I hate that I had to distinguish in this posts title that this was “Hard” cider. Cider by it’s definition is “hard”, meaning it traditionally cider is a fermented apple juice drink. Here is the Etymology of the word.
- cider (n.)
- late 13c., from O.Fr. cidre, cire (12c., Mod.Fr. cidre), variant of cisdre, from L.L. sicera, Vulgate rendition of Heb. shekhar, word used for any strong drink (translated in Old English as beor). Meaning gradually narrowed in English to mean exclusively “fermented drink made from apples,” though this sense also was in Old French.
Only in America and Parts of Canada does it mean an unfiltered non-alcoholic version. Basically the difference here in the US between Apple Juice and Apple Cider is that cider is unfiltered, sometimes un-pasteurized, making the drink a darker brownish color. To me cider tends to be a bit sweeter and less tangy and crisp than apple juice. Now that we’ve gotten that out of the way when I refer to Cider I mean a fermented drink and juice is un-fermented. Now lets get onto how you can make this tasty drink at home and easy.
Health Benefits
Being a fan of the paleo lifestyle I tend do try to avoid Gluten as much as possible. With my only caveat being Beer. My saying is “The only good grain is a fermented one” Although this might have some basis in fact (Here and here) it might just be me justifying having a a few beers at the end of a hard week. Either way I’m OK drinking beer but do enjoy a good Cider. Cider is a gluten free, grain free alcoholic drink that, can be a good substitute for beer. I tend to opt for Ciders during the fall months. I love the tangy refreshing quality of a cider. A six pack of cider will run you in the $7-$9 range. Not terrible for a good quality craft beer but certainly not an everyday price.
Cost
In trying this experiment I bought fairly expensive organic unfiltered Juice from Whole foods. The price on this was $8.69 for a big glass gallon jug. You may be thinking that almost $9 for a gallon of apple juice seems pricey. You would normally be right. I chose this for a few reasons. The organic stuff is free of preservatives. If you hit the locally grocery store and pick the buck a gallon store brand it will be filled with not only preservatives but probably watered down and sweetened. The preservatives will prevent fermentation from occurring. Although the organic label has its problems I know I won’t have any unwanted junk in my Cider. Quality juice means quality Cider. If you live in an area with local orchards I’m sure you can get even better juice for a better price. Tennessee is not know for our apple orchards though. Another reason I chose this brand was for the glass jug. I am going to ferment right in it’s own jug. I picked up a rubber bung with a hole for an air lock at the brew shop. Meaning that you don’t need to make a big investment for this. Even so it comes out to being about a four dollar six pack instead of $8.
Ingredients
This is literally how easy this is there are two ingredients to this Cider. You will need a unfiltered apple juice free of preservatives. If you do like me you can use the glass jug it comes in. If not most brew shops sale used jugs or small carboys for a good price. You can go the rubber bung with an airlock or go with the rubber balloon with a pin hole method. At about $3 for the bung and air lock which will last forever I suggest that route. Next you will need a yeast to make it cider. This is where having a local brew supply shop is useful. There are many many different yeast to choose from. All will give you different flavor profiles and alcohol contents. I asked what would be the best to make a cider. From what I’ve read online I was ready to choose a champagne yeast. The owner said that champagne would work really well, BUT that is takes much longer to work. Up to a year to really mature. I kinda want to drink this in a few weeks. Like two weeks or so. The owner suggested I use Red Star Cote des Blancs , an active dry wine yeast.
Method
Nothing special here. I’ve never bothered to bloom my yeast I just pour it in. Although the yeast is enough for five gallons I wont bother trying to partition it off into fifths. The yeast will eat the same amount of sugars and die when the juice becomes too toxic (i.e too alcoholic) for it to live. So just add the entire package, cap it and give it a shake.
Once you’ve shaken it to mix and aerate the juice add you rubber bung and water filled air lock.
Put the fermentation vessel in a nice dark safe place for about two weeks.
At the end of the two weeks it should be ready to enjoy. You can rack into a new vessel to continue to ferment and clarify. Doing this will reduce yeast sediment and improve the appearance of the cider. At this point you could also add in more sugars and bottle to make it a carbonated cider. What I plan on doing is to pour from the just and enjoy. Check back in two weeks I’ll post the results on the Survivalpunk Facebook page.
Whats your favorite cider? Have you ever made cider? If not cider what are you drinking now during the cooler months? Let me know in the comments!
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OK< I like what you do, but this post SUCKS! IT should have been written AFTER you have results…I'm like every other American, I WANT THE RESULTS *NOW*!
You are making me wait!
OK< joking aside, this is the same basic method I use all the time, and it really is THIS easy…And I agree with you on the glass jug being an investment, offsetting the price of the "good" apple juice.
On a similar note, living in Florida, we have access to THE BEST orange juice you'll EVER taste, seriously..the good stuff never leaves here, we get it all to ourselves…when in orange picking season, you can smell the processing plants from 20 miles away…the smell of orange juice is in the air!
However, orange juice does NOT make the best wine….a damn shame, since the local stuff tends to get fizzy (makes alcohol) rather easily with our climate. I've had LOTS of OJ with a bit of bite to it….sort of low-grade, all-natural mimosa 🙂
Damn, now I want a sip of OJ….or hard cider…
Let us know how this turns out….and for the record, I have a hydrometer to test the alcohol content…ship it to me and I'll test it for you….no charge!
Peace,
db
Lol I have a hydrometer. Didn’t use it or really ever use it. Have you tried to ferment OJ using yeast intentionally and not through natural fermentation. I had an odd desire to ferment everything. I mean EVERYTHING. You bottles in the mail man lol
Hey, heard you on TPS. Checked out you site, pretty cool. Thanks for the post about the Hard Cider. I am gonna try that ASAP. Cheers from TN!
I just happen to live across the highway from an apple orchard. Each year we go over and help them make apple cider at the end of the season. They have an old apple press from the 30’s and it still works. We end up taking home about 10 gallons of fresh cider. We only stop because we think we have enough. There are enough late session and “seconds” apples to run the press all day. All the apples we dont use up the orchardist donates to a local food bank. I also happen to have no less than 3 home brew shops in my area.
It looks like I am taking a shot at hard cider this year… I might do one batch of each; the 2 week yeast and the 1 year yeast.
found my way here from Jack Spirko and the survival podcast.
I just made a trip to my local brewer supply and got hooked up with gear. Apple pressing scheduled for tomorrow morning!
Good luck with the pressing Mark! I’m happy with how mine has turned out will be doing this more often
What’s up Punk? Heard you on Jacks show yesterday and found my way to your site and I’m diggin it. I actually have a gallon of Musselmans Apple cider sitting in my cupboard right now and was in the process of determining what yeast to use. Looking forward to seeing your results. Cheers!
I’ve got a quick video up on the Survivalpunk YouTube of the cider bubbling in the jug. I know it’s fermenting now I just can’t wait to drink it
Here from TSP as well and like the way you think; cheap, easy alcohol w/o grain. I just harvested my apple trees a couple weeks ago and had been wondering what to do with some of ’em. Hmmm. DIY rocks!
I just threw together some perry, or pear cider this morning. The airlocks are burpin’ already!
Sounds good. I might have to make some perry too
I recommend getting a 5 gallon carboy. Then go to Costco and get 3 of the double Treetop Apple Juices (they come in 2 gallon containers that are connected). Pour 6 cups of sugar in the carboy, then add 5 gallons juice (keep the extra gallon for breakfasts. Do as you say above. When it is completely done fermenting, rack it and bottle it. It brings a bit of a punch – a bit more alcohol than beer.
I’ve been doing cider this way for a few years, works quite well. But I just learned last weekend at my local brewery shop that liquid yeasts contain flour.
So now I’ve switched to only dry yeasts. I am switching over to using Muntons yeast.
ps. heard about you from your interview with Jack on TSP.
Another one here from TSP. I just tried this last night, my sister is in town for thanksgiving and she works at Whole Foods so with her discount I got two bottles at $6.50 each, then I spent $6.00 on 3 types of yeast, two stoppers and 2 airators
I used muntons yeast because that’s what was suggested by the old guy at the local brew shop
I’ve only got one bottle going right now and I want to see how that goes. How do I know when it’s ready? I woul like to have it ready for Christmas and/or New Years
I’m going to head over to your Facebook right now and like you and check for more cider updates there
I have my unfilted cider, stopper, air lock, and yeast. Now one big question before I start: “How do you clean/sterilize the stopper and air lock?”
For one batch (for now) of cider, purchasing sterilizing ‘stuff’ seems a bit much. Is there an alternative, such as a hydrogen peroxide solution, that can be used?
I use regular unscented bleach to sterilize. Use a one tablespoon to a gallon of water and let it stay in the bleach water for at least ten minutes. After rinse with cold water
Your right, just use bleach. I have never heard of using hydrogen peroxide solution in any type of brewing/wine making.
BTW, you did a good job of showing how to make homemade hard cider. Most people don’t really how easy it really is.
Okay, just made our first gallon! Bought a case of apples and juiced them. We bought Gala which had just been picked from a Quincy, Wa orchard. Couldn’t have been fresher. Next week we will get a different variety of apples and keep brewing until we have plenty and we will mark every variety of apples so we can decide which makes the best. I had a can of Okanogan Harvest Pear which was outstanding and was wondering if it is a good thing to make a batch with half apples and half pears. Any idea? Sure am enjoying this Paleo lifestyle and just discovered a local farm here in Quincy which raises grass-fed beef and sells it by the quarter. I feel so fortunate to have the availability so close to home! Also have discovered and LOVE beefaloes. Have made the almond butter bread and it gets a thumbs up! Thanks for sharing your experiences and recipes! I have become an avid follower.
Lyn Evans
Is there an update to this? I just ordered the stuff to make some, and I came back here to make sure I got everything. And I don’t see an AAR.
Josh the cider turned out perfect. Nice and bitter not disgusting sweet like store bought.
My stuff will be here this weekend. I do have a guy with a press, so I’ll be hitting him up for cider, but until it’s season, I’ll probably try some store bought, no preservatives stuff.
I did some reading on other sites, and some warn against using unpasteurized juice because any contaminating organisms will still be present in the finished product.
They also all seem to want to add clarifying extracts. I figured on just filtering the sediment. I’ll post back on how it went.
I’m also looking forward to trying other fruits, but I guess I’ll need to buy a press of my own for that.
My wife has been buying Apple “seconds” and making her own apple sauce for a couple years now. And after every batch, I have 7 or 8 dead wasps in the kitchen window that were trying to get in.
Good luck man. I made several batches this way and was always better than store bought. Yes the bottom is sediment but you can use it to brew more from that yeast. That Apple sauce sounds Delicious
Last fall I made 3 gallons of the apple.and one of pure pear. The first gallon exploded (i didn’t skim and filled the bottle too full.) in each case, the hydrometer sinks. I still haven’t consumed the cidar thinking the alcohol will develop but the hydrometer always sinks. What’s with that?
Ps. I juiced the apples and pears in a centrifugal juicer.
I would either add more yeast now or toss it and try again. Could have been the apples used were not good cider apples. If the sugar is too low you won’t get proper fermentation
Will definately be making this. Thanks