How to Make Hard Cider

Guide Note Hard cider is a delicious alternative to beer that's brewed by a similar method. How to Make Hard Cider shows you how to ferment your own cider at home.

Table of Contents

• Introduction
• What You'll Need
• Sulfur–Sanitized Cider
• Sulfite–Free Cider
• Carbonate the Cider (Optional)
• Conclusion
• References

Making Hard Cider Tips

1. Sanitize your equipment.
2. Use a Campden tablet to sanitize apple juice.
3. Dissolve sugar before adding it to un–fermented apple juice.
4. Use an airlock to prevent your cider from turning into vinegar.
5. Siphon fermenting cider into a second container to help clarify it.
6. Use some more sugar to carbonate the cider.

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Introduction

• Cider has been a popular alcoholic beverage in America since colonial times. While cider making experienced a significant decline around the time of Prohibition, it has recently undergone a resurgence in popularity thanks to increasing interest in microbreweries and home brewing. With just a few basic pieces of equipment and easily obtained supplies, plus a fair amount of patience, you can brew hard cider at home.¹

What You'll Need

• 

  Making your own hard cider is a precise, but still easy process. (Creative Commons photo by Biskuit)
  Before you begin brewing your cider, be sure to sanitize all of your equipment with bleach or another sanitizing solution.² You can get all necessary equipment and other supplies from a local brewing supply store or online at sites such as Leeners, Williams Brewing or NorthernBrewer.com.^{3 4 5}

Equipment

• 2 one-gallon glass, plastic or wooden airtight containers⁶
  • Whatever kind of container you use, you must get an airlock that fits properly.
• Airlock
  • Fermenting cider must not come in contact with air or it will begin to turn into vinegar. An airlock keeps air out while allowing gas produced by the cider to escape.⁶ If you don't want to buy an airlock, one site suggests connecting the cider to a small container of water with hosing.⁷
• Racking cane
• Siphon hose
• Bottles with their caps for bottling the cider (optional)⁸

Sulfur–Sanitized Hard Cider

• There are two basic methods for preparing cider for fermentation, as well as some debate over which is the better method.⁶ The first method, outlined in this section, uses sulfites to sanitize the cider before adding yeast. Proponents of sulfur-sanitized cider claim that wild yeasts and bacteria can produce unpredictable, sometimes unpleasant flavors in the finished cider, and therefore prefer to kill them off with sulfites before introducing carefully selected yeasts.⁹

Ingredients

• • 1 gallon unpasteurized, unfiltered apple juice—a mixture of several varieties of both tart and sweet apples is recommended¹⁰
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 1/2 teaspoon pectic enzyme—eliminates "haziness" in the cider.¹⁰
  • 1/2 teaspoon yeast energizer
  • 1 Campden tablet
  • 1 packet cider, brewers, champagne or wine yeast
  • 1/4 teaspoon tannin (optional)
  • 1 teaspoon acid blend (optional)

Procedure

1. 

   A simple airlock mechanism will keep your cider from turning to vinegar. (Creative Commons photo by http://flickr.com/photos/jmpk/2310407516/ John Knox])
   Crush the Campden tablet and stir it into the fresh apple juice in your fermenting pail.
2. Stir in the pectic enzyme, yeast energizer, sugar, tannin and acid blend. Do not add the yeast yet.
3. Cover the fermenting pail and let sit for one or two days.¹¹
4. Uncover the pail and sprinkle the yeast over the juice.
5. Put the lid back on the pail and attach the airlock (or rubber hosing and water assembly).
6. Allow the cider to ferment. The airlock will bubble, indicating that the cider is indeed fermenting. Wait for the bubbles to subside to a rate of about one bubble per minute, then wait 7 more days before moving on to the next step.¹⁰
7. Siphon the cider into a second fermentation pail.¹² Try to avoid transferring the sediment from the bottom of the first container into the second.⁶ Cover the container and attach the airlock.
8. Allow the fermentation to finish. Leener's suggests tasting the cider after two weeks and adjusting the flavor before allowing the fermentation to continue. This will take at least a few weeks.¹⁰ When the cider becomes clear, it's ready for drinking, carbonation or bottling.⁸

Sulfite–Free Cider

• The second method for fermenting hard cider makes use of the original yeasts in un–preserved apple juice to ferment the cider. Brewers who use this method consider sulfur-sanitization unnecessary or even prefer the more unpredictable results obtained with wild yeasts.⁹ You might also want to stick to this method if you have a true sulfite allergy.¹³

Ingredients

• • 1 gallon pasteurized, unfiltered, preservative-free apple juice²
  • 1 pound white or brown sugar or honey (optional, but the more sugar in your cider, the more alcohol)²
  • 1 packet cider, champagne, wine or bread yeast

Procedure

1. Pour sugar or honey into a saucepan and add enough apple juice to dissolve the sugar completely over moderate heat.⁶ If you're concerned about wild yeasts and bacteria in your cider, heat all the apple juice on medium for 45 minutes to kill off most microorganisms, without bringing the apple juice to a boil.²
2. Let the solution cool until it is only lukewarm, then pour it back into your clean container with the rest of the apple juice.
3. Add the yeast to the container.
4. Seal the container with an airlock.
5. Allow the cider to ferment for at least three weeks in a room whose temperature is around 60°F to 70°F.⁷
6. Siphon the cider into a second fermenter. Try to avoid transferring the sediment from the bottom of the first container into the second.⁶ Allow the cider to sit until it is completely clear (about a month).²
7. Once the cider is clear, you can drink it, bottle it or let it age for up to 6 years.^{8 6}

Carbonate the Cider (Optional)

• 

  Carbonation will add pleasant bubbles to your batch of cider. (Creative Commons photo by Gaetan Lee)
  There are many different styles of hard cider on the market.¹⁴ Many, though not all, of those ciders are carbonated. As with beer, the most common way for homebrewers to carbonate their cider is by natural carbonation. After primary fermentation is complete, the brewer adds a small amount of sugar to the cider before sealing the cider in its final container (whether a keg, bucket or bottles). The cider goes through further fermentation, producing CO2. Since the container is sealed, the CO2 has nowhere to go, and remains suspended in the cider.¹⁵

1. Dissolve 1/8 cup sugar in a small amount of water.²
2. Carefully stir the sugar solution into the clarified cider.
3. Bottle the cider or seal it in its final container.⁸
4. Let the cider stand for another two weeks.⁸

Conclusion

• Don't forget to share your home–crafted hard cider with friends and family. Once you've gotten a handle on the basic process of cider making, you can begin to tinker with the recipe. Consider the type of apple juice you use, the yeast, the sugar and the length of time for which you age your cider. In a taxonomy of alcohol making, hard cider making would fit in between wine making and beer brewing, so if you enjoy your experience, you might want to try your hand at those processes as well.¹⁶

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References for How to Make Hard Cider

1. ↑ Two Rivers Cider Company: History of Hard Cider
2. ↑ ^{2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5} Mother Earth News: Make Your Own Hard Cider (October/November 2007) 
3. ↑ Leeners: Official Site
4. ↑ Williams Brewing: Official Site
5. ↑ NorthernBrewer.com: Official Site
6. ↑ ^{6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 6.4 6.5 6.6} Cornell University: Making Hard Cider
7. ↑ ^{7.0 7.1} Mother Earth News: How to Build a Cider Press (September/October 1976) 
8. ↑ ^{8.0 8.1 8.2 8.3 8.4} Seven Bridges Cooperative: Bottling the Beer
9. ↑ ^{9.0 9.1} Chowhound: Questions About Hard Cider
10. ↑ ^{10.0 10.1 10.2 10.3} Leeners: Making Hard Apple Cider in Three Gallon Batches
11. ↑ Sunny Side Orchards: Apple Recipes
12. ↑ Seven Bridges Cooperative: Siphoning the Beer
13. ↑ U.S. Food and Drug Administration: Sulfites—Safe for Most, Dangerous for Some (December 1996)
14. ↑ Sally's Place: Hard Cider
15. ↑ About.com: Brewing Beer 
16. ↑ SamCooks.com: Hard Times—Hard Cider

Sulfur-Sanitized Hard Cider Recipes

• Leeners: Making Hard Apple Cider in Three Gallon Batches
• The Miller Man: Cider Making
• RecipeZaar: Hard Apple Cider (August 16, 1999)
• Sunny Side Orchards: Apple Recipes

Sulfite-Free Hard Cider Recipes

• BeerRecipes.org: Hard Cider
• Cornell University: Making Hard Cider
• Mother Earth News: How to Make a Cider Press (September/October 1976) 
• Mother Earth News: Make Your Own Hard Cider (October/November 2007) 
• RealBeer.com: Cider