Hard times call for Hard Cider…
I told my wife that I thought I’d not buy beer/cider this year. She said she’d hold me to it, and that’s what I get for contemplating out loud.
Anyway, I brewed my own cider one fine day after reading an article in “The Backwoodsman” a few years ago. I thought, hell I could do that. So I did.
The article said a guy could use cider fresh pressed, frozen apple juice concentrate, apple juice, cider in a jug, etc. Anything so long as it has no preservatives.
I try not to jump 150% into a hobby because I don’t like spending a ton of money on a hobby until I know it’s not just a passing interest. I was in luck! The materials needed to brew my own hard cider consisted of an airlock, some yeast (I use red star champagne yeast), a jug and a bung. My first go round I omitted the glass jug and bung, opting to brew some apple juice right in gallon jug. I simply bored a hole in the lid of the juice bottle and wedged the air lock into it, it works. You just gotta make sure you wedge it in the bottle in such a way that it forms an air tight seal. The bonus of brewing by the gallon, even if you two two or three gallons each, is that buy using separate jugs you minimize the risk of having three gallons of apple cider vinegar. Which is nice, because I once ruined a five gallon jug of apple juice, and that’s depressing.
The cost for my original equipment ran me right around $7 with shipping. That was for two air locks and four packets of Champagne yeast. How nice is that? So for $7 in stuff and $3 in juice I made a gallon of premium hooch.
The first thing I did was pour a small glass of juice for one of the kids. This leaves room for adding a bit of a warm water/yeast mixture. Then, the next thing is waiting… which stinks. But you gotta do it. On the plus size, as it brews the little airlock bubbles up and down (I use a three piece airlock because they look easier to clean and are).
Speaking of cleanliness it should be said that keeping everything clean and sanitized (not just sanitary) is important. Yeast is a living organism that eats the sugar in your apple juice and poops out (not really, but it’s funnier that way) alcohol as a byproduct. Now cleanliness is important because lots of other organisms eat sugar. Not just weird-o non-alcohol making organisms but also “wild yeasts” which can cause your brew to not only go awry, but become nothing more than a nasty inedible vomit looking liquid. So, for the love of Christ, keep your work area clean. I clean my sink thoroughly with bleach and hot, oh-so-hot water and do the same to all my jugs and equipment, then rinse the hell out of them as the bleach will kill your “tame” alcohol making yeast too. That said, soldier on!
Now that you see how easy it is, here is a break down of the instructions to brew you very own hard cider:
1. Get your juice, or reconstitute your frozen stuff.
2. Pour it into a clean and sterilized jug.
3. Get a little warm water (not too hot, baby bottle warm) and add your yeast. For five gallons use the whole packet, for less, use less. I’ve used as little as a 1/2 tsp. of yeast. I don’t know for sure, but I believe the less yeast means you need to brew it longer, but I don’t think it’s a good idea to use MORE than you need, as I don’t think it brews faster. If that makes sense. One of the problems with not using enough is that your yeast is in active competition with other organisms, plus it’s already been freeze dried and has that working against it. This is part of the reason why we add the yeast to warm water and let it set a bit. It gives the yeast time to “wake up” I guess, and get perky. You can also add a little sugar to the water to help things along.
4. Add Warm water/yeast to the juice (I should have mentioned that the juice sh0uld be at room temp, and remember you poured yourself a glass to make room for hte yeasty water you are adding now).
5. Put your cap/bung and air lock in the mouth of the bottle. Fill your airlock with a little distilled water or vodka and congratulate yourself on being so damned cool.
6. Wait. This is the hard part. Wait wait wait. You can complicate this waiting process by racking your cider. Which is waiting for some time, then slowly pouring the cider into another jug leaving the dead yeast (it’ll be a “sludge” at the bottom of the jug) in the first. This process serves as a refining process. I don’t care for it, as the sooner the cider gets in my belly the better. I might play with it later, but I really don’t think I can wait MONTHS for my cider. I usually age mine about two weeks, maybe three. I never worry about bottling it, as I make it in such small batches, I just take the jug and put it in the fridge, with the air lock on and pour myself a cup as I want it and replace the air lock.
That’s it! Because of the champagne yeast this cider comes out “dry” rather than “sweet.” Compared to Hornsby’s hard cider it’s more like the Amber Draft rather than the Crisp Apple stuff. I am going to experiment a little (as should you) to get a sweeter taste.
You can get fancier and get yourself a capper to put caps on recycled bottles, I have one, I bought a hand held unit, the Red Baron I believe, for $15 bucks or so. I’ve only used it to play with though. I had planned on bottling some of that five gallon batch I ruined, go figure. And like I said you can rack it and all that nonsense, but I’ve never done it, apparently the worry is that your cider will pick up bad flavor by sitting with the yeast dying at the bottom of the jug. My cider has smelled a little strong, but has never been bad flavored. Hell rack it, why not. Just pour it into another jug slowly to leave the yeast in the old jug. Then pour the yeasty cider into a cup and drink it. It’s full of B vitamins and good for you.
Another tip: your cider might be a little cloudy, that’s fine, it’s just yeast floating around in it. This is natural and good. Like I said yeast is full of b vitamins which alcohols strips from your body leaving you feeling crappy and dehydrated “the morning after” (duh, hangover).
Good stuff. It should also be noted that our ancestors brewed cider in the states before they brewed beer. It’s a patriotic drink. The reason hard cider was made first was the lack of necessary equipment needed to make beer. Cider requires nothing but a barrel and some pressed apples. No copper kettles, etc. Just apple juice, a jug and time.
Enjoy this little lesson in cheap drink, which everyone will need in this upcoming times or economic hardships. With this basic principle you can brew just about any fruit juice. Some of the niftiest stuff I have made was made by brewing Western Family Strawberry Lemonade (about .75 cents a can) and straining out the pulp (through cheese cloth) and bottling it. I gave some to a buddy who had a lady friend visit who really liked it better (it was fizzy) compared to the table wine he keeps in the fridge for when she visits. How’s that for an ego booster.
Valentines day is coming, brew some up for your honey, put that stuff in a wine bottle and make yourself a label. If your lady doesn’t drink beer/wine tell her to make you some dammit!
I believe that your wife said “You act like you made that decision” when you were contemplating out loud.
Good post, good sir.
Banned!
I love stuff like this and yes, if it costs more than it costs to just buy the product who would take the time?
I found this site along time ago, incase you havent heard of it: http://www.instructables.com
It has to have some of the best DIY stuff I have ever seen.
Oh man I love instructables, I haven’t built anything off of there but I peruse from time to time and day dream. I really grooved on the NES mini itx computer someone cooked up.
Your outlaying costs in cider making are a little higher than a six pack of hard cider (about 8 bucks), but you make up for it fast, especially if you go through it in a hurry…which may or may not be a good thing!
I enjoyed reading your post about making hard cider. We decided to give it a try this year and made two batches, one was five gallons and the second was six gallons. We drank a lot of it and given a lot of it away.
In our case, there is a local cider mill that is good for buying fresh bulk cider. We used a cider yeast. In the second batch we used a Belgian ale yeast. Both batches we had a second fermentation to clarify the cider, but in both cases we bottled some after the first fermentation.
You can read more about our experiences at
http://www.orient-lodge.com/Cider
Next year, we might make even more batches.
I do agree, that hard times call for hard cider, and I like the way it ties back to our countries history.
Hi. Thanks for writing all this up.
I am currently trying to make my first batch of hard cider and have 2 questions you might be able to answer.
1) I don’t think I put enough water in my airlock … after 3 days of fermenting I added more water to the airlock and the thing began bubbling away merrily. I am now wondering if I may have been letting air back in for 3 days and may have somehow contaminated and ruined the cider. What are the signs of a ruined batch?
2) If I haven’t ruined the batch … can I take a cup of the fermenting cider and add it to a NEW jug of cider to start a new batch? What is the possibility you could keep going like this without having to buy new yeast?
As I said before, thanks for writing all this down. It’s a real confidence booster for those of us just starting.
J0e
OH dear, it depends bud. Bad cider will smell like vinegar. Quickly, but might as well work it out, what sort of air lock are you using? The “S” airlock? It just depends on the likelihood of wild yeasts working their way back down your airlock and in the bottle.
I’d give it a shot. The problem you have with taking a cup or so of your current batch and transferring it to a virgin batch is that if you have wild yeasts and what-not growing in your current batch and it’s overwhelmed the “tame” yeast you’ve added, then you’re going to wind up with two bad batches.
Since the yeast I buy is .55 a packet, I always buy extra.
Lemme know how it works out man, honestly with your stuff just 3 days old, if it were mine, I’d just run with it and see how it turns out. If it starts getting uber stanky after a while then pitch it and start over and call it a learning experience.
Thanks!
I have actually been fermenting for a week! Today is transfer day. The smell out of the airlock is still “cidery” allthough not as sweet as in the early days. The stuff is still bubbling well.
BTW: The airlock is the “3 piece” kind that has the straight tube with the cup over it.
http://tinyurl.com/dk2j2z
I am working from a combination of recipe’s that I have read and been given. I like the “mad scientist” approach.
So my plan today is to get a little more juice, heat it and then add a pound of honey to it. When that cools to 60 – 70 degrees F, I am going to pitch in some champaign yeast!
While that is (hopefully) starting to bubble, I am going to transfer my cider to it’s 2ndary fermentation bottle. When that is done and the “starter yeast” batch appears to be lively – I will add it to the main cider batch and put a clean airlock and stopper on the whole thing.
Before I do any of that though, I’m going to taste what I have to make sure it isn’t already “bad” .
I’ll let you know how it all turns out.
Those are what I use. I’ve always used a lil vodka in my air locks rather than water. But I bet since that cup was sitting right on that spout you’re safe.
mmmmmmm!
I’m here to report that the week old cider has been sampled and was tasty.
This shows promise !
FYI -
Bottled the cider today and it had NOT gone bad!
In fact it was much sweeter then I had been expecting (which was fine by me).
One note though, I think it is rather strong!
I poured myself an 8 ounce “sample” and on an empty stomach it got me feeling quite “happy”.
Man you got me salivating here, I’m gonna have to get a batch brewing this weekend. Nothing like the satisfaction of a homebrewed buzz!
Oh this sounds FUN. I am a HUGE fan of hard cider, specifically Woodchuck..I may have to see about making my own..since I am at heart CHEAP..lol..GREAT directions..i’ll let ya know how it turns out
Interesting stuff! I’ve just started my first batch of Hard Cider, not knowing that you had to add water to the airlock (my bad), anyway, my batch finally boiled over so to speak after 2+ days in my garage and now the airlock is filled with cider and bubbling away, my ? is how much water should be in the airlock, and should I replace the cider in the airlock with fresh water (or vodka)? and how much cider do you put in the 5 gal. carboy, should it be filled to the neck or lower? any and all comments will be greatful, then there is the vinegar thing, I’m trying my hand at this as well, should this be done in another room as not to get some wild yeast spreading around the room that might infect my Cider? does any of this make any sense
Never made vinegar, but you got wild yeasts all over the place anyway. I wouldn’t worry about it personally. As long as your airlock is full of water or some sort of alcohol.
I fill my carboy up to the last line before the top starts tapering. I’ve never had it “boil over” like beer does and such, because I’m afraid if I do my wife might end my cider adventures. I’m glad you came by when you did, I need to get a batch going for Christmas. (It makes the family easier to deal with if I’m a little buzzed on home made cider).
If you’re using the two piece airlock, there’s a fill line on there (or what I use for a fill line) I use fill it up with the cup in it, until it’s over the holes in the lip of that cup. What you’re trying to do is have a layer of water in between the air inside the cider jug and the air outside. I’d take the cider in the airlock out. You use alcohol because it’s sterile and nothing’ll grow in it.
If you’re using the one piece air lock…I dunno. I don’t like em because they look hard to clean, but I’d imagine as long as they are full enough of alcohol that there’s a layer of booze between the air inside and outside then you’ll be fine.
Let me know how the vinegar turns out. I never tried making it (although I came close once with a failed batch of cider)..
Good luck and bottoms up!
I’ve been brewing hard cider for a couple of years now, and I have to say, if you can afford to get into kegging it, that’s definitely the way to go. It’s clear, sparkly, and on tap in the fridge…
My recipe: 5 gallons of Walmart’s cheapest apple juice, 4 cups of sugar, 1 pack of EC1113 champagne yeast. The juice goes cloudy within a day or so as the yeast starts working. Let it sit until it goes clear again, then keg it, using potassium sorbate to kill the yeast and 5 can of frozen apple concentrate to sweeten it. For stronger brew, use more sugar. That yeast supposedly can stand up to about 18% alcohol. Leaving out the equipment costs, that’s around $18-$20 per 5 gallon batch for raw materials…