... to my Brewing Cider page.

Making Cider

For those who are wanting to make some great cider (apple, pear, cherry and peach), let's review some of the basics. Pick the desired fruit, they should be fully ripe, with little bruising or as little damage as possible. Apples and pears should be stored in a cool place for 1 week to soften the skins and ensure maximum juice extraction.

• Be sure to wash remove any damaged or bruised parts of the apples or pears prior to chopping and juicing them. Keeping the fruit and allowing them to mature will ensure that the fruit will be at its peak of sweetness. A top quality fruit juicer will is probably the best thing you could invest in to aid you in the process of juice extraction. Some people are very strict about juice extraction and prefer mashing and pressing the fruit pulp.

• Once you have freshly pressed juice it can fermented immediately or it is sometimes sulfited to kill off any wild yeast and bacteria. Fresh pressed juice can be fermented in two different ways: NATURAL FERMENTATION - wild yeast is allowed to ferment the cider. AUXILIARY FERMENTATION - where the juice is sulfited and a specific yeast is introduced. Yeast plays an important part of the finished product. There are many yeasts that you can chose from like champagne, ale, epernay or even cider yeast from the UK.

• The addition of sugars to ciders gives the finished product a unique flavor as well as increasing the alcohol content. Plain white table sugar does not add much flavor while brown sugar (light or dark) presents an pleasing flavor due to the molasses. You can use light flavored honey and maple syrup in small amounts to increase the gravity without changing the overall flavor. If you use a lot of honey as the controlling fermentable factor, the cider is no longer considered a cider but becomes an apple mead or cyser.

• The addition of another type of fruit can also be used as a flavoring agent. I suggest not to use over 2 pounds of fruit per 5 gallons of juice, using more than 2 pounds of fruit will over power the delicate flavor of the juice. Typical types of fruit that can be added are: raisins, cranberries, raspberries, blueberries, peaches, pineapple, blackberries and currants just to name a few. Just add the 2 pounds of fruit (in a nylon bag) at the beginning of fermentation and remove it after 1 week.

• Once you have your juice and possible added sugars or fruit added, it is time to start the fermenting process. Add the yeast of your choice to the juice and stir the mixture ensuring that you are aerating of the juice. Cover the fermenter and allow it to ferment to completion (if you have added fruit, be sure to remove it after 1 week). Ciders have the tendency to ferment aggressively so you will need to watch it incase you have an overflow.

• Once the fermentation is complete, you may need to rack the cider to aid in clearing your cider.

• Once you cider is clear, you will need to bottle or keg it. Most British traditional ciders are often served completely flat and are sometimes cloudy. In American, ciders are served as a naturally-conditioned cask cider, that resemble beers. Depending on how you like your cider, you can add 2/3 cup of corn sugar (or dissolve 1 cup of honey) to your racked cider and bottle it. This will carbonate your batch of cider like beers are carbonated.

• If you have added sugar or honey to your cider, you will need to wait about 3 to 4 weeks for the carbonation process to be at its best. If you have not added sugar or honey, skip this step.

• And finally - pop open a cider and enjoy.

NOTE: The addition of spices to ciders is a great way to either enhance a great tasting cider OR to make a bland cider more palatable. Many purists do not agree with spicing-up a cider but I would rather add spices than dispose of it. Some of the more common spices that can be added are: woodruff, cloves, cinnamon, allspice, and nutmeg work very well in enhancing a flavor.

If you notice any problems, or have any suggestion on how I can further improve this site, please feel free to send me an e-mail [12 November 2006].