33 Cider Pressings Cider-Making Logbook
Portland craft beer affiliated 33 Books Co. got off the ground when Dave Selden created his first tasting notebook, 33 Beers, and has recently expanded into cider and homebrewing logs. 33 Books' latest project is 33 Cider Pressings, a home cider-making logbook debuting at CiderCon and now available via the 33 Books Co. website.
More from a press release:
Many home cidermakers come to the hobby via home beer-making, with an understandably basic grasp of the cider-making process. For those used to all-day beer brewing sessions, cider-making is often seen as a simple, quick endeavor.
“Many homebrewers start making cider with a kind of 'cake mix' approach: buy some generic, off-the-shelf juice, dump it into a carboy, add some yeast, and two weeks later, bottle it," says Dave Selden, owner of 33 Books Co., and creator of the new book."That's a good way to make alcohol, but it's not a great way to make cider, especially not great cider. I wanted to make a book that helped home cider makers elevate their craft with a book that starts at the beginning ... with apples."
33 Pressings' clean, chronological layout allows home cidermakers to list the apple varieties used in their juice, as well as key stats on its composition, including gravity (a measure of sugar available for fermentation), pH and T.A., or total acidity.
Once the juice is pressed, space is provided to track fermentation in detail, including treatments and transfers.
When fermentation is complete, cidermakers can note the finished cider's stats and yield in bottles, cans or kegs.
The book's layout and features were developed in collaboration with some of the preeminent cidermakers in the Northwest, including Nat West (Reverend Nat's Hard Cider), James Kohn (Wandering Aengus/Anthem) and Abram Goldman-Armstrong (Cider Riot!). The book brings professional-level features to home cider-makers.
"I really wish I'd had this book when I was starting out," says West, who is known for his inventive modern ciders. "In fact, I may start using it at our cidery now. It works even for my unusual ciders.”
33 Cider Pressings is printed in Portland on 100% recycled paper and is available today for $7 each or 6 books for $36 at 33Books.com.
33 Cider Pressings is a notebook designed to allow home cidermakers chronicle the ciders they create in a neat, compact format. The cider logbook is slightly larger than 33 Books Co.'s tasting journals, packed with useful features for cider-making.
About 33 Books Co. Dave Selden started 33 Books Co. as a side project to his side project. A weekend beer blogger, he developed his first pocket tasting notebook in 2009 to help with notes on the beers he was writing about. After just a few years, the books became his full-time job. Today, 33 Books Co. produces more than a dozen flavors of pocket tasting notebooks and other tasting tools in Portland, Oregon.