Making hard cider

Cider is ridiculously easy to make. I’m not sure why it took me until this year to bother, but I’ve now made two batches of it and I know I’ll make more next fall.

Hard cider is made of:

1. Apple cider (or pear cider, or apple/fruit you like cider)
2. Honey (2lbs of it)
3. Yeast
4. 2 Campden Tablets (sulfites that kill bad bacteria that turn cider in to vinegar — optional if you’re feeling brave)

And that’s all! So easy. I haven’t made it from commercial ciders at all, preferring to buy cider from the local farmer’s market, but I bet you could do that in a pinch. Do the math on how much 5 gallons will cost versus buying six pack after six pack of commercial hard cider. If the average six pack costs $6.99, and you can get roughly 8 six packs from 5 gallons of cider, then the cost of commercial cider is about $56. Compare that to making  your own, where 5 gallons of locally-grown and pressed cider will likely run you about $30, plus maybe $8 for the yeast, and assuming you’re using bottles you already had — you can see the savings. Plus it tastes better! And it’s easy to make!

Making the cider

1. You take 1 gallon of your cider and heat it in a pot with the 2lbs of honey to melt the honey.
2. Remove 1 pint of the honey/cider mixture and store it for bottling (I freeze mine).
3. Pour 4 gallons of cider into your sanitized carboy, add the remaining honey/cider mix, and check the temperature. It needs to be at around 68 degrees before you can pitch (aka “pour in”) the yeast.
4. Once it’s 68, crush the Campden Tablets (if using) with a mortar and pestle, pour that into the carboy, pitch your yeast, put on the fermentation lock, and wait for it to start fermenting — around 24 hours.
5. After fermentation is solidly underway (like on day 2), put the cider out in a cool garage or cellar where it can stay at 50-60 degrees.
6. When it’s time to bottle the cider, pour it into your bottling bucket along with the reserved pint of honey/cider mix. This will activate the remaining yeast so the cider carbonates in the bottle.
7. Let the cider condition in the bottle for a couple of weeks, or until the cider clears and is no longer cloudy.

The key to cider is a low fermentation temperature, just like making a lager beer. You want to ferment your cider at 50-60 degrees, so it’s best suited for winter when you can put it in a cold garage for a few weeks/months. Bottle it when there’s no fermentation activity at all — the fermentation lock doesn’t bubble so much and there’s no active yeast on the top of the cider. Fermentation really can take months with cider, so be patient!

Variations
Try different types of cider to see how they turn out. My first batch was made with a tart, crisp apple cider that was flash-pasteurized. I opted not to use campden tablets in the interest of making a sulfite-free cider that doesn’t induce headaches for some folks. And I used a dry cider yeast. The result was a very tart, dry cider that was similar to a geuze beer in nature — crisp, tangy, champagne-like. With this one, I left the cider fermenting indoor for several days, which was probably not the best thing to do. It finished fermenting in about three weeks.

My second cider was made from an unpasteurized mix of apples, so I did add 2 Campden Tablets just to be safe. For this one, I used a sweet mead yeast, hoping for a sweeter cider. It worked! That cider is mild, lightly crisp, refreshing, and sweet like a Braeburn apple. Kathy reports that it gives her a tiny headache due to the Campden Tablets, so that’s the only drawback. This cider fermented in my cold garage for over a month before I bottled it.

Tips
Cider, like beer, is light-reactive which means the flavor can be ruined when it sits in the light for a long time. Your cider will just go bad. Be sure to wrap it in a  towel or  blanket if you’re leaving it someplace that gets daylight (even indirect daylight).

Really, making cider is like cheating it’s so simple! Not only is it naturally gluten-free, you can also make it sulfite free, and it’s delicious. We’re going to have it as a beer alternative at our wedding!