A beautiful book with lots of inspiring recipes. It's nice that there are some more basic recipes as well. If this book doesn't make you want to make cider than nothing will!

While I was only able to try a few recipes, however they were simple to follow and easy to use.

Some of the ingredients/equipment I did not have and was not able to try.

Must Modern Cider Making Be Chemical-Laden and Complicated?

Modern Cider: Simple Recipes to Make Your Own Ciders, Perries, Cysers, Shrubs, Fruit Wines, Vinegars, and More As an avid home brewer of wines and ciders, I was excited to read an ARC copy of Modern Cider: Simple Recipes to Make Your Own Ciders, Perries, Cysers, Shrubs, Fruit Wines, Vinegars, and More, by Emma Christensen, through Net Galley. I am always looking for more recipes and for ideas to simplify the process. Unfortunately, this book was exactly the opposite of what I was looking for.

It turns out that “modern” is another way of saying, “full of chemicals and not traditional.” It’s true that this book does give you detailed instructions on how to make modern cider: It involves buying purchased juices (or a prohibitively expensive bunch of specific fresh apples — the author reminds you that you need 20 pounds of apples for a gallon of cider), killing all wild yeasts and everything alive in them with sulfites (campden tablets), adding chemicals and additives to adjust flavors and tannin levels, using expensive equipment to ferment and transfer it all, testing specific gravity with a hydrometer, and then bottling with purchased bottles.

Yes, you can make cider that way, but it’s expensive, unhealthy, and takes all the fun out of it.

The first time I made hard cider, it was following the instructions of a little self-published Kindle book that was free for a day: Making Hard Cider: Cheap, Easy and Safe Methods for DIY Home Production (this book is no longer available on Amazon or anywhere that I’ve been able to find). Since we don’t have an apple press and they are quite expensive, I ended up buying an inexpensive Hamilton Beach “Big Mouth” juicer that worked quite well. That book gave us all that we needed to get started and succeed. It was simple, old school, and allowed us to make absolutely delicious hard cider (regular and high alcohol) with pounds and pounds of apples that we got free from foraging rural county parks and from people all over the county who had back yard apples that they were happy to give away.

(Soapbox side rant: “Modern” generally means letting the food all around you and even in your own yard rot and then buying all your food in the supermarket, so we gather hundreds of pounds of apples and pears every year this way. We thank the owners of the trees with baked treats or applesauce, and everybody wins.)

When we first started making homemade ciders and wines, we used campden tablets and purchased yeast, but lately I’ve been more and more interested in healthier, cheaper, simpler and more interesting versions with the wild yeasts that are naturally on the fruits (and added sometimes through raisins and other fruits that you can add).

While I still often add cider yeast, wine yeast or even champagne yeast to my wild wines and ciders, I don’t want to add sulfites and chemicals to my drinks. I also don’t want to use pasteurized juice grown thousands of miles away and shipped here. And I don’t want to make hard cider with a process that ultimately costs me far more to make it myself than to buy it in the store.

I realize that I am not the intended reader of this book, but there were parts that were so frustrating for me as a forager and urban homesteader. The author points out that a good cider requires a mix of types of apples and especially includes some high-tannin sorts of apples and pears that are not good for eating. This is why she adds various store-bought tannin additives. What a wasted opportunity to use free or inexpensive real foods!

First of all, old school cider makers often wanted to adjust tannin levels too and would use things like black tea (which is naturally high in tannins). Secondly, all of those apples that folks like Johnny Appleseed planted all over the country were not planted for fresh eating (apple trees from seed will not taste like the parent and are always a crap shoot, so they rarely are the sweet apples we crave for snacks or baking) but for livestock feed and for making cider. There are apple and pear trees everywhere that have fruit that goes to waste because it’s astringent and ugly looking, but it makes awesome cider. Even crab apples are great additions for this reason, and there are crab apple trees everywhere.

We have a pear tree that we pick in a nearby county park that is clearly part of an old homestead that’s long gone. There’s no sign of even a foundation anymore, but the land has apple trees, pear trees and even peonies and rhubarb growing among the native plants and they were all clearly planted there to enrich the lives of a family who lived there long ago. The pears on one of the trees taste absolutely awful fresh but are perfect for adding to cider (pear cider is called perry, incidentally, and these trees were once quite prized). We call it “our” perry tree since nobody else has ever shown any sign of wanting anything to do with anything that grows on it.

I felt bad about giving this book a low review but it’s currently rated 5 stars on Amazon and 4.5 stars on Goodreads, and has plenty of people raving about it. It’ll do just fine despite me, and should. Modern Cider is a great book for some people, just not for me.

If you’d like a great book that does tell you how to make wines, ciders and perries the old school way (but with modern help), I highly recommend the book Wild Winemaking. It includes oodles of delicious recipes and full color photos, without all the added chemicals.

I was able to read a temporary digital copy of Wild Winemaking through Net Galley and it’s one of my favorite books that I’ve ever read through them.

There is so much I like about it:

It includes oodles of recipes for making wine from ingredients like fruits, greens and flowers. Since you know our family forages for all kinds of wild fruits and other wild foods, this automatically appealed to me.
The author doesn’t use additives like campden tablets (sulfites), making a more natural, healthier wine.
The instructions are simple. I have experience making wines and hard cider, but even if I didn’t I think I would feel comfortable trying these recipes.
The recipes are creative. There are standard ones and also ones that use spice and all kinds of combinations of fruits, herbs and flowers.
You want modern? That book includes brews that include cannabis too. 😉
It’s colorful, gorgeous and just fun.

I liked this book so much that I am planning to purchase my own copy. I am cheap (I like to say frugal) so this is saying a lot!

The Wildcrafting Brewer: Creating Unique Drinks and Boozy Concoctions from Nature’s Ingredients is another that’s on my wish list (psst… that would make a great present, Daryl!).

I am hoping that “modern” begins to move back towards more natural and sustainable practices, and that modern home brewed cider can soon also mean foraging your own fruits, using the stuff in your own back yard and neighborhood, and relying less on chemicals and additives in everything we eat or drink.

I couldn't get through this book, found it too boring

I found this cookbook very informative and interesting, and I am definitely looking forward to crafting my own ciders to enjoy throughout the fall and winter..

As the title states, these are simple recipes, but very imaginative, especially if you are unfamiliar with perries, cysts, shrubs, etc. as I was. Fresh fruit is a must here.

A great book to read about brewing cider and other drinks , how to store them......

A good starter book on how to make your own cider. Lots of different recipes which are very straight forward.

A definitive guide to cider-making - if you're interested in making cider or if you just want to learn about the process, then this book is for you. Made me want to get my own apple orchard and make my own cider :D With some apple trees and a lot of patience, I could have my own special supply of delicious, delicious cider.

Modern Cider: Simple Recipes to Make Your Own Ciders, Perries, Cysers, Shrubs, Fruit Wines, Vinegars, and More is an interesting book by Emma Christensen with photography by Puleio.

The author shared, in the Introduction, "I made and bottled my inaugural cider almost six years ago while working on my first book.... The wheels in my head started to turn. If I could make cider this good with basic store-bought juice, what could I make with actual heirloom cider apples? What about fresh juice from a local orchard? Or even (if I dared) the mass-market stuff served to five-year-olds? That was the beginning. This book is a map of where I've traveled in the years since."

In addition to the Introduction, Turning Apples into Juice, Setting Up Your Cider House, and Turning Juice into Cider, this book is divided into the following seven main sections: Beginning Ciders, The Cider Family, Modern Ciders, Ciders for Beer Lovers, Soft Ciders, Apple Wines, and Traditional Ciders.

While featuring brilliant full-color photographs, Modern Cider is geared towards adults over the legal drinking age, who are interested in modern cider recipes and interesting details about the topic.


Note: I received this book from NetGalley, which is a program designed for bloggers to write book reviews in exchange for books, yet the opinions expressed in this review are my own.

I grew up in Amish country and every year we waited for cider season. We bought fresh apple juice (locally called cider), cloudy and thick, from roadside stands or from local farmers who made it from windfalls and other ugly apples that did not go to the farmers markets. Drinking the cider was a complex operation because each of us liked it "turned" to a different degree. Jugs of cider sat in the garage for varying lengths of time till one or another of us decided that it was "done" enough and put it in the fridge. Once in a while the jugs would explode if someone forgot to loosen the cap. Once in a while a jug would go to vinegar if someone forgot about it. This is what Emma Christensen calls "Traditional", made with wild yeast and few, if any, added chemicals or flavorings.

Now I am out in the world and I drink cider whenever I can find it, mostly opting out of beer. This is great when I am in the UK where cider is a normal pub drink, even scrumpy (a messy, yeasty rough cider) can be found in some communities. Finding bottled cider in the USA has gotten very difficult as the expensive imported brands give way to US flavored crap. I recently visited San Francisco and could not find a decent cider anywhere. Everyone was carrying that brand that does all the advertising or a very local brand that tasted of nothing but peel and was so bad I gave it back to the bartender and switched to wine.

Many of these brewers should take a look at Ms Christensen's book for some more sophisticated ideas on blending apples and yeasts to get real cider flavor that balances sweet, sour and bitter. I am particularly concerned that the finished cider does not taste like peel, which happens if brewers are using the wrong strain of Granny Smith (some these days have peel so bitter I have to peel them to eat) or, horrors, they are recycling pomace from an applesauce factory.

If you are interested in cider, and are already a beer maker, you are good to go with the recipes in this book. But I don't know many beer drinkers who also drink cider so perhaps there will be more people who drink cider but are not familiar with home brewing. This book is a good starting place.

Ms Christensen's instructions are complete and correct but perhaps it would be a good idea to supplement this information with some time online watching people use the equipment. Get a feel for the rhythm of things. Start with the simple recipes and a range of yeasts. The yeast makes all the difference (after the peel).

Ms Christensen's prose is clear and uncluttered. There are lots of photos of farms and orchards in the autumn. I am not sure this book needed to be so fancy.

I received a review copy of "Modern Cider: Simple Recipes to Make Your Own Ciders, Perries, Cysers, Shrubs, Fruit Wines, Vinegars, and More" by Emma Christensen (Ten Speed) through NetGalley.com.

We have a fairly large apple orchard which is solely heritage apples, including cider apples and perry pears. We get a huge crop each year and a few years ago our children gave us an apple crusher to make juice. We enjoy cider but have never had the confidence to make any.
This book solves that problem. Easy to read with very sensible and simple information on making our own cider. The photographs are spectacular, the information is written in a very friendly and knowledgeable way, this is wonderful book. To add to the simple farmhouse cider, there is information and recipes on beer cider, sparkling soft cider and other types of apple wines. I recommend this book highly for anyone has an interest in making cider or just reading about what cider is all about.

Lots of great information on the modern making of Cider.
Would like to give it a try in the future, and this book has given lots of information to assist with that.

Wonderful resource for patrons. Beautiful photography that compliments the text.

I can't wait to try making the parry! I have been looking for easy recipes to brew (I am a complete novice, but love French parry!) I want to try a few of the recipes in this book this year. I am looking forward to purchasing the book for my cookbook collection. I would also like to purchase a couple for brewing friends. Great work!

Modern Cider is the ultimate book for the cider lover. The book takes the reader step by step through how to choose apples, how to make juice, what equipment is needed, and how to turn juice into cider. Additionally, many recipes are included, along with troubleshooting techniques. This book has just the right technical amount of information for the home brewer to produce a memorable cider. I look forward to attempting my first gallon of cider during apple season this fall.

I received an Advanced Reader Copy of this book via NetGalley.

Thank you to Netgalley and Ten Speed Press for the chance to read and review this ARC;


I am pleased to say I was tickle pink the moment I saw this book. I have a deep love for cider drinking and I've been moving slowly (and cautiously) toward the idea of trying to brew my own. This a curiosity brought on by my brother's own beer and mead making prowess.

I was so pleased to see how the beginning of this book was laid out to help with such things. That it's gentle, and tells you how to pick your apples, why and which kind, and even talks about how not to go broke getting what you want. That there is an explicit guide to which kinds of apples what which characteristics, how to recognize them, what they brought to the cider party in means of taste, and what the common varietals of those were.

I have to give a great kudos to the writers that the first almost 40% of the book is just around how to go about making cider, everything from the beginning to the end, and all the questions you might have in-between. I was stellar-y blown away by their meticulous attention to detail, the way they made it clear enough even a beginner could understand, and left me with very few questions by the end of it.

Also, the end having a resource center and a dictionary of possibly lesser known words was amazing.

The recipes, of course, are to die for. They sounds breathtaking and I want to start trying several even now. I think I want to start with honey, or champagne, or bourbon varieties first, to wow and surprise my tasters. What about you? Where do you want to start, good reader/cider maker?