A Different Approach to Cider

I’m not the first to work with cider in Denmark. Great and experienced brewers as Kai Winter from Kernegaarden, Jeppe Gents from Fejø Cider and Per Kølster were there before me. What these guys do is French cider in Denmark. They have planted orchards of French and English apple varieties on their farms. To be honest – and I’m sorry – this does not make sense in a country with such a diverse and rich supply of apples. Denmark is full of apples native to this country.

I believe in a different approach: Danish cider on Danish apple varieties. So is this new? Yes and no. No because Kim Johansen from Pomona Cider and Jens Skovgaard from Cold Hand Winery already do cider on Danish varieties. Yes because no one has ever launched a single variety cider on Danish apples. Maybe it taste like something not to be sold? I don’t know. But think about it for a while: a single variety cider on known varieties as Dronning Louise, Ildrød Pigoen, Ingrid Marie and so on. I think there is a huge and untapped potential here.

So I have set out to investigate the potential in single variety Danish cider. Therefore I have designed an experiment investigating different production methods and techniques as well as apple varieties.

Stay tuned for descriptions and results.

My Lab

I have been working on this project since October 2012. All handling, processing, pressing, maceration, fermentation and bottling take place in the cellar at Pometet in Taastrup, Demark. Pometet is the national collection of Danish and international apple varieties: 750 in total and 250 of these are Danish.

Here are a few shoots from my lab/cellar.

Final maturation

Alcoholic fermentation

The Lab

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.

Cider?

Danes don’t know what cider is. And be aware if they do. What they might think of is often the undrinkable sweet and nasty stuff misleading sold as cider. Don’t buy it. Don’t drink it. It’s a chemical cocktail of artificial additives. This is not cider and will never be. Cider is 100 % apple!

My aim is to develop a Danish cider on Danish apple varieties. That is it. So how to do this?

Let us combine modern brewing knowledge and facilities with the past respect and understanding of local grown produce and from this produce a high quality cider from Danish apples.

Year’s back in England, France and Spain every single farm produced their own cider. It was a part of their annual routine. Apples was collected, crushed, fermented and bottles. My guess is that the quality may have varied a lot. Now it’s 2012 and the world has changed. Food is produced in huge production plants from raw materials from all over the world. Artificial additives are a must more than a choice. Food is something we sporadically relate to between 5-6 PM on our daily run through the supermarket. So let us combine the best from now and then.

A True Love Story

My first meeting with cider – real cider – was at a big fair for bulk-produced food. Among stacks of frozen junk food, in a hidden corner, I found Kai and his lovely wife Anita. They introduced me to their cider made on French apple varieties that Kai and Anita planted on their farm at Fejø back in 2003. My expectations were – to be honest – very low. Until this unforgettable moment my knowledge to cider was limited to the sweet nasty junk juice that are sold here in Denmark as cider. Kais cider opened my mind. This beautiful rich and aromatic drink amazed me. I was in love - not with Kai - but with his cider.

Cider has been on my mind ever since.

Apple Cider from Kernegaarden, Fejø

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.