For those of you with a hydrometer ( that amazing $7 tool that measures sugar), check to make sure your PLAIN starting juice is around 1.045 – 1.050 S.G. You can also choose to add 1/4 cup of brown sugar if you don’t add the concentrate.
If you are using fresh apple cider (from an orchard), you do not need to bother with adding the frozen apple juice concentrate, your cider is already thick and appley! If you do want to use the frozen concentrate, I recommend Cascadian Farms organic. Adding frozen concentrate can also add a little more ‘apple’ flavor. Adding apple juice concentrate will increase the alcohol content (see more on alcohol levels here) and also make your cider a bit less watery (increases the viscosity). I add the frozen apple juice concentrate when I am using the grocery store apple cider, in an effort to make it more like the fresh stuff. Add some options to improve taste, body and increase the alcohol content–if you wish! Here is a list of optional additives, and also some suggestions on what not to add.įlavor tip one: Add 1/4 of a 12oz can of frozen apple juice concentrate. If you opt not to use it, you might have a bit of murky looking brew that tastes just fine. So if you are going to the brew store, or placing an online order, a bottle for $5 will last for 40+ gallons of brewing. īasically, pectic enzyme is cheap (powder or liquid is fine), so better safe than sorry in my book. Pectin is water-soluble, but it tends to fall out of solution and form clouds as alcohol content rises, so if you don’t use the enzyme, you might end up with a pretty good haze by the end of fermentation. Pectic, sometimes called ‘pectolytic’ enzyme breaks down pectin (a natural glue that holds plant cells together). Be sure and sterilize your measuring spoon and use a clean paper towel to dry.Īdding pectic enzyme is not a necessary step and will only affect the look, not the taste of, your cider. If you are wanting your cider to sparkling clear, add a bit of pectic enzymeĪccording to the directions on the package. If you use a funnel, remember to sterilize that too! If you purchased your cider in a glass jug (like the Whole Food’s 365 juice) just leave it in the jug it came in. ( $8 for one or only $6 if you buy four at a time) If your cider is in a plastic jug, pour it into a clean and sterile glass jug for primary fermentation. Make sure your cider is in a GLASS one-gallon jug. If you are having a go with wild yeast, leave out the campden tab, and cross your fingers! You wild thing, you. If you are using grocery-store-bought cider there is no reason to use campden tabs. (If your cider is unpasteurized, using campden tabs at this level will potentially not kill all the bacteria that could be in the juice.) Shake a couple times a day to distribute the sulphur that is made by the campden tabs and allow it to escape out the top of your jug through the towel on top. This will inhibit all of the wild yeast in the cider, but not ‘sterilize’ the cider.
Fit a clean paper towel (or cheesecloth) over the top of your cider with a rubber band and wait at 48 hrs. Dissolve the crushed tab in 1 Tbsp very hot water. Using a mortar and pestle, or put it in a ziplock bag and whack it with a hammer. Crush one Campden Tablet (potassium or sodium metabisulfite) For those of you using fresh cider mill cider, we need kill bacteria and to control wild yeast in your fresh cider. That is really awesome but way too expensive for you! Thanks to all of you who have offered to mail me fresh cider to NW Arkansas. Sadly, I do not have good access to local fresh cider, so I use Musselman’s or Whole Food’s 365 organic brand (labeled “apple juice”). If you are using pasteurized grocery cider with added potassium sorbate or sodium chlorite, click here.
If you are going to use grocery store (pasteurized) cider without preservatives, skip to step 3. It should be pasteurized, cold pasteurized (treated with UV light) or have a label that says UNPASTURIZED *. As overviewed in the juice selection page, it will taste best if you can find cider from a orchard, farmer’s market or cider stand. Purchase one gallon of cider (apple juice). Wash your hands, dip them in Star San for a minute, and let’s get started! Making ONE GALLON of hard cider, step by step Just don’t come crying to me when you end up with a gallon of vinegar in a month or take out your garage door with a batch of bottle bombs! So you read everything you need to know about juice, yeast, sugar, alcohols, and sanitation… and now we are ready to make some hard cider! For those of you who cut-to-the-chase and did not really bother to read all the other information first, that is fine.
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