How do you make hard cider?

Some of the best hard cider comes from apples chosen specifically for their cider-making qualities. Brewing hard cider from non-alcoholic, or “sweet” cider is a simple process. Here are the steps you’ll follow to make hard cider of your own from Motherearthnews.com:

Ingredients:

• 5 gallons of preservative-free, sweet apple cider, preferably unpasteurized
• Two packets of wine yeast (Lalvin 71B or Red Star Cote des Blancs are good choices)
• Optional for higher alcohol content: 2 pounds of brown sugar or honey
• Optional for sparkling cider: 3/4 cup honey or brown sugar

Brewing 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

Start Brewing Your Hard Cider:

• On brewing day, pour your cider into the brew pot and simmer it over medium heat for about 45 minutes. This will kill most of the wild yeasts and bacteria in the cider. Bolder cidermakers will forgo this step by pouring the sweet cider directly into a plastic bucket and then pitching in the yeast. If you follow this strategy, wild strains of yeast will still be in the sweet cider when it begins fermenting. This will alter the flavor of the cider. (It may or may not improve it.)
• If you do heat the cider, don’t let it boil! Boiling causes pectins to set, which creates a permanently hazy beverage. While simmering the cider, you can add the optional 2 pounds of brown sugar or honey. This will boost the fermentable sugar content in your cider and up the alcohol content.
• Next, pour the cider into a sanitized fermentation bucket — an unsanitized bucket may spoil the cider. To sanitize, pour a capful of bleach into your bucket, fill it with water, let it sit for a half an hour, then dump out and rinse with cold water. (You can also buy non-bleach, no-rinse sanitizers at homebrew stores.) Let the cider cool to nearly room temperature, then add your yeast — or starter, if you chose to make one.
• Stir the mixture for a minute or two with a clean stainless steel or plastic spoon to aerate, then seal the lid and affix the airlock. Place the bucket in a room or closet where the temperature is 60 to 75 degrees — the closer to 60 degrees, the better. Stay within this range if you can: At lower temperatures the cider won’t ferment, while higher temperatures will speed up fermentation, but may also change the flavor.

Let the Cider Ferment:

• Within a day or two you should see the airlock start to bubble. The gas it’s releasing is carbon dioxide, a byproduct of the fermentation process. Congratulations, your soft cider is on its way to becoming a delicious, inebriating elixir of the gods!
• This bubbling should subside within two weeks, signifying an end to the primary fermentation. After that, let the cider sit another week to allow the yeast to settle out.

Options For Bottling Hard Cider:

• Bottle the Cider Now
• Let Your Cider Clarify

Brewing hard cider requires few materials outside of care and cleanliness. In some parts of the country, hard cider has grown from a down-home project to a mass-marketed trendy drink. To brew your own requires few materials outside of care and cleanliness. Check out some tips for brewing your own hard cider at Mother Nature Network.