How to Make Hard Cider at Home

Save your old beer and cider bottles to store your own hard cider.

Hard cider, a fermented apple juice or cider drink, has been gaining popularity. Between those who enjoy drinking something from a bottle, yet don't want a beer, and those who are allergic to the grains used in traditional beer making, hard-cider drinks have found a place in the cooler. Cider breweries have been sprouting up around the world, creating sophisticated cider drinks, but you don't have to resort to buying cider. Home-brew kits are available to brew your own hard cider, and making it at home can be done by acquiring a few pieces of equipment.

Things You'll Need

• Fermentation bucket with spigot and airlock lid, food-grade
• 4 feet plastic siphon tubing, 5/16-inch diameter
• 5 gallons apple juice or cider, 100 percent juice
• Cider yeast
• Large pot
• 5 lbs. brown sugar or honey
• 1/8 cup bleach
• Funnel
• Glass growlers or bottles

Instructions

1. Acquire the equipment and ingredients needed to make hard cider. Look for plastic tubing and a food-grade bucket with a lid and an airlock so you can siphon the cider out of the bucket when the fermenting is complete. Check homebrew stores or homebrew supply websites for cider yeast. Wine yeast can also be used to make cider, although the flavor of the cider may change slightly.

2. Mix the yeast with a small amount of the apple cider the day before you start brewing to make a starter and start the fermenting process early, ensuring your yeast is alive and will ferment before beginning the brewing process.

3. Pour your cider or juice into a large pot on the day of brewing. Warm the cider and allow it to simmer for 45 minutes to kill any bacteria, making sure it does not boil. Add up to 5 lbs. of brown sugar or honey while the cider is simmering to increase the amount of alcohol in the final product.

4. Pour 1/8 of a cup of bleach into your fermentation bucket and fill it with water, letting it sit for an hour to sanitize the bucket. Thoroughly rinse the bleach water out of the fermentation bucket.

5. Allow your cider and sugar mixture to cool to room temperature and add the fermented starter to the mixture. Pour the entire mixture into the fermentation bucket and seal with the lid and airlock. Set your fermentation bucket in a cool place, between 60 and 70 degrees, for one to two months without disturbing.

6. Insert the plastic tubing into the lid of the bucket through the hole until it is about 4 inches from the bottom of the fermentation bucket. Siphon the cider from the fermentation bucket into another clean container, and pour out the remaining cider, which contains sediment you don't want to drink.

7. Pour your hard cider through a funnel into glass growlers or bottles for drinking, and store the containers in the refrigerator.

Tips & Warnings

• Use apple juice or cider that does not contain chemical preservatives as this will kill the yeast and the cider will not ferment properly; ingredients like sodium benzoate and potassium sorbate are chemical preservatives.

References

• Mother Earth News; Make Your Own Hard Cider; Nathan Poell; October 2007
• Cornell University Department of Horitculture: Making Hard Cider
• Fermentarium; The Insider of Cider: A Recipe for Hard Cider; DJ Spiess; August 2007