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How to Make Hard Cider
Are you wondering how to make hard cider? Brewing hard cider from standard apple cider is a simple process, and learning how to make hard cider is a breeze even if you've never brewed anything on your own.
The first step is to get all the needed or desired ingredients and equipment together. The basic list of what you'll need when learning how to make hard cider is listed here:
For 5 Gallons of Hard Cider:
5 gallons (20 liters) apple juice or apple cider
1 envelop dry wine yeast or dry beer yeast
1/2 cup (125 ml) cane sugar or brown sugar
1 cup (250 ml) water
Optional:
1 to 2 pounds of sugar such as corn sugar (dextrose – also called brewing sugar or priming sugar)
2 tsp (10 ml) yeast nutrient (optional)
1 tsp (5 ml) pectic enzyme (optional)
Equipment:
One 5-gallon food-grade plastic bucket with spigot, lid and airlock
3 to 6 feet of 5/16-inch food-grade plastic tubing
Stainless steel or plastic spoon
Enough half-gallon glass “growler” jugs or other bottles (including caps or corks) to store the
finished cider
Optional: Stainless steel or enameled pot
Optional: a second 5-gallon food-grade plastic bucket with spigot, or a glass carboy
Be sure to choose your cider carefully. Sweet apple cider fresh from the cider press makes an awesome hard cider, but this isn't always easy to get your hands on. Most likely, you'll be buying sweet apple cider from a grocery store of health-food store. Be sure to check the label to be sure the cider doesn’t contain chemical preservatives, such as sodium benzoate or potassium sorbate. Such preservatives will kill the yeast and prevent your cider from fermenting. Also, a good hard cider can be made from a good, preservative free grocery store apple juice.
A quick note about pasteurization; the usual method of pasteurization kills microorganisms with heat, which affects the flavor of the apple cider or juice. A “cold pasteurized” apple cider or apple juice uses ultraviolet light in place of heat, and impacts flavor very little if at all.
Of course, you'll also need a good quality yeast that's capable of fermenting well and contributing the characteristics you desire when you make hard cider. If you have never brewed before, learning how to make hard cider might lead you down a path of learning about yeasts. There's a lot to know about the dozens of commonly uses brewing yeast. Fortunately, a variety of dry and liquid brewing yeasts will do the trick, and you don't need to become a brewing yeast expert. You can find brewing yeast online or from homebrew stores. I would recommend a quality dry wine yeast since these usually do an excellent job.
On brewing day, bring your cider or juice to a solid simmer in a brew pot for at least 30 minutes, but preferably 45 minutes. This will make sure the only yeast fermenting tour cider are the ones you add yourself because the simmer will kill most of the wild yeasts in the cider. This step also kills bacteria that may ruin your hard cider if not destroyed before starting the fermenting. However, don't let the cider boil because it will cause the hard cider to be hazy in appearance. This is mostly due to pectins, which are quick to “set” if a boil is allowed.
If you want to boost the fermentable sugar content in your cider, which will increase the alcohol content of your final hard cider, you can add the optional 2 pounds of brown sugar, dextrose, cane sugar, or honey. Add this during the simmer.
To help the yeast get a good start, boil a cup of water and add ½ to 1 cup of a sugar of choice, then let this cool to room temperature. Adding an ice cube will quicken the process. Once cooled, sprinkle your yeast into it, cover loosely with a lid, an let it sit for 10 to 15 minutes.
Next, pour the cider into a sanitized fermentation bucket. Let the cider cool to less than 80 degrees, which may take a few hours. Add your yeast and stir the cider vigorously for two minutes with a sanitized stainless steel or plastic spoon. This stirring will aerate the cider, which will help the yeast start well.
Seal the lid and affix the airlock. Place the bucket in a room or closet where the temperature is maintained 60 to 75 degrees. Be patient and let it ferment for 2 – 3 weeks. Within a day or two you should see the airlock start to bubble from the build-up of carbon dioxide, a byproduct of the fermentation process. The other byproduct is alcohol.
There are a number of options for bottling, which can be a lengthy topic on its own. If you're unfamiliar with bottling home brewed beverages, check out the other articles on this site that discuss this specifically. A sparkling cider will require the addition of priming sugar at the time of bottling. Once it ha been bottled for a week or two, you can move onto the best step in learning how to make hard cider…tasting your first batch!
