Explorations In Cider Making

Bubbling in the basement
at a steady 68 degrees

With the local scene (a.k.a. my neighborhood) replete with home-brewers, I've been feeling the need to join the fun for quite some time now but I've never made the time to get properly started.  Well, a couple weeks ago when I had some free time and money I finally committed to going and buying a full-on brewing kit from the local brew supply store, Bader Beer & Wine Supply.  To get buy-in from my wife, I told her I would start by making hard cider instead of beer.  Since this wasn't the season for ripe apples nor do I have ready access to a cider press, I decided to start with store bought soft cider as my stock to convert to hard cider.  Without the necessary brewing steps required by beer, this was a pretty easy undertaking and the results were well worth it.

I tried to find a local cider but since I'm not much of pre-planner, I had to find whatever I could in a pinch and used TreeTop's three-apple blend since it wasn't from concentrate, had no additives, and was already pasteurized.  Even though it was still pasteurized, I still brewed it just below simmering for about an hour.  One thing I learned in that process is that it takes a long time to heat up five gallons as well as letting it cool down.  I added three cups Muscovado brown sugar during the brew process for flavor and to up the alcohol content.  In the end, I'm not sure how much affect this had on the flavor but the final ABV was approximately 6%.  It took nine days to ferment and then I let it clarify another seven before bottling.  At bottling, I added another 1 3/4 cup honey and water mix to get some fizz once in the bottle.  Of course, I wanted to taste the fruits of my labor right away but the first bottle was just okay.  However, after letting the cider bottle age for another week or so, it has sweetened up and the carbonation is nice and light.  

Only $7.80?  Sold!

I'll be starting batch number two very soon and experimenting some more but I have to say this was pretty fun and having 27 bottles of cider ready to give away or consume is pretty cool.  With the initial cost of the brewing kit, sweet cider, and yeast, I figure it's only going to take me about 55 bottles to break even which is only two full batches compared to retail hard cider costs of around $4 per bottle.  After that, it should only cost me around $1.30 for each full bottle, what a deal!