Making Apple Cider? Instructions on How to Make Apple Cider in 5 Easy Steps

Making apple cider is one of autumn's pleasures when you have a crop of apples you don't know what to do with. Let's face it you can only can so many apples, make so many pies, jars of apple butter and eat only so many fresh apples. You have the choice then of making either fresh apple juice or cider, or both, depending on what your tastes.

It really doesn't matter which variety of apples you use for apple cider cider making, but the trick is to try and use both sweet and sour varieties to get the right balance and taste. As a result, many people use about 10% volume of crab apples to add the right amount of tart to their sweet eating apples. There are some varieties such as the Golden Russet apple that is also known as the cider apple as it makes excellent cider, but you can use any other varieties just as successfully.

Two Methods of Making Apple Cider

How to Make Apple Cider: Method 1

There are 2 methods of making apple cider cider; one is to just juice the apples up, leave the juice to ferment using wild yeast in the air, without any additional yeast or sugar. This is a very straightforward recipe but has some drawbacks. Firstly, you can't always trust that the wild yeasts will be successful, and secondly, cider made this way doesn't keep very long and has to be drunk quite quickly. Some of you may be wondering why, of course, that should be a problem!

How to Make Apple Cider: Method 2

The other method of cider making is a little more scientific and involves the addition of commercial yeast and sugar. This method is more successful and the end product can be kept for a year or more. That's if you don't drink all the bottles before then.

How Many Apples Needed to Make Apple Cider?

You will need about 9 kg of apples to make about 5 liters of juice. You can make as much cider as you like, but you will just need to make sure that you have enough fermenting bins and bottles for storage.

Making Apple Cider: Step 1 - Pick your Apples and Leave

Pick your apples when they are ripe when they come easily away from the branches and when their pips are black inside rather than being a pale color. Then leave your apples in their baskets for 2-3 days. This is so that they can soften up before the next process.

Making Apple Cider: Step 2 - Chop Apples

After that you will need to wash your apples, and then chop the apples up into about one inch pieces. Now you can either take a knife and do this, which is quite laborious, especially when you have lots of apples to cut, or you can place them in a wooden box and chop them up with a clean spade. Fill the box so the apples cannot move around too much, but not too full that they will escape when struck with the blade of the spade. Chop until all are in little pieces.

If you are really lucky, you will own crusher that will do the chopping for you. This consists of a stainless steel hopper with teeth at the bottom that will reduce your apples into pieces big enough for the press or juicer. Whatever method you use to cut up your apples, if you have a lot of apples and there is a possibility that they will be standing long enough to turn brown before they are juiced, then submerge them in water to prevent this from happening.

Making Apple Cider: Step 3 - Juice your Apples

Now they are ready to go through a cider press. Put them through in batches, using the arm of the press to reduce your apples to pulp, getting every last drop of juice out of your apples. The pulp or 'cheese' as it is called that is left behind can be fed to your chickens, goats, pigs or placed on your compost heap. It is best to get rid of the cheese after each batch.

Your juice should flow into a large, sterilized fermentation bin, preferably plastic or stainless steel. If you use any other metal the acid in the juice reacts very badly and you will have some nasty tasting juice and cider. So stick to stainless steel or plastic. Like wine making your equipment must be clean, so it is important to make sure that everything has been well sterilized before you begin.

Making Apple Cider: Step 4 Leave to Ferment

If you are going to use method one of cider making; that is not using any sugar or commercial yeast, you can now place a muslin or cheese cloth over the bin to make sure that no bugs and beasties enter your cider. Leave it to ferment for a couple of days and you will see the bubbles starting to develop after a day or two.

Leave this for about 2 weeks or until fermentation has stopped.

Making Apple Cider: Step 5 Decant

Decant into sterilized bottles and leave for about 6 months before drinking.

Using Method 2 of Making Cider

Making Apple Cider from Apple Juice: Step 1

For every 25 liters of juice add 500g - 1kg of sugar and 2-3 teaspoons of commercial brewing yeast. To add the sugar successfully, boil some water and add enough water to the sugar to create a syrup like consistency.

Making Apple Cider from Apple Juice: Step 2 - Add the Yeast

Cool slightly before adding that to the juice followed by the yeast. Stir in the yeast and cover your fermentation bin and leave in a warm area.

The ideal temperature is about 4–16 °C (40–60 °F). A low fermentation temperature allows the flavors to develop better. You can achieve this either by placing the bin in the airing cupboard - if your wife allows you to! - or place it on a heat mat, or in the corner of the kitchen away from direct heat off the wood stove, but still warm enough.

Making Apple Cider from Apple Juice: Step 3 - Leave to Ferment

Leave your fermentation to take place for about 2-3 weeks, or until the bubbles have stopped forming and the brown yeasty scum has been left at the top of the bin.

Making Apple Cider from Apple Juice: Step 4 - Rack and Add Sugar

Remove your bin and place in a cool place for 24 hours before you rack it off into sterilized bottles. At this stage you can add a teaspoon of sugar to the bottles before you cap them.

Making Apple Cider from Apple Juice: Step 5 - Leave and Drink!

Leave them alone for about 3-6 months before drinking.

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