>I've read that the French do almost nothing other than blend the
apples. As previously mentioned in this thread the apples have their
own yeast on their skins.

yes as most things there are local yeasts, you are right potentially t are
likely to be less strong than commercial strains, but I wonder ifv it is
also a regional differance as in sour dough or wine yeasts, in that Normandy
local yeasts are less strong that the southern wine yeasts (of France) Which
leads to what will my local mid England yeast show in strength. I've used it
in sour dough and it is different from the other named strains I have, ah
well I guess only one way to find out !

> Most French ciders I've seen and tasted were
all in the 4-5.5% alcohol range.

a lot are even lower around 2% assuming you are measuring by volume not
proof. I love medieval small beer, which is low too.

>That is probably due to both the
types of yeast on the apples and the amount of sugar in their cider
apple varieties which would be lower than most American apple
varieties.

interesting thought, maybe I should find out which varieties hey use, again
my apples will be English not French, although I feel a bit ubsure this is
the reason, as I have some vague recollection, there is a connectin between
the Normandy apples and the English cidre apple but the drinks are miles
appart, I might be misremembering or it could be a bad source of course !

>The French also seem to ferment to dryness

It might be you only see the dry cidres, where you are, as you can easily
buy sweet, semi sweet and dry cidre in France at most local producers & in
the hypermarche.

>If I were you and trying this out I'd press the apples all separately
by the types you'd like to blend my, take gravity readings on each one
and blend the juice to whatever the alcohol level you desire is. Most
hydrometers have the potential alcohol measurements to help out.

Hmm, need to buy a hydrometer them :)

>The French seem to like using oak barrels for aging too which
contributes to the flavor in a pretty big way.

I don't.

> If you don't have oak
barrel access and like that flavor you can use the oak chips available
at the brew store.

Thanks I'll try and find some mail order, the UK no longer has much in the
way of home brew shops !

Thanks food for thought

Mel

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