Last Updated on Sunday, 4 April 2010 06:32 Written by admin Monday, 25 January 2010 10:45

Hard cider is one of those drinks that’s sort of on the fringe. It’s not beer, not wine, and doesn’t fit neatly into any larger category. That said, hard cider is still one of the most popular drinks for homebrewers. The following recipe for hard cider (also called Apple Wine or apfelwein) will make a 5 gallon batch and will cost you about 20 dollars. In the grand scheme of things, that’s pretty cheap. I mean, that’s what it costs to buy two cases of store bought hard cider and it considerably cheaper than a 5 gallon batch of beer. Without further ado, here is my Hard Cider Homebrew Recipe…

Step I – Assemble your equipment

If you’ve brewed beer before, you probably won’t need any other equipment. If this if your first brewing experience, you will need to buy some specialized equipment. If you don’t know where to get this, you can check our database of homebrew supply stores to find one if your area. Here is what you will need.

1. 5 gallon carboy – A carboy is a large glass container with a narrow opening that will be used for fermenting your hard cider.

2. Funnel – The best funnels to get are the ones from a homebrew supply store that have ridges on the outside which will allow airflow around the base of the funnel. If you want to use a regular funnel, you will need to hold it slightly above the mouth of the carboy to induce airflow.

3. 1 hole stopper (bung) – You’ll need to get one that is the right size for your carboy. Most carboys are sized so that a 6.5 will work but you may want to check just to make sure.

4.  Airlock – Either a 3 piece or S-Bubble airlock will work fine.

5. Measuring cup – You probably already have one of these, any type will work just fine.

Step 2 – Assemble your ingredients

1.  5 gallons apple juice – Go to the store and get the cheapest apple juice you can buy but MAKE SURE THAT IT DOESN’T CONTAIN POTASSIUM SORBATE!!!  The juice that you buy should only contain apples and water.  If it contains ascorbic acid, that is OK too.  If you choose apple juice with potassium sorbate, it will kill the yeast and will not ferment.

2.  2 pounds Dextrose (corn sugar) – You can get this at a homebrew supplier in 5 pound bags.  If you want, you can use table sugar but corn sugar will tend to ferment cleaner than table sugar.  If you want, you can try half corn sugar and half table sugar.

3.  1 packet of champagne yeast or wine yeast – Get this from a homebrew supplier.  A packet usually only costs about $1.50.  The problem is that if you order one online, shipping costs are often more than the cost of the packet itself.  I would recommend Red Star Montrachet Wine Yeast, Red Star Premier Curvee yeast, or Red Star Pasteur Champagne.

Step 3 – Sanitize your Equipment

Bacteria can cause off flavors and can completely ruin an otherwise good batch of hard cider.  I use either Starsan (which is a “no rinse” sanitizer and is available from your homebrew supply store.  In a pinch, you can use bleach to sanitize your homebrew equipment.  Add 1 tablespoon of bleach to a gallon of water and RINSE VERY WELL!!!!  It’s a good idea to keep a 5 gallon bucket of sanitizing solution ready while you’re brewing.  Keep your equipment soaking in this solution until you’re ready to use it.

Step 4 – It’s time to make the hard cider

Make sure to sanitize all of your equipment (althogh you probably already did that).

1.  Measure 1 cup of corn sugar into a ziplock bag or tupperware and set it aside.  You’ll use it later.

2.  Open a one gallon bottle of apple juice.  Use the funnel and pour half of it into the carboy.

3.  Measure out two cups of corn sugar.  Using the funnel, pour the two cups of corn sugar into the now half full bottle of apple juice.  Shake the bottle well.

4.  Repeat steps 2 and 3 with a second bottle of apple juice.  Then move on to step 5.

5.  Pour the corn sugar and apple juice mixture from the two bottles into the carboy using the funnel.

6.  Add all but 1 quart of the remaining 3 gallons of apple juice to the carboy.

7.  Pour the packet of yeast into the opening of the carboy.

8.  Pour the final quart of apple juice into the carboy being sure to wash all the yeast particles into the carboy.  You may have to wait for the foam to die down and be patient as you fill up the carboy because you will almost completely fill it up.  You can fill the carboy almost all the way up, leaving about two inches or so of air on the top.

9.  Put the stopper, bung, or carboy cap on the carboy, fit the airlock into the stopper, and fill your airlock with water.

Step 5 – Fermentation

Leave the carboy in a dark place like a closet at about 70 degrees for 3 weeks.  The mixture will get cloudy and bubbles will start to rise to the surface.  This is the process of fermentation.  The yeast that you sprinkled into the juice is reproducing and is “feeding” on the sugar in the juice and turning it into alcohol.  It’s pretty exciting!

Eventually you will get a layer of yeast forming on the bottom of the carboy.  Don’t worry, this is the normal course of events.  Once the juice clears and the bubbling stops, the cider is done fermenting.  Leave it for another week to make sure that all of the fermentation is completed.  The last thing you want to do is bottle the cider before the fermentation is done.  That’s that cause of bursting bottles and lots of mess!

Step 6 – Bottle

It’s about time to bottle your hard cider.  Hopefully you still have that cup of corn sugar from when you originally made the cider.  That sugar will be used to create a small second fermentation with some of the residual yeast which will create the carbon dioxide in the hard cider and will create carbonation.

For bottling your hard cider, you’ll need the following …

1.  A pan to boil the sugar in and some water

2.  A second 5 gallon container which can be either another carboy or a bottling bucket.  If you use a bottling bucket, MAKE SURE IT IS A FOOD GRADE CONTAINER.  That’s important.

3.  A 3/8″ hose, racking cane, bottling wand, and bottle capper.  All of these things can be found at your local homebrew shop or online.

4.  55 new and unused bottle caps.  (You can’t reuse bottle caps, there is no way to attach used caps to the bottles).

5.  The sugar

6.  Sanitizer

7.  Funnel

8.  55 clean and sanitized bottles

9.  A bottle brush for cleaning your bottles

Step 7 – Getting Ready to Bottle

Start by cleaning sanitizing your bottles.  Soak them to get the labels off and scrub out the insides with the bottle brush.  You’ll want to use One-Step sanitizer to make sure they’re sanitized.  Second, boil 1 cup of sugar in 2 pints of water for 10 minutes.  Sanitize your 55 bottle caps in a solution of One-Step sanitizer (you can start these soaking right away if you want).  Sanitize your bottling bucket and funnel.  If you’re using a second carboy, sanitize that.  Sanitize your all the rest of your equipment to include the bottling wand, racking cane, and hose.

Pour the boiled sugar water into the carboy or bottling bucket.  If you’re using a carboy, use that funnel to pour the sugar water in.

Step 8 – Siphon the Cider

Now, you will siphon the cider from the carboy to the bottling bucket (or second carboy).

1.  Put the carboy on a countertop.

2.  Put the racking cane (with the tip on it) into the full carboy.

3.  Fill the hose with clean water and hold your thumb over both ends.

4.  Place the cooled saucepan on the floor next to the carboy or bottling bucket.

5.  Attach one end of the host to the racking cane.

6.  Keeping your thumb over the open end of the hose, lower it to the saucepan.

This is the exciting part when the siphon starts and the water starts flowing followed by the cider.  Once the cider starts to flow (after the water has all flowed out) put your thumb back over the hose and then put it into the bottling bucket or carboy.  Allow it to siphon carefully.  This will mix the sugar and the cider.  Once the siphon is finished, take the racking cane out of the now-empty carboy, remove the tip, and place the cane into the full container.

Step 9 – Bottling

Now it’s time to bottle.  Lift the full bottling bucket/carboy up to the countertop. Arrange your bottles nearby, open ends up!  Repeat the siphoning process, except this time, attach the bottling wand to the end of the siphon hose. The bottling wand can turn the flow on and off, and therefore help you fill the bottles.  After you’ve got the siphon started, just go ahead and fill all the bottles, leaving about 1″ of clear space at the top.

NOTE: if there’s a big air bubble in the siphon hose, just tap it until the bubble comes down the line and out. If you loose the siphon, just start again.

Step 10 – Capping

To cap your hard cider bottles, you’ll definitely need a capper.  The capper is more or less self explainatory to figure out once you have one even but it’s very difficult to explain in words how to use.  For that reason, I’ll leave the figuring out of the bottle capper to you.

Step 11 – Aging

Mostly, you need to leave the cider alone for a week or two, to let the bottling sugar do it’s work and carbonate the cider.  In this time, the yeast that was roused up through the bottling process will also fall to the bottom of the bottles.  Letting cider age for 6 months or more will improve it’s taste, but it’ll be good even after a week or two.  Let it age for at least 2 weeks at room temp. Colder temps will stop the fermentation and you won’t get carbonation.

Step 12 – Drinking

Don’t drink too much – cider can sneak up on you! Don’t say I didn’t warn you.  When you drink the cider, pour it carefully into a glass. Leave about 1/2″ behind in the bottle, so you don’t pour yeast into the glass.  Nothing wrong w/the yeast, it just makes the cider cloudy and changes the flavor a bit. it’s actually really good for you – full of B vitamins.

ENJOY!