Homemade hard cider is a great way to get experience brewing at home, because it is easier to learn how to make hard cider than beer. Homemade hard cider is also cheaper than homemade beer (not to mention many people who don’t like beer, do like hard cider!)
If you have no experience brewing or brewing equipment, I recommend you make your first batch following these simpler homemade hard cider instructions which requires fewer supplies and less work. This article is aimed at people who have a little practice brewing and some basic brewing equipment.
Just a quick note: To make hard cider is legal in the U.S. and Canada as long as you don’t sell it. You also have to be of legal drinking age to have homemade hard cider. That said, let’s get on to how to make hard cider….
Supplies and Ingredients
Primary fermenter
Secondary fermenter (or a clean 5 gallon bucket)
Yeast (any brewer’s yeast is fine, but Lalvlin EC-1118 works great!)
Lalvlin EC-1118 is available at Homebrewery.com for $.85 per pack
Apple Juice (5 gallons makes around 54 bottles)
Corn Sugar or Apple Juice concentrate
Bottles + Bottle Capper (or swing-top bottles like Grolsch)
Wire Bottle Brush
Bottling Siphon (you can just use a funnel, but it’s messy)
Now that you have the ingredients, let’s see how to make the hard cider….
1) Cleanse your primary fermenter. Use a commercially available brewers no-rinse cleaner solution or sterilize it with alcohol (vodka works fine) or boiling water.
2) Fill your primary fermenter with apple juice (from concentrate will work fine, but no preservatives!) Dissolve the packet of yeast into 1/4 cup of warm (not hot!) water. Stir gently. Wait 10 minutes and pour yeast+water into the apple juice and stir it gently again.
3) After a few days the airlock on your primary fermenter should start bubbling. Wait 2-3 weeks for bubbling to stop. Once bubbling stops, carefully transfer the hard cider into a secondary fermenter. Keep it in a dark place.
If you never learned how to make hard cider or beer before, you may be surprised to find what looks like mud in the bottom of the primary fermenter. Beer makers generally call this trub which is simply yeast and its by-products (the amount of yeast has grown because it is feeding on the sugars in the apple juice!) You want to try to keep from getting much trub into the secondary fermenter. Also do not be surprised if your homemade hard cider has a strange smell at this point. Even commercial hard ciders like Woodchuck will have this smell, but it is much more powerful since you have 5 gallons of it.
If you are just using a bucket for the secondary fermenter, rinse the trub out of the primary fermenter and transfer the hard cider back into the primary.
4) Wait 1-2 more weeks. In the meantime read about the history and some recipes of hard cider at Homemade Hard Cider: Tips, Recipes and History. During this time you should also rinse out all the bottles you plan to fill and scrub them with a bottle brush to ensure there is no residue left from whatever was previously in it. Also sterilize the bottles the same as in step 1).
5) Now you need to decide if you want to make hard cider which is sweet or dry.
If you want a dry hard cider, add 3/4 cup corn sugar or apple juice concentrate to the hard cider and immediately bottle it afterwards. This additional sugar creats the carbonation. Wait another week or two and your homemade hard cider is ready to drink.
If you want a sweet hard cider then you need to follow a different procedure which will kill the yeast, but still add carbonation to the cider. This is one of the hardest parts about learning how to make hard cider. You can use commercially available tables to kill the yeast and add carbonation, but I recommend going to step #4 from the page How to Make Your Own Hard Cider and following from there.
Now that you know how to make hard cider, you should try making beer or more complicated hard cider recipes. Enjoy your homemade hard cider and drink responsibly!
