Homemade hard cider

A How-To Guide For The Novice DIY Cider Maker

Materials/ingredients

• 1 Gallon Glass Jug of Pasteurized Apple Juice 
• 1 Nottingham Yeast Packet*
• 1 #6 Rubber Stopper*
• 1 Air Lock*
• 6 Feet Flexible Tubing*

more materials/ingredients

• Star San Sanitizer*
• Siphon Starter (Optional)*
• Brown Sugar or Honey(Optional)
• Spare Carboy Or Food Grade Container*
• *Can be found at your brewing supply store

Clean & Sterile

Use the Star San sanitizer to clean your stopper, air lock, and tubing.

Fruit

Buy organic, pasturized apple juice in a 1 gallon glass jug at the grocery store.

yeast

Pour 1/4 of the yeast packet in the glass jug of juice. Recap the juice and shake. A little more or less won't hurt.

Uncap the bottle and insert the rubber stopper. Fill the air lock to the line with boiling water and place it in the stopper.

carbonation

Later that day you should see bubbles and foam on the surface. Fermentation!

Let the cider sit at 65-70 degrees F. 1 week = sweeter cider (less alcohol) or 3 weeks = drier cider (more alcohol)

Racking

Place the clean spare carboy on the floor and the full jug on the counter. Insert one end of the sanitized tubbing in the full jug making sure not to suck up any of the sediment.

With one end in the jug, suck the other end of the tube to draw the cider out. When the cider is halfway through the tube, put the end in the spare jug and the juice should start flowing out.

Draw up all the cider without getting any of the sediment. Rinse and sanitize the now empty jug and complete the racking process one more time.

bottling

If you want to sweeten the cider you can add 1 cup of cider and 1/2 cup of brown sugar or honey to a saucepan and boil for 2 minutes. Pour the syrup back into the cider jug and shake it up. Taste it, you may need to add more sweetener.

You can store your cider in the gallon jug or you can transfer it to swing top glass bottles.

Now Enjoy Your Homemade Hard Cider!

SOURCES

1. Onstad, C. (2013). DIY Hard Cider. Retrieved June 9, 2014, from www.portlandmercury.com

2. How To Simply Make A Cider. (2014). Retrieved June 9, 2014, from www.beerlovescompany.com

3. Christensen, R. (2013). How To Make Your Own Hard Cider. Retrieved June 9, 2014, from www.blogs.villagevoice.com

4. Shabatura, J. (2014). The Home Brew Helper. Retrieved June 9, 2014, from www.howtomakehardcider.com

5. All photos are creative commons