There is no feeling in the world like popping open a batch of cider and realizing what you have created alcohol. It's really hard to describe. We've made all kinds of recipes before, including some meals that have taken days to prepare. But alcohol always seemed a little unreal, and dangerous. Making alcohol always felt too technical and lab-like. And if you're brewing beer, that's sort of true: you'll need a lot of ingredients, and don't you need hi-tech equipment and precision tools? The fact that we could make hard apple cider simply and humbly was inspiring.
We have have been attempting to make our own cider using a what amounts to a jug of $7 organic juice from Whole Foods, a packet of yeast, and equipment we bought from the brewery store for a grand total of about $2. Not sure what recipe to use, we decided to make four different batches, which we detailed on our last post. We plugged those guys up with airlocks and felt rather proud of ourselves. But when would they be done? Were they supposed to ferment for two days or two weeks? And of course, what would they taste like?
Yes, it got a bit serious when we realized that we actually had to drink the experiment. We went from hopeful of a heavenly brew to apprehension that the cider would simply be underwhelming, and then to a vague worry that this homemade cider might try to poison us.
Brian from Daily Ikuru, a brew guru, gave me this bit of frank advice: "Drinking it today, a week from now, or even two weeks from now isn't going to kill you, you know."
Yes, that was probably true. And so we got our turkey baster out early this year, and plunged it in to have a taste.
We have lots of tasting notes from various stages, but it's all a lot of information. The jist is that three days in the cider tasted fresh and feisty, but low in alcohol and not terribly complex. In the beginning, the champagne yeast really tasted the best; our lager yeast was overly beer-like and funky. But after a week there was a dramatic change. Both batches made with champagne yeast (1 with some added sugar) were drinkable, with a nice apple flavor, but they turned out pretty dry for our tastes. They were a bit thin-tasting and had a small amount of unpleasant bitterness. Still, having tasted these first, were were pretty happy about our results.
But then we tasted the baches made with lager yeast, and there was an unbelievable jump in quality and drinkability. It was slightly fizzy, with a wonderful apple-y flavor. It made Strongbow taste childish. The batch made with Seedling cider from the farmers' market, which was sweeter to begin with, was complex and had the most depth. But suprisingly enough, it was the batch made with the cheaper Whole Foods juice that amazed us. Partly because of how cheap it was, but mostly because of its clean apple taste. We'd stack that up against any imported English cider for a taste-test. If we had more time and expertise, no doubt the Seedling cider has more potential for flavor and subtlety, being fresher juice never heat-pastuerized. But for our buck and the simplicity of the process, the Whole Foods batch is the big story here. It's cheap ($6.99), comes in perfectly sized bottles for fermenting, and makes a balanced, refreshing beverage in about 7 to 10 days. That's not bad.
Once the batches taste right, the next step is to "cold crash" them, which means you transfer the bottles to a fridge and let them hang out for 2-3 days. It halts the fermentation process, and all the yeast sinks to the bottom.
Then you get some siphoning equipment to transfer it to a second container, rinse out the yeast, and move it back to the original container. Now the cider can safely hang out for awhile: it can be bottled if you want to buy the appropriate equipment, or aged for months in the glass jugs.
Up until now, this whole cider making process has been rather reckless and carefree. Instead of taking classes, or making sure we had read every necessary resource, we decided the best way to learn was to try. That's true if you are also interested in making cider. But we hope this information, the availabilty of Whole Foods apple juice, and our very successful result has made the process that much more accessible.
Go forth and make cheap cider!
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My roommate brews a lot of beer and it always seemed like a really involved process. I think I’m going to have to make some of this and shove the whole deal in his stupid, fat face. bwahahaha. Nice work.
So the verdict is the whole foods jug with lager yeast was your favorite… did you add any sugar to that one? How much yeast did you use? Can’t wait to try this out.
You can brew a simple beer with only 3 ingredients: Malt extract, hops, and yeast. Its true that a lot of homebrewers have complex recipes/processes, but you can also make simple beer that is extremely good.
Also, for the ciders that fermented out to dry, they can always be backsweetened with an unfermentable sugar like lactose if you wanted to add a little sweetness.
Now take the next step and distill it.
Very cool! What do you think the alcohol content of the lager cider is?
Do you think I could set this up in the backseat of my car? Traveling cider brewery?
definitely going to try this out, thanks for blazing the trail.
Mine was made from store brand frozen concentrated apple juice and bread yeast. I wanted to go low tech. I got it into the fridge after 3 days and two days after that I started in on it. I should have let it ferment another two days at least because it was quite sweet but guess about half of it converted to alcohol. Ice cold it was delicious. A faint carbonation was nice too.
Next up is a dryer batch with lager yeast. I need to go to the beer supply place for malt sugar anyway. Going to make some experimental chocolate malt ice cream, malted waffles, and malt smoothies.
Wow, this is awesome. I am definitely going to try this.
To clarify: you tasted the batches after 3 days, but left them to ferment for a total of 7-10 days? Then you stuck them in the fridge for 3 days? Would like to get the timing correct!
Nat: That’s right. Stick it to the beer geeks!
Trevor: Our two favorites didn’t have any sugar. These are not set in stone recipes though. We’re still playing around.
Joel: That’s a good point about the back sweetened. That’s something we kind of skipped over because we are too new at this.
Matt: Do you have the still? I’ll start making Apple Jack and happily retire from everything else I’m doing.
Alex: We have no concept of what the alcohol content is. I got a good buzz after two drinks, whatever that means. Does anyone know how to measure?
plaidout: The cider mobile…delivery fresh autumn alcohol to those in need. BUT…actually you should try not and mess to much with the jugs once they are fermenting.
sidd finch: Let us know how it goes.
Jumper: That is low tech! I love that alcohol is so much more possible than I had realized. We found the quickly fermented juice rather delicious too. Not bad for a fizzy glass.
I love malt chocolate!!
Richard Lowe: You are right.
7 to 10 days, or until the bubbling slows down. Then three days in the fridge.
Nick, brewers usually use a hydrometer to measure alcohol content, but that’s not exactly in the spirit of your cider.
I suppose I could ask it this way–can you taste the alcohol at all? If so, it it a hint of alcohol like wine or high gravity beer, or stronger like a mixed drink?
How long do you think the cider will keep in the fridge once you clean out the yeast?
Alex: It tastes like an average beer as far as alcohol content. Maybe 5%? Just guessing. It’s not super high.
Richard: Once you clean out the yeast and return it to the jug or bottles, it can age for months no problem. You have to be sure everything is sterilized and there’s not a lot of extra air in the bottles or jugs, but barring that, it’ll hang out for awhile and the flavor is supposed to improve. We have ours bottled in lots of containers so we can taste it along the way.
Back when I made beer I had graduated to these
http://www.westwoodwine.com/blog/blogimages/corneliuskegs.jpg
and a CO2 tank and regulator. The tall one is a five-gallon food-grade stainless-steel tank used in restaurants. Once the initial investment is made, and one learns how much CO2 pressure (4 to 8 PSI to hold a head, 8-15 for rapid carbonization that would be too much if maintained very long) it becomes exceptionally easy, with the spare fridge and the holes in the side for CO2 tube access.
Overpressure during intial fermenting could blow up bottles or damage big canisters but once that danger is gone, a cellar is feasible for storage if the serving fridge is currently full.
I am able to get raw, unpasteurized apple juice from my local market. What would be the procedure in that case? Would you still add yeast or do you just leave it outside the fridge and wait?
I make hard cider every year simply by procuring some unpasteurized cider (which is cheap up here in nh) and leaving it on the counter with the top off for a few days. Hard is the natural state of cider, as apples are covered in yeast and the air is full of it. Generally what I’ll do is get a growler going strong, then top it off after I drink some and let that go for a day or two. I keep it going throughout the fall and longer, depending how much cider i get my hands on.
Beer geek and chemist here with a few jugs of whole foods cider bubbling away in my closet.
Alex is right, the best way to estimate the amount of alcohol is with a hydrometer.
However, store bought juice lets you use a shortcut. The 365 organic juice shows 48 grams of sugar per pint, which you can convert to a potential alcohol of 6%, assuming a very dry cider where all the sugar has been turned into ethanol. The Mrs. Gooch’s natural apple juice has 60 grams sugar per pint, or 7.5% potential alcohol. You can find calculators online to check any sugar concentration.
Nick, applejack isn’t hard cider, it’s made by freezing hard cider, which essentially freezes most of the water content, leaving a concentrate of sorts, with a much higher alcohol level than the original product had. That concentration is the applejack. My farmer grandfather used to make applejack when he was still alive, up on his farm in Vermont.
Nice work guys, glad it worked out well, hope my advice was somewhat helpful. I think it nicely covers why I use the beer yeasts as opposed to wine.
@gael; I find a lot of off flavors when I’ve done wild yeasts. You’re essentially making early apple cider vinegar. worth the extra $1 to get ale yeast and throw it in.
@everyone; I’d try out nottingham ale yeast, or Safale 04 or 05. While I’ve not used the lager yeast that the guys are here, I’d say the ale yeasts give great depth and flavor as well and are cheaper. I’m sure the guys will try it out soon though and post on it.
I’m on it!
Picked up my jug of 365 Cider and some Saflager S 23 yeast by Fermentis. I have no idea what that is, but I went to my local brewery club and they said for what I want to do (which is imitate your process), this would be fine.
They also mentioned adding something else, like wheat or barley to help with the process. Perhaps for the next batch!
@myself; I just realized that I picked up the same lager yeast you did. Score!
Hey There,
My wife and I are putting down 25 gal. of cider this week I am curouse if you all would look over my recipe and give me your thoughts. Last year we made 5 gal. of cider with champ. yeast and it was VERY dry even after significant back sweetening so we decided if we were going to make a large batch we wanted it to be more fmaily frienly (as in you could sit down and drink a few bottle with out getting totally wasted and getting heart burn). Last year s product we called “apple flavored rocket fuel”. We would like to stay terrestrial this time though still maintain about a 8-10% alc. content since we are making such a large batch and maybe turn SOME into apple jack. So here is this year’s recipe, I would LOVE to get your thoughts.
25 gal. Musselmans Cider
10 Lb Dark Brown Sugar
5 Lb. Corn Sugar
5-10 Cinnamon Sticks
5 packets S-04
Planning to ferment for 1 month, rack and put in secondary for clarification for 1 mo., bottle and let age for 1 day- 365 days. Thoughts???
A question. How much yeast did you put in each gallon — an entire packet? it all sounds delicious; thanks for the post.
The cider I used to make with champagne yeast was so dry I didn’t enjoy it. But I never thought of experimenting with lager. Will have to try.
Word of warning: Mary is right about applejack. In this concentrated form, it also has a lot of impurities that will give you massive hangovers and, I’m told, mess up your nervous system if you drink it for years.
distilling a gallon or so is definitely something you should try. all you need for a kitchen still is an old fashioned pressure cooker that uses the weight on top, some copper tubing, a five gallon bucket, and a sink. the five gallon bucket will be ruined, but the tubing would still be good for hooking up the icemaker in your fridge and the pressure cooker is unmodified.
your first still shouldn’t cost you more than 25 bucks if you already have the pressure cooker.
back channel if you want more details.
g
You can make beer pretty simply by adding the malt, hops and yeast to a five gallon watercooler bottle of filtered water, and plugging a lock into it. I’ve made pretty good stout and IPA using that method, with $30 or $40 worth of ingredients.
Hey guys,
I’m about to cold crash my cider. Do you cap the bottle or leave the airlock on?
Also, any tips on sanitization after I siphon the cider into a second container?
Richard: We capped the bottles when cold crashing. Since the temperature drop is supposed to make the yeast go dormant, you shouldn’t have a problem with buildup.
Santitation, we used a product called One Step that was recommended everywhere. It’s eco-friendly. You mix some up and then pour it into bottles, swirl around, and pour it out — no rinsing required.
I was curious about the lager yeast.
I live in Atlanta and I don’t have a way of being able to get the brewing temps to lager levels. ( 50 degrees F )
Apparently, that’s the optimal temperature for Lager yeast. Will the yeast still work at higher temps?
I’m definitely inspired to give this a shot. I’ve read on some cider making websites that a lot of hydrogen sulfide is produced resulting in a very unpleasant smell for a few weeks. Did you guys experience this? I live in an apartment so if I am going to stink myself out that would kinda be a deal breaker.
I’ve got four batches of cider going right now. There at 7 days right now, and still bubbling. Did you add priming sugar to add CO2? I did a 3 gallon batch once, champagne yeast, and priming sugar. It tasted like bubbly apple champagne. I love JK scrumy’s, Etinne Cidre Bouche. That’s what I’m looking for. Not sure if they add sugar to carbonate. What do you think?
Hey guys–
Just had my first sip of the cider using the Whole Foods method. Not bad! I’m not a huge cider drinker, but my wife, who is, said it was pretty good and very strong. That’s a winner to me!
Thanks for posting this, guys. I look forward to trying more recipes from you.
Beer geek here, but I love making cider since it’s so easy. The alcohol should be at about 5% without sugar.
Rather than adding white table sugar, try honey, corn, or beet sugar which will ferment out more fully. Table sugar leaves a nasty residual flavor. If the cider ferments out too dry, add some potassium sorbate, and metabisulphite to stop fermentation (sounds intimidating, but cheap and readily available at any brew shop) and apple juice to back sweeten.
Thanks for the lager yeast tip! I came here wondering how using a lager yeast would taste (traditionally an ale is used).
Thanks for this great series of articles guys!
I brewed some beer a couple weeks ago and had a couple extra jugs left over. My girlfriend found your webpage describing how to make hard cider using the exact jugs I just happened to have left over! So we started brewing our own hard cider last night.
Here is what we did:
2 gallons Whole Foods apple juice
ground cardamom
ground cloves
Put the apple juice in a large kettle and bring it up to about 140-150 degrees F. You don’t want to get it too hot, just warm enough to get the spice juices flowing and make sure nothing it going to start growing with it. This was especially important for us because we had already taken the apple juice out of the jugs (I thought I would be using the jugs to bottle my beer). Add a bunch of ground cardamom and ground cloves until it smells great. Don’t be shy! Let it sit at around that temperature for about 10 minutes giving it a good stir once in a while. The idea here is that you’re basically making tea. This is the part where you’re steeping the tea leave (spices) in water (apple juice).
After about 10-15 minutes, turn the heat off. At this point you want to bring the temperature down to some reasonable for the yeast to live in. If you’re using the Saflager or Safale mentioned in the articles that means you need to get the apple juice under 70 degrees F. This will take forever (think several hours) if you just leave the kettle on the stove. The fastest way to do this (without spending a bunch of money on fancy cooling equipment) is to put the kettle in your sink and give it a water bath. Alternatively, you can put it in your fridge or leave it outside if its cold out. Just be sure to keep an eye on it. If the temperature falls to far you’ll have to warm it up again.
Once it’s cool enough for the yeast, pour about an inch worth back into the jugs. Then pour your yeast in. If you have too much yeast for the amount of apple juice you have, don’t worry! Just pour an equal amount into each jug. The extra yeast won’t make any difference. Once the yeast is in, pour the rest of the apple juice into the jugs. When thats done, cap the bottles and give the juice a highly vigorous shake. The harder the better! You want to mix air into the juice to give the yeast some oxygen. When you’re done shaking, uncap the bottles, and stick your rubber stoppers with airlocks on. Be sure to cover the bottles with something like a brown paper bag. You want to keep light out while the fermentation process takes place.
That’s as far as I’ve gotten so far in the process. I expect fermentation to last 3-5 days. After that, I’ll bottle the cider and let it settle for 48 hours or so and then put in the fridge for a day or so. Hopefully I’ll have some ready in time for Thanksgiving Day!
You should see the video of my cider fermenting here.
i made a 6 gallon batch of hard cider like yours, using the whole foods apple juice, champagne yeast and added a bit less than a gallon of crabapple juice and some sugar.
mine is dry and a bit “thin” like yours, and i am wondering what to do with it. add brown sugar or honey? raisins? i’d like it to be a bit sweeter and richer – more robust.
i was planning to add some sugar and bottle so it would be sparkling but then the yeast will probably just eat the sugar and it will be dry. i would give up the fizz for a better flavor – but would rather have it be fizzy and taste great. any ideas?
Norma, if you add enough sugar so that the alcohol level will reach yeast die-off levels before it all ferments, it should still be sweet when it stops fermenting.
Modest: I wonder what kind of taste you’d get from maple sugar.
kevin & modest, thanks for your replies.
that sounds logical, but how would i know how much sugar (or other sweetener) is enough?
i will try some with the maple syrup and let you know.
the yeast was still active 2 weeks ago – i added some dextrose to a small bottle and left it on it’s side for 2 weeks, it was very fizzy when i opened it, so i think the yeast is still working, tho there have been no bubbles in the airlock for about 3-4 weeks. i suppose i could add more yeast – maybe a sherry yeast, if necessary.
Hey Everyone,
I just got done with a new batch. I used Ale yeast for two of the gallons this time, and it made a wonderful batch. Here are the results:
1. Lager Yeast – 1 Week of Fermentation
Very similar to the results we had in this post. Fizzy, lots of apple flavor. Solid.
2. Lager Yeast – 2 Weeks of Fermentation
This one was much drier, but it still had a decent amount of fizz. I kind of liked this, but some thought it was a bit too dry.
3. Ale Yeast – 1 Week of Fermentation
This was the big story. Ale yeast brewed up a very still drink that was thicker on the tongue. I loved this one. It wasn’t too sweet. It felt like a drink you can sit and have a few and not get tired of it.
4. Ale Yeast – 2 Weeks of Fermentation
This one got a bit dry, though it was still drinkable.
5. Natural Fermentation 2 Weeks
I had a half gallon of Farmers’ Market cider that I kind of forgot about. A week later I noticed it was naturally fermenting! So I emptied half of the Whole Foods gallon, and poured this juice in. It was very cool idea to natural ferment something, but the results were awful. It made both Blake and I wince when we drank it. I’m sticking with the ale yeast for now.
If you’re tasting your cider brew and are kind of disappointed, then learn how to bottle & cap them. Stowing them for 6 months, for some magical reason, brings the apple flavor back and ages away jet-fuel flavor.
Maple sugar would be interesting as you’ll be left with some molasses flavor! It should ferment out pretty good too. Go easy with brown sugar which someone mentioned – it will give you the molasses flavor, but is really just molasses syrup added to cane sugar.
Unfortunately, cider is a mostly dry drink. Asking how much sugar you should add to kill off the yeast leaving just enough sweet is a complicated question. Answering it accurately is near impossible; answering it at all would get into some hefty beer math, and require additional equipment (hydrometer). The answer will be something like X% of your total fermentable sugars depending on the strain, and brand of yeast used.
Don’t worry, relax, drink your cider. The first batch may not be perfect, but it’ll get you toasty. If you kind of liked it, pick up a brew bucket, and a book – it was the best $100’s I ever spent on a hobby. Anybody at a brew shop is happy to give you suggestions to improve your batches!
modest, thanks for your encouraging email. i am happy to hear that it is likely to get better.
i do have a hydrometer, but i think it would be hard to figure out how much to add, not knowing how much will be converted by the yeast. i had hoped to sweeten it and also have it be sparkling, but maybe this batch will have to be still. i have a feeling that if i had used really great fresh pressed apples i might have gotten better results.
next year i will try the ale yeast!
The nice thing about making a gallon at a time is you can stick it in the freezer for applejack. Applejack has no special claim on the hangover, and there’s nothing to theworry about damage to the nervous system from impurities. I think all those stories come from folks getting lead assault by trying to distill w/ a radiator that had lead joints.
This article inspired me since I love hard cider and I’m so glad it is relatively easy to make. Unfortunately I couldn’t find the 365 juice at Whole Foods in Canada so I improvised with 4 different kinds of juice – organic cider, organic pressed juice, pressed juice and regular clear grocery store apple juice. I put each kind into a seperate 3L glass jug and used the Saflager S-23 yeast.
So far they have been fermenting in our cold room at about 50 degrees for 9 days. For the first few days there were no bubbles in the grocery store juices but they are all bubbling now.
I just tasted them all for the first time. I wasn’t really impressed with any of the flavours. I couldn’t taste alcohol in any of them (which may be a good thing?). The clear grocery store juice predictably had the least flavour but the pressed grocery store juice tied with the organic cider as the best tasting. Still there was not much complexity and they didn’t taste much different than they did when we started. There was some carbonation though. I am going to give it a few more days and taste again.
My question is how will I know for sure this has worked? I am very used to drinking Strongbow and other store-bought hard ciders but mine doesn’t taste anything like that (yet?). Should I wait for the bubbles to stop?
Thanks for doing all this research! It is a fun project no matter what the results are. And if they are good I’ll be saving a bundle on buying hard cider.
I don’t know if anyone asked this yet, but does the yeast have to be killed before you drink, or do you only have to cold crash it?
Great advice sounds like an awesome winter project, I’ll start a batch between semesters.
However, I can’t fathom making my own booze using apple juice from Whole Foods. Non-Union, anti healthcare?, that’s a bitter brew.
What temperature did you guys ferment the cider at?
jen: Hey, I wish I had more advice to give you. This is all rather new for me, too. All I can say is keep tasting until you like it. That’s the advice I got from a friend. He basically said just to keep messing around with it. It won’t kill you, and it’s cheap. So if it doesn’t work out this time, then try a different kind of cider. The Whole Foods juice works because it is a blend of a few different kinds of apples. Other juice will differe wildly in the amount of sugar and the taste. Try ale yeast next time. And let me know how it goes!
Matt: When you cold crash it the yeast should go to the bottom. Blake and I bought a siphon to pull it off the yeast and get it to bottles.
We fermented the lager yeast in my storage unit, which was probably around 50 degrees or so. The ale yeast was fermented in my closet, which is around 65 degrees or so. As you can tell, this wasn’t the most scientific post.
Im curious. Can the yeast sediment from the first batch be recycled to make a second batch? Thanks
I have been making cider steadily since reading this. I like to keep my yeasts going in the refrigerator, sort of like levain but the ale yeast. My friend has counseled me that apple juice is insufficiently nutritious for the yeast, (although sufficient for single batches of cider) but that malt sugars ARE a good food for my yeast. So I have been reclaiming some yeast from each batch and feeding it with a malt mix. Then I will use half in a batch of cider, and re-feed the remaining half. After four uses, I will start again from “purebred” yeast from the brewstore. This keeps my yeast costs down.
I also decided to quit obsessing about carbonation. If I do my technique correctly, as Nick has pointed out, it’s going to be fizzy anyway.
I completely forgot to mention I made one gallon batch adding a half cup of wildflower honey. Very, very good. I repeated this on a gallon which I just started.