Super Easy Hard Cider

I hate that I had to distinguish in this posts title that this was “Hard” cider.  Cider by it’s definition is “hard”, meaning it traditionally cider is a fermented apple juice drink. Here is the Etymology of the word.

 

cider (n.)

late 13c., from O.Fr. cidre, cire (12c., Mod.Fr. cidre), variant of cisdre, from L.L. sicera, Vulgate rendition of Heb. shekhar, word used for any strong drink (translated in Old English as beor). Meaning gradually narrowed in English to mean exclusively “fermented drink made from apples,” though this sense also was in Old French.

 

Only in America and Parts of Canada does it mean an unfiltered non-alcoholic version. Basically the difference here in the US between Apple Juice and Apple Cider is that cider is unfiltered, sometimes un-pasteurized, making the drink a darker brownish color. To me cider tends to be a bit sweeter and less tangy and crisp than apple juice.  Now that we’ve gotten that out of the way when I refer to Cider I mean a fermented drink and juice is un-fermented. Now lets get onto how you can make this tasty drink at home and easy.

Health Benefits

Being a fan of the paleo lifestyle I tend do try to avoid Gluten as much as possible. With my only caveat being Beer. My saying is “The only good grain is a fermented one” Although this might have some basis in fact (Here and here) it might just be me justifying having a a few beers at the end of a hard week. Either way I’m OK drinking beer but do enjoy a good Cider. Cider is a gluten free, grain free alcoholic drink  that, can be a good substitute for beer. I tend to opt for Ciders during the fall months.  I love the tangy refreshing quality of a cider. A six pack of cider will run you in the $7-$9 range. Not terrible for a good quality craft beer but certainly not an everyday price.

Cost

In trying this experiment I bought fairly expensive organic unfiltered Juice from Whole foods. The price on this was $8.69 for a big glass gallon jug. You may be thinking that almost $9 for a gallon of apple juice seems pricey. You would normally be right. I chose this for a few reasons. The organic stuff is free of preservatives. If you hit the locally grocery store and pick the buck a gallon store brand it will be filled with not only preservatives but probably watered down and sweetened. The preservatives will prevent fermentation from occurring. Although the organic label has its problems I know I won’t have any unwanted junk in my Cider. Quality juice means quality Cider. If you live in an area with local orchards I’m sure you can get even better juice for a better price. Tennessee is not know for our apple orchards though. Another reason I chose this brand was for the glass jug. I am going to ferment right in it’s own jug. I picked up a rubber bung with a hole for an air lock at the brew shop. Meaning that you don’t need to make a big investment  for this. Even so it comes out to being about a four dollar six pack instead of $8.

Ingredients

This is literally how easy this is there are two ingredients to this Cider. You will need a unfiltered apple juice free of preservatives. If you do like me you can use the glass jug it comes in. If not most brew shops sale used jugs or small carboys for a good price. You can go the rubber bung with an airlock or go with the rubber balloon with a pin hole method. At about $3 for the bung and air lock which will last forever I suggest that route. Next you will need a yeast to make it cider. This is where having a local brew supply shop is useful. There are many many different yeast to choose from. All will give you different flavor profiles and alcohol contents. I asked what would be the best to make a cider. From what I’ve read online I was ready to choose a champagne yeast. The owner said that champagne would work really well, BUT that is takes much longer to work. Up to a year to really mature. I kinda want to drink this in a few weeks. Like two weeks or so. The owner suggested I use Red Star Cote des Blancs , an active dry wine yeast.

Method

Nothing special here. I’ve never bothered to bloom my yeast I just pour it in. Although the yeast is enough for five gallons I wont bother trying to partition it off into fifths. The yeast will eat the same amount of sugars and die when the juice becomes too toxic (i.e too alcoholic) for it to live. So just add the entire package, cap it and give it a shake.

Once you’ve shaken it to mix and aerate the juice add you rubber bung and water filled air lock.

Put the fermentation vessel in a nice dark safe place for about two weeks.

At the end of the two weeks it should be ready to enjoy. You can rack into a new vessel to continue to ferment and clarify. Doing this will reduce yeast sediment and improve the appearance of the cider. At this point you could also add in more sugars and bottle to make it a carbonated cider.  What I plan on doing is to pour from the just and enjoy. Check back in two weeks I’ll post the results on the Survivalpunk Facebook page.

Whats your favorite cider? Have you ever made cider? If not cider what are you drinking now during the cooler months? Let me know in the comments!

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