First Batch

The first thing that amazed me about getting back into making hard cider was the deluge of information available on the internet. There are recipes, chat boards and even videos regarding the apple cider making process.

Of course, like all aspects of the internet, there is the fundamental problem: separating the wheat from the chaff.

Let's call a spade a spade, 95% of what you find on the internet is complete and utter garbage. Not only is it useless, but often manipulative garbage with the author trying to get you to do something (e.g., send in your e-mail address) or buy something.

There are a few exceptions (i.e., that 5%), but it really stinks you have to wade through so much waste before you find these rare gems.

Which brings us to our first problem -- where do we find a recipe for hard apple cider? There are literally hundreds of them on the internet. Each of them telling you to do different things and to use different ingredients.

Unfortunately, I have resigned myself to trial and error.

Which brings us to the the inaugural batch of cider.

Again, with thousands (probably the more accurate term is "tens of thousands") of recipes to choose from, it all comes down to luck. I chose my first recipe from this website: http://www.recipezaar.com/Hard-Apple-Cider-2714

It was one of the few websites that listed not only the ingredients conscisely but also the brewing practice (other sites spent literally four pages describing everything -- far too detailed for my taste).

Ingredients

• 4 1/2 liters fresh apple juice (no preservatives)
• 1/2-1 lb sugar (not more than 2 lbs)
• 1/2 teaspoon pectic enzyme powder
• 1 teaspoon acid blend
• 1/4 teaspoon grape tannin
• 1/2 teaspoon yeast energizer
• 2 campden tablets
• 1 packet all purpose wine yeast

Directions

1. crush and dissolve campden tablets in a cup of warm water and mix well with the FRESH apple juice in your primary fermenter.

2. Let stand over-night. Mix in all other ingredients except yeast making sure everything is dissolved, then sprinkle yeast over top of juice and cover with plastic sheet and ferment 3 to 5 days.

3. Rack (siphon) into secondary fermenter and attach air lock.

4. Rack again in 3 weeks.

5. When all fermentation is finished, rack into a clean vessel and add 2 oz of white sugar and gently stir well.

6. (I usually put the sugar into a bit of water and dissolve it first by boiling it in the microwave) When sugar is well mixed, bottle and age 3 months.

7. This will give you a crisp, carbonated hard cider.

8. * the more sugar you add, the more alcohol you will get, but the longer it will take to ferment. I would recommend from 1/2 to 1 pound per gal/4.5 l and not more than 2 lbs.

Personal variations

Juice

For juice, I cheated. No apple presses yet. So I went to Whole Foods and bough a gallon of their pasteurized cider (with no preservatives of course -- which is absolutely key for hard cider brewing). While convenience is the upside, the downside is that the coventional wisdom is that this kind of juice makes the worst apple cider.

Campden tablets

I opted out of the campden tablets. Why? Not sure really. I have read mixed review about them. They kill the various nasties that could be lurking in the juices, but they also kill everything else. And there could be some good natural yeasts in there that can improve the flavor of the cider. It's a risk, of course. But I was curious to give it a go. (I also didn't like the big old "skull and crossbones" on the bottle. Not that I think this stuff can kill you -- especially when diluted with a couple gallons of cider, but there was a certain allure to making this as "organic" as possible and chemical-free).

Yeast

I was originally going to use champagne yeast, but at the brewing store I was convinced that I should use wine yeast (as the instructions above suggest). I opted for the Red Star brand.

Sugar

I eyedball this (which I am now regretting). I used approximately 3/4 of a pound of sugar.

Heating

Especially because I opted out of the camden tablets, I decided to pre-heat the juice before adding all the ingredients. I did this for two reasons. First of all, I wanted to kill some of the bacteria if possible. Second, I wanted to heat the juice so all the ingredients (sugar, etc.) would dissolve easier. The downside is of course the time issue. Not only do you have to wait to heat everything up, but you also have to wait for everything to cool down before you add the yeast (if you add the yeast and its too hot, you can kill it). There is also the risk that you "overcook" the juice -- which you should never let come to boil (the risk is that the pectins will burn discoloring your cider and adjusting the flavor). Unfortunatley, I am a little afraid I let this batch get a little too hot.