A third review of our homebrewed cider. I reviewed this just a few weeks ago for the second time, so it wouldn't necessarily make sense to re-review it this quickly after the last time. The reason is that this particular bottle is a special version of the cider: a flaked edition! Meaning that it contains masses of apple particles. Looks ugly! Or attractive! Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, right? Really turbid, confusing. The color is still the same, deep orange with a milky hue. No head. Sour fermented apple in the air. I don't expect the scent to be different from the earlier experiences. But the taste can be! Sour apple remnants! Natural. Fermented. A tad farmhousey. Uuuh. Nnnnice! The biggest difference is, of course, the sensation in the mouth. Very mushy, flaked, murky and granular. It's seductively tart, puckering, flat and moderately funky. Oddness makes it attractive!

Today is the 5th anniversary of our homebrewery Teva Brew 🎉🎊🍻  On 8 June 2020, we started homebrewing with two brews: "Maiden Voyage" and "Small Beer: The Genesis". The first one was a Sahti and astonishingly delicious. The second one's genre was Other Traditional Ale and it left plenty of room for improvement. Ever since, our line has contained 41 different Sahtis and 66 different beers other than Sahti. And one cider. Therefore, a homebrew! This is the second review of our cider, just like I promised to revisit this a few times to assess its development. The interesting thing in this cider is that we brewed it with spontaneous fermentation. No added yeast at all. And no added nothing actually. Not even water. Just apples and the nature's own bacteria and wild yeasts. The fermentation started in October 2024, the cider was bottled in very late December 2024. My first review was in early March 2025. And now the second. The appearance hasn't changed a bit. The carbonation was impatient, now it behaves decently, even somewhat timidly. The scent. Fairly similar to what it used to be earlier. The biggest difference is that the sour apple note has declined in intensity. The taste has developed a bit: the apple side is really sour. Probably even more sour than before. Malic acid gives no mercy to my enamel. But: the farmhousey flavor has grown moderately. That's the way I 💛 it! Has the mouthfeel developed since the first encounter? I doubt but let's check it out. Juicy, tart, puckering, acidic, drying. Super natural! The funkiness is bolder, still not huge but I'm happy that it has reached this level. This is sufficient. However, if more is to come, I'm open to it! A slight increase to the rating is justified.

Now a homebrew! Our first ever cider! An interesting fact here is that this has been fermented with wild yeasts only. No commercial yeast at all. We picked the apples in September at our summer cottage. The varieties are relatively sour. In October, we crushed the apples and put them in a fermenting bucket. The fermentation started slowly as it is normally the case with uncontrollable wild yeast fermentation. Then we juiced the slowly fermenting apples. The apple juice still continued to ferment for two months. Finally, the bottling took place in late December. Now the cider has rested in bottles for nine weeks. Another interesting fact is that one could think that the apples would grow mold. Well, they don't. For some reason, the wild yeasts and related organisms overpower molds and other harmful organisms and prevent them from growing. I'm sure there is a microbiological explanation to it. Now the cider. The appearance is deep and full: Mandarin orange with a remote milky hue. Naturally hazy. Totally. The carbonation is, first, impatient but calms quickly down and produces a clean white, spritzy head that fails to reach one finger and shrinks fast to a thin lace ring. Powerful Finnish apples in the scent. Mash and peel. Malic acid can't be missed. Wild yeast is really modest, barely traceable. Lovely, all in all! The same sour Finnish apples prevail also on the tongue. Flesh and mash and peel. Like it actually contains. Malic acid gives a true punch. Distant farmhousey wild yeast seasons the juice. The cocktail ends with sour apple, what else? Feels extraordinarily juicy, tart, puckering, acidic and drying. Natural but only faintly funky. Autumnal, I would say. Tastewise, this is really successful but I would have welcomed a bolder wild yeast nuance. Nevertheless, this is something that I will later return to in order to see how it develops.