| If you've always wanted to make some wine but | | | | is about to pop, ease it off, let the gas escape, |
| didn't know how, maybe you should take a clue | | | | and replace it. You may have to do this several |
| from the anthropologists, those misfitty folks who | | | | times. In a few days, the bubbles will slow down. |
| leave their homeland and learn a new language | | | | Move the jug to a cold place - a refrigerator or |
| and become acquainted with a whole host of new | | | | back porch. In another day, the fermentation will |
| characters. What they do is throw themselves | | | | stop and the last little bit of gas will be dissolved in |
| into the middle of things and start everywhere at | | | | the cider. You can remove the balloon and start |
| once. Participant observation, they call it, and it's a | | | | pouring your cider. Of course, there are variations |
| good idea. Let's start participating by making | | | | and upgrades. You can add sugar to the juice or |
| some cider. Apple cider is North America's original | | | | pour off another 12 ounces and add cranberry |
| drink. You see, when those fun-loving Pilgrims first | | | | juice concentrate or honey. You can add a teabag |
| landed in Massachusetts, they were shocked to | | | | to give some astringency and the juice of a |
| find that the barley that they needed for their | | | | lemon for a little bite. Some people throw in a |
| customary beer would not grow in the harsh New | | | | handful of raisins and get a more winey cider. |
| England winter. Sharing the European aversion to | | | | What do you notice about the taste? Does it |
| water, they planted apple trees and crushed the | | | | resemble the glass of juice that you drank before |
| fruit for juice. The juice obligingly transformed | | | | you added the yeast? Chances are that you can |
| itself into the mildly alcoholic cider, and within a | | | | detect a resemblance, mostly in the bouquet. The |
| few years, cider consumption had reached | | | | yeast has probably added something that smells |
| gargantuan proportions. Because people of all ages | | | | like a bakery, but underneath that (if you used |
| drank it, and it was served all day - from | | | | fresh juice), there's the fresh-crushed apple |
| breakfast on - there must have been a pleasant | | | | aroma. You may notice some other smells, too: |
| buzz abroad in the land. Buy a gallon of apple juice | | | | the sharpness of alcohol, a hint of spiciness and |
| with no preservatives. (The preservatives are | | | | maybe even a bit of the sharpness of vinegar. |
| there to keep it from turning into cider). If you | | | | Now taste. Do you remember how sweet the |
| can't find that, get a gallon jug and put in two | | | | juice was when you began? The sugar is all, or |
| 12-ounce cans of apple juice concentrate and 96 | | | | mostly, gone, and the sweetness has disappeared |
| ounces of water. You'll also need a small package | | | | with it. The sugar made the juice almost syrupy, |
| of yeast and a balloon. If you can't find wine | | | | so you won't be surprised to note that this new |
| yeast, some bread yeast from the supermarket | | | | cider feels thinner, more watery. In wine talk, we |
| will do nicely. Remove the cap from the cider and | | | | call this sensation of thickness "body". The juice |
| pour off about a cup of juice and drink it. Pay | | | | had a "full"body because of the sugar dissolved in |
| attention to the complexity of the aroma and the | | | | it: the cider has a "lighter" one. |
| sweetness of the juice. In removing some juice, | | | | Pay attention to the taste that stays in your |
| you've made room for the bubbling and foaming | | | | mouth after you swallow; it's called the finish. |
| of fermentation. Open one of the yeast packages | | | | Does it resemble the taste that you noticed when |
| - they're sold by the threes - and add it to the | | | | you first put the wine in your mouth? Is it a long |
| jug. Now take the balloon and stretch it over the | | | | finish - one that lingers - or a short one that |
| mouth of the jug and set the whole thing in a | | | | disappears in a few seconds? You have just |
| cool spot. | | | | become a winemaker. More importantly, you have |
| In a day or so, you'll see bubbles rising and the | | | | done a bit of careful tasting, and learning how to |
| balloon expanding. Good. That's from the gas | | | | taste is one of your most reliable avenues into |
| created by fermentation. If it looks like the balloon | | | | the world of wine. |