Ciders are easy and fun to make. I have only done a couple but it is becoming a fall tradition. The trick is finding sweet cider that contains no preservatives. The basic recipe is 1/2 - 1 cup cane sugar or brown sugar per gallon of sweet cider. Other additions are at your discretion. As for yeast, champagne yields a drier cider than the liquid Cider yeast. The champagne yeast is highly tolerant of an alcohol environment and ferments more sugar leaving less residual sugars. I strongly suggest using cider yeast, but if you do use champagne yeast prime with a slightly less amount of sugar to avoid exploding bottles.
Cranberry Hard Cider- 9/12/98
Add all ingredients except cranberries to fermenter.
Boil the sugars in about a half gallon of the sweet cider first.
Leave in primary for about 2 weeks. Transfer to secondary.
Boil some water and add the cranberries to the pot. Remove
from heat and seep about 15 minutes. Cool as rapidly as possible and
add to fermenter. Find a cool place for secondary fermentation
and forget about it for about 2 months, if you can wait.
The finished product will be cloudy but will tastes great.
You can add finings to clear it. ---One warning---Make sure the
fermentation is complete before bottling. You can use less
sugar at bottling and wait longer for carbonation, to be
on the safe side. The yeast has a high tolerance for alcohol
and will ferment most of the sugars. I had to chill the bottles
to about freezing to avoid gushing when opening.
New England Hard Cider 9/27/99
Boil sugars and molasses and add to cider. Add yeast.
After active fermentation subsides add the raisins. After
about 2 weeks transfer to secondary. Leave for a couple months
in cool area. The longer the wait, the clearer the cider.
This is much clearer than the cranberry cider above. This took almost a full month to prime in the bottles.
This yeast was not quite as active as the champagne yeast.
New England Hard Cider 2 - 11/20/00 This recipe was made with true New England Cider.
It is the first cider I made since moving back to
New England after 4 years living in the midwest.
I bought 5 gallons of sweet cider but saved a half
gallon to enjoy in its unfermented state.
Boil sugars and add to cider. Add yeast. After active
fermentation subsides add the raisins. After about 2 weeks
transfer to secondary. Leave for a couple months in cool area.
note: Champagne yeast is terrible. This batch just never mellowed out. It is way too dry. I will never make cider again without cider/mead yeast.
Apple Cider 2001 - 9/8/01
Used fresh apple cider from the Avon Cider Mill in Avon, CT.
After initial fermentation subsides, transfer to secondary. Store for a week and transfer to a refrigerator for cold storage for another week or two. This really clears the cider well. If you are not kegging or force carbonating, you may have to bring the temp back up and add additional yeast for bottle conditioning. Or you can let it sit in the secondary longer without cold storage.
This yeast is far superior to the Champagne yeast. It leaves residual sweetness and a well balanced cider. I also think using a little malt sugar worked well.