold storage until use. To ensure that the apple was matured they were taken out of cold storage some days before use. Apples are climateric fruits and are therefore able to ripe after harvest. A final maturation ensures a breakdown of unfermentable starch to fermentabale sugars. The main sugars in apples are glucose, fructose and sucrose.

Before start of cider making total sugar (as brix %), pH and titratable acid was measured.

	Brix, total sugar (%)	pH	Titratable acid (%)
Ingrid Marie	15,9 (SD 3,1)	3,36 (SD 0,02)	0,59
Ildrød Pigeon	12,2 (SD 0,3)	3,25 (SD 0,03)	0,68
Dronning Louise	13,7 (SD 0,1)	3,46 (SD 0,01)	0,59
Sukkeræble fra Vaalse	11,2 (SD 0,1)	3,28 (SD 0,03)	0,58 (SD 0,0058)
Søde æbler fra Aalsrode	11,5 (SD 0,1)	4,31 (SD 0,03)	0,14
Aston Brown Jersey	13,5 (SD 0,1)	4,47 (SD 0,02)	0,10

How to Make Traditional Cider

Overview of how I will do the traditional cider.

Open Product Innovation

This blog is about my research and product development of a Danish cider. Ideas, thought and result are posted and shared here on this blog, and you are welcome to take part in the process. Some people might think that it is to radical to share thought and results even before a product is launched. I believe that transparency, openness and interaction is the best way to develop a new product. And that is why I open this product development phase and let you in to participate in the process.

Feel free to comment and share with friends and colleagues. You are welcome to contact me if you have any questions or interested in collaborating @ mail@jacobdamgaard.dk.

Welcome...

Why don’t Danes drink more cider? And why don’t we produce Danish cider from Danish apple varieties?

If you live in Denmark you would probably have heard the forever ongoing talk about our unique cold climate that create apples of a quality never seen anywhere else on this planet. I don’t know if this is right or wrong. But some of it might be true. I have traveled much of the world and never had an apple as rich and balanced as a Danish.

So let us assume that Danish apples are unique: Why don’t we then produce an alcoholic beverage – sparkling and rich – of these apples? I know that many of the se varieties are eating and cooking apples, but who knows if they will make good cider?

My aim is to inspire you and enlighten you in the process of cider making. I want to define a Danish cider culture and develop a Danish cider made from Danish apple varieties. I do research in apple varieties, production methods and techniques, formation of aroma compounds and much more. On this blog I will post ideas, thoughts, finding and results. Feel free to comment on the project.

This is the beginning.

Welcome.