Cider making Process

Traditional Process

Choosing your apples

A mill and a variety of flavorful apples is all that's needed to make delicious cider, to be enjoyed fresh, processed into juice, or fermented to make hard cider.

Apple juice averages about 13 percent sugar, which produces a naturally fermented cider with around 6 percent alcohol by volume. Fermentation begins within a few days in a barrel of cider at cellar temperatures, around 55°F, and is completed in several months. Fermentation in an environment that is somewhat cooler than typical room temperature often improves the flavor of cider. If it is kept in an airtight container with a suitable "airlock" that permits carbon dioxide (produced by yeast as it converts sugar into ethanol) to escape but prevents oxygen from entering, hard cider will keep for a year or more; after that its flavor does not improve much. In the presence of oxygen, bacteria will eventually convert hard cider into vinegar that has many culinary purposes.

Pasteurized or Not?

Until recently, the fresh cider sold in the United States was the unadulterated, un-pasteurized juice of fresh-pressed apples. Cider that includes a blend of sweet and tart varieties usually has an acidity level, or pH, of around 3.6—enough acid to suppress most pathogenic bacteria. But recently a dangerous new form of the common bacterium Escherichia coli has developed that can survive even very acidic conditions. Almost all commercially produced cider is now heat-treated to temperatures around 170°F for several seconds in a flash-pasteurization process similar to milk sanitation. If done correctly, this has little effect on the flavor, suppresses potential pathogens, and greatly increases cider's shelf life in the refrigerator.

Cider makers who use only unblemished apples that have never touched the ground, follow a rigorous series of sanitation procedures to cleanse every apple, and routinely test their cider for E. coli are still permitted to sell their cider as un-pasteurized, with a printed warning that explains potential health risks to consumers. Pasteurization is not necessary for hard cider because the ethanol produced during fermentation is a natural preservative that eliminates potential pathogens.

In most states it is legal to produce small quantities (up to a few hundred gallons annually) of beer, wine, or hard cider for personal consumption, and the basic equipment for home fermentation is readily available at beer or wine-making supply stores.

The best ciders are made from a blend of many varieties: some with lots of acidity, others high in sugar, and some that impart desirable flavors and aromatic qualities to the cider. Tart apples such as 'Baldwin', 'Calville Blanc', 'Empire', 'Esopus Spitzenberg', 'Golden Russet', 'GoldRush', 'Idared', 'Liberty', 'McIntosh', 'Mutsu', 'Newtown Pippin', 'Northern Spy', 'Roxbury Russet', and 'Winesap' are excellent sharps for cider blends. Apples that are typically high in sugar, such as 'Golden Delicious', 'Fuji', 'Gala', 'Golden Russet', 'GoldRush', 'Jonagold', 'Red Delicious', and many others are wonderful sweets. Apple varieties with astringent tannins impart flavors other than sweet and tart, adding complexity, a long finish, and a rich "mouthfeel" to sweet or hard ciders. These apples are known in Europe as bittersweets if they are high in tannins and sugars, or bittertarts if they have both acidity and tannins. A few of the dessert and culinary apples included in the encyclopedia—'Golden Russet', 'Northern Spy', and 'Liberty'—add significant amounts of tannins and other unique flavors to cider blends. Some crabapples grown as ornamental trees produce fruit high in tannins and acidity and can be blended with sweet and tart apples to make a good hard cider.

High-quality European-style fermented ciders include about 20 percent of bittersweet varieties such as 'Tremletts Bitter', 'Hereford Redstreak' and 'Somerset Redstreak', 'Dabinett', 'Chisel Jersey', 'Kingston Black', 'Ellis Bitter', 'Binet Rouge', or 'Medaille D'Or'. Trees of these varieties are available from several nurseries specializing in antique apples. They can be grown successfully in Zones 5 to 7 but do best in cooler regions with long, mild summers. These will provide plenty of tannins in a cider blend.

Pressing

Sort out the bad apples and crush the rest into a pulp or pomace. Wrap the pulp or pomace with some cheesecloth into bundles or "cheese". Normally these bundles are sort of flat, but the shape depends on the shape of your press. Squeeze the pulp in your press to extract the juice. The pulp may be pressed multiple times to extract the maximum amount of juice possible

Fermenting

Collect the juice and put it into a large fermenting vessel, traditionally a large wooden vat or cask, but a large food-grade plastic fermenter will produce the most consistent results. Ensure that your fermentation vessel has been property sanitized. Use one packet of champagne yeast per 5 gallons of juice. You can make a yeast starter, or simply sprinkle the dried yeast over top of the juice. Some cider makers prefer to let the natural yeasts present on the skins of the apples perform the fermentation, but this is a gamble; it could lead to undesirable flavors or infection by molds or bacteria. The few cents required to purchase yeast of known quality is well worth it. Fermentation is usually done at a lower temperature than beer and will take several weeks.

Bottling

What type of bottles you will want to use will depend on what style of cider you make. Sparkling ciders will need something similar to beer bottles or champagne bottles to hold the pressure. Still ciders can be put into standard wine bottles.

Aging

NOT SO FAST! Just because it's "done" doesn’t mean it's time to drink it. With cider time is your friend. Let your cider age for a minimum of 3 months. Many people will wait 6 months to a year before they drink their cider, and some will even pass 1 year worth of aging.

Simple method

Get some juice

Head to the store and get yourself some pasteurized apple juice. Look for something with no preservatives. Measure the gravity of the juice. Adjust as required with sugar to get the required ABV.

Nice Jugs

Pour your juice into a clean, and sanitized, fermenting bucket or carboy.

Add yeast

Your apple juice is pasteurized and doesn't have wild yeasts to get your fermentation going. Add some yeast to your juice, then close up your fermenter and add an airlock. The yeast you choose will effect the final flavor. Champagne, ale yeast, or special sweet or dry cider yeasts are appropriate. Bread yeast will also work, but you won't want to drink the end product (unless you're in prison).

Now what?

The rest is the same as the traditional method.

Hobo method

Add 3-4 tubes of apple juice concentrate to a 2 gallon jug. Top off with water and add bread yeast. Cover the top of the jug with a large balloon to promote anaerobic conditions. Wait 3 weeks then drink that cider.

This site gives a longer description of this method, and includes pictures : http://aikihomestead.blogspot.com/2009/08/apple-cider-in-four-steps-and-two.html

Sources

The Makings of a Good Cider by Ian A. Merwin