Making Cider – The Keeving Method

Keeving Cider: Naturally Sweet, Traditionally Made

Keeving is a traditional cider-making method that produces naturally sweet, low-alcohol cider without adding sugar or using heat to stop fermentation. It’s a technique still practiced in parts of France and increasingly used by artisan cider makers in the UK. For those who appreciate craft beverages and traditional technique, keeving offers a fascinating glimpse into the art of fermentation.

What Is Keeving?

Keeving is about controlling fermentation. Normally, yeast consumes all the sugar in apple juice and turns it into alcohol, resulting in a dry cider. Keeving interrupts this process early, preserving some of the apple’s natural sugars. The result is a cider that’s sweet, smooth, and lower in alcohol - usually around 4-5%.

The magic happens through the formation of a jelly-like layer called the ‘chapeau brun’ (French for “brown cap”). This layer forms at the top of the juice after specific enzymes (pectin methyl esterase) and ionic compound, calcium chloride are added. It traps solids and nutrients, starving the yeast and slowing fermentation. Once the juice clears beneath the cap, it’s carefully siphoned off and bottled while still sweet.

Choosing the Right Apples

Not all apples are suitable for keeving. Bittersweet cider apples like Dabinett, Yarlington Mill, and Michelin are ideal because they’re low in nitrogen and high in tannins. These qualities help form the brown cap and give the cider its rich, complex flavor.

Keeving is often done with a blend of local apple varieties to balance sweetness, acidity, and tannin. Cider makers are rediscovering keeving with heritage apples and small-batch techniques, bringing new life to an old tradition.

A Delicate Process

Keeving is not easy. It requires precise temperature control, careful timing, and a deep understanding of fermentation. The process can take several weeks, and even experienced cider makers don’t always get it right. That’s part of its charm. Each batch is a labor of love and a reflection of skilled craftsmanship.

Because the cider is bottled with residual sugar and without pasteurisation, it must be stored cold to prevent unwanted fermentation. Some producers use champagne-style bottles and corks to manage pressure and preserve freshness.

Taste and Pairings

Keeved cider is a treat for the tastebuds. It’s smooth, lightly sparkling, and naturally sweet, with flavours of ripe apples and wildflowers. The cider is balanced by gentle acidity and tannins, making it the perfect match for cheese boards, charcuterie, roast pork, or simply sipping in front of the fire on a cold autumn evening.

Keeving Kit at Vigo Presses

At Vigo Presses, we have everything you need to start making cider the natural way. Achieve stunning results and pure, sweet, sparkling cider.

Our Klercidre Kit comes with all the elements of the process.

Included in the kit is pectin esterase which is used to slow the process of fermentation by forming a floating pectin gel which traps nutrients and yeast, leading to a naturally sweet, low alcohol cider.

The kit also includes calcium chloride in the form of an aqueous solution. This works with the pectin esterase to bind with the pectin within the liquid to form a gel cap.

Within the calcium chloride, glycerol is added to stabilize your cider.

The kit contains enough pectin methyl esterase and calcium chloride to treat approximately 1000-1400 litres of cider apple juice.

Try your hand at making cider the traditional way with Vigo Presses.

Buy the Keeving Kit today! Find the product HERE.

Ordering over our website is the quickest method of placing your order as our system is automated to the warehouse, where we can dispatch the order in the same day.

Alternatively, we can take your order over the phone: 01404 890093.

Why not pop into our showroom? Find us at: Pelagic House, Flightway, Dunkeswell, Honiton, EX14 4RB.

Vigo Presses. Making the most of your fruit.