How to Make Hard Apple Cider (Easy Way)

In this video I make some good ol HARD APPLE CIDER! I have never made before but have been curious so I finally bought a couple little carboys so stay tuned for some wacky stuff!

Category:

Education

Tags:

• Hard
• Cider
• Mini
• Batch
• apple
• brew
• brewing
• ferment
• fermentation
• yeast
• sanitize
• carboy
• small
• gallon
• drink
• funnel
• demi
• john

[hpjunky70]

Kinda unclear here. So you just put yeast in the juice and let it sit? How much yeast per jamount of uice. After a couple weeks do you just start checkin the alcohal content and let it ferment to your desired potency? I would really like to do this so i hope someone will fill in the blanks.

[Crypticx666]

@hpjunky70 making alcohol is easy! I think you're thinking too hard about it. You need pure apple juice, so no preservatives or it won't ferment, if you have pure juice, add yeast it'll ferment and make alcohol. The strength of your alcohol is dependent on the amount of sugar the yeast can ferment. One thing you'll want is a Hydrometer if you wanna make really strong alcoholic cider. if you want a 5% alcoholic cider just put in a packet of yeast into apple juice and wait 2 weeks, it'll be done.

[hpjunky70]

@Crypticx666 I realize i get into thing's very deep but i'm doing it because i started brewing with rootbeer and it's amazing what contamination and length of time you let it ferment and even tempurture can do to taist. It's hard to get it right and when you spending upwards to $100 bucks on ingrediants it's a big deal when you miss something and taint the batch. I want the best flavor i can get and that's hard to get right. It's easy to make alcohal but hard to make taist perfect.

[Crypticx666]

@hpjunky70 Yeah i understand how expensive it can get. This cider is prob by far the best you'll ever taste but it's a nice intro into how it's done.

[dumbtrooper]

hey mate its me again how much time does this need to ferment until ready and where do you find that small bag of yeast for fermentation i wanna do my own now i love apple cider but its like 25 $ a bottle at liquor store lol

[Crypticx666]

@dumbtrooper takes like 3 to 4 weeks if you have a 5 gallon batch but a smaller one prob just 2 weeks. I go to grocery stores that sell brewing stuff for yeast, if you don't know any just go to a local home brew store and get some.

[Nathan8952]

One suggestion... get a separate funnel for dry materials... =D

[ray85k]

I'll bet that scale gets a lot of use.

[renagade12]

@Crypticx666

i wish i was watching this when i was 16... that would be some good times....  but anyways what kind of sugar do you have there?? brand etc?

[hpjunky70]

@Hodmokrin From what i've read back in the day they didn't have yeast so they would sprout the grain. Now a day's using yeast saves a lot of time and is the way to go so i'm told. I think they said it took 7 day's or so for the grain to sprout. I heard it was better to do this instead of using store bought yeast from someone that is old school and has been making shine his whole life. Some day i would like to try both way's but i heard it doesn't make a difference with brewer's yeast.

[hpjunky70]

@Hodmokrin That's funny you say that. I heard someone say a rat or squirrel or two would give the shine character. lol...

[Hodmokrin]

@hpjunky70 Most wild yeats in the process of fermentation is non-critical when making moonshine because you are going to extract only the alcohol from the mash so it really doesn't even matter if a squirrel takes a crap in it.......

[Hodmokrin]

@hpjunky70 When it comes to making beer and wine, the control of the type of yeast that is introduced is more important because there are certain byproducts, or lack there of from certain types of yeasts resulting in "characters" that are desired in certain types of beer/wine.

[Hodmokrin]

@hpjunky70 . Store bought yeast is not responsible for more headaches. Impurities in the distilled spirits (moonshine) which if aren't removed properly (multiple distills, or carbon filtering), will create addition hangover effects, but never forget that even alcohol in its purist form will give you a headache if you drink enough. =)

[Hodmokrin]

@hpjunky70 - Every grain (as far as i know) has to be "sprouted" or germinated slightly to start to create the starches (later sugars) in the grains that aren't present in form or the grain when harvested. Pretty much adding the grains to water IS the process (germination) so naturally when you make a mash, you will be doing this process.

[Hodmokrin]

@hpjunky70 - Every grain (as far as i know) has to be "sprouted" or germinated slightly to start to create the starches (later sugars) in the grains that aren't present in form or the grain when harvested.

[hpjunky70]

@Hodmokrin I don't know if this aplies to cider if at all these day's but i heard from a guy that makes shine that store bought yeast will give you a headache and that's why they sprout their grain instead of adding yeast. I know that doesn't matter with cider but i was wondering if have ever heard anything about that. Sound's like you got this stuff down.

[Hodmokrin]

@hpjunky70 There really isn't a set amount of yeast you should use, although the more you add in initially can speed it up. Yeast will be doubling in numbers about every 20 minutes once added to a sugary solution.  If you do the math, really you could add only 1 yeast spore, and may only add a day or two to the fermenting time. 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, 128, 256, 515, 1024, 2048, 4096, 8192, 16384 etc..... so 1 yeast spore will be approx 16,384 in 5 hours in the right conditions.