Apple cider at home (with and without carbonation)

Cider is almost always made by fermenting apple juice with wild yeast. But any other juice will do, for example, pear juice; the development does not change. I will tell you how to make cider at home using two proven recipes: from apples and pure juice. Separately, we will look at a natural way to saturate the drink with carbon dioxide.

Cider is ordinary (“still”) or carbonated apple wine with only a different name, which came to us from France, where it is called “Cidre”. The method for making the two drinks is similar.

If the apples are very sour: they practically squeeze your cheekbones and sting your tongue, it is better to reduce the acidity by diluting the juice with water (up to 100 ml per 1 liter). With all this, it is necessary to remember that adding sugar also reduces the acid content. If the acidity is normal, water is not needed; it enhances the taste of the drink, making it “liquid.”

Homemade apple cider

Apples of different types can be combined. An ideal ratio is considered to be one in which one part of sour apples is mixed with 2 parts of sweet ones. Pear cider is made using the same technology. If possible, I advise you to prepare an assortment - mix pears and apples in equal proportions.

Ingredients:

apples – 10 kg;
sugar – 1.5 kg;
water (in rare cases) – up to 1 liter.

Recipe

1. Wipe the collected apples with a dry cloth (do not wash them) and place them in a warm room for 2-3 days. Feral yeast lives on the surface of the fruit, which is necessary for fermentation; it is fundamentally impossible to wash it off.

2. Remove leaves and tails. Grind the apples, along with their skins and seeds, in a blender or meat grinder until smooth.

3. Wash the fermentation container with hot water and wipe dry. Fill with crushed apples to a maximum of 2/3 size. For example, if you use three-liter jars, then you can put up to 2.5 kg of apple juice in each jar. Free space is necessary for foam and carbon dioxide.

4. For any kilogram of apples, add 100-150 grams of sugar, depending on the initial sweetness. The wort should be sweet, but not cloying. Mix.

5. Tie the neck of the container with gauze and place it in a black space at room temperature for 3-4 days. Stir the contents of the jars every day, knocking down the dense top layer and drowning it in the juice. After 8-16 hours, the corresponding smell of fermentation, foam and hissing appears.

6. Squeeze the juice out of the apple slurry, which is later poured into a clean, dry container for fermentation. Next, install a water seal on the jar (barrel) or attach a honey glove with a hole in one of the fingers (pierce it with a needle).

Water seal designs for wine, mash and beer

7. Homemade apple cider should ferment in a dark place at a temperature of 18-27°C for approximately 30-65 days. Later in the day, sediment will appear, the water seal will not release bubbles (the glove will fall off) and the drink will noticeably lighten, which means that fermentation has completed.

If fermentation does not stop after 50 days from the moment the water seal is installed, in order to avoid bitterness, it is necessary to drain the cider through a straw into another container and ferment it under the same conditions.

8. Drain the fermented cider from the sediment, then pass through 3-4 layers of gauze.

9. Pour the filtered drink into bottles (if you do not plan to saturate them with gas, fill them to the neck) and close them tightly with caps. Homemade cider can also be stored in jars with lids.

10. For 3 months, the drink should ripen in a cold room (6-12°C). Then you can move on to tasting.

The result is honey-colored cider with a pleasant sweet taste and a strength of 7-12% (depending on the initial sugar content of the apples). It is easy to drink and does not cause a hangover in limited quantities.

Apple cider made from juice without sugar

A traditional recipe used in the UK and France. It will delight lovers of natural drinks, because it is made without sugar.

Manufacturing development

1. Leave the squeezed juice for a day in a dark place at room temperature.

2. Remove the juice from the sediment, pour into a fermentation container and install a water seal (honey glove).

3. Place the container for 3-5 weeks in a black space with a temperature of 20-27°C.

4. After fermentation is complete (the signs are described in the 7th step of the previous recipe), pour the cider through a straw into another container, being careful not to touch the sediment on the bottom.

5. If you do not plan to saturate with carbon dioxide, close the container tightly, then keep for 3-4 months in a dark room with a temperature of +6-12°C.

6. Filter again, pour into bottles, and seal tightly. If stored in the refrigerator or basement, the shelf life is up to 3 years. Depending on the sugar content of apples, the strength is 6-10%.

How to make carbonated cider

Making cider according to the two above recipes involves obtaining a so-called “still” drink without gas, practically ordinary apple wine. To saturate the cider with gas, you need to create the following:

1. After fermentation is complete, remove the homemade cider from the sediment.

2. Prepare bottles (plastic or glass): wash and wipe dry.

3. Add sugar to the bottom of each bottle (10 grams per 1 liter size). The sugar will cause a small re-fermentation, which will eventually release carbon dioxide.

4. Fill the bottles with cider, leaving 5-6 cm of free space from the neck. Seal tightly with stoppers or lids.

5. Transfer the containers for 10-14 days to a dark room at room temperature. Check gas pressure once a day.

Attention! At very high pressure, bottles can burst, so it is very important to vent (release) excess gas in case of accumulation.

6. Transfer the sparkling cider to the refrigerator or basement. Refrigerate for 3-4 days before use.

Apple cider: 8 recipes at home

Shake Up previously talked about how to make pear and cherry cider at home.

And now it’s time for the classic – apple cider.

1 Tips before starting
2 Regular apple cider
3 Apple cider without sugar
4 Cider with added wine yeast
5 Sour apple cider
6 Another Apple Cider Recipe
7 Forest apple cider
8 Dried apple cider
9 Recipe for apple cider according to Brockhaus and Efron

Tips before the start

For cider, apples of summer, autumn and winter varieties are taken, mostly sweet and sour, with a low sugar content.

When using high-sugar apples, the juice should be diluted slightly with water.

Apples are constantly carefully sorted and washed, areas of damage and spoilage are cut out, and when chopping, the stalks and remnants of sepals are removed.

The French drink cider unfiltered, cloudy and without gas.

Regular apple cider

Ingredients

Ripe apples – 10 kg

Preparation method

Wipe unwashed apples (it is better to take them from a summer cottage) with a dry towel, cut off the rotten parts, remove the tails and grind them together with the skin and seeds using a blender or meat grinder.

Transfer the apple puree into a sterile fermentation container; the mixture should fill the container no more than 3/4 the size.

Then add sweet sand (at the rate of 150 g per 1 kg of apples) and mix well.

Cover the neck with gauze and leave for 3-4 days in a dark room at room temperature. Every day you need to stir the contents of the container.

As soon as the first signs of fermentation appear (hissing, abundant foam and a sour smell), strain the wort through cheesecloth and squeeze the cake well.

Pour the resulting liquid into a clean container and install a water seal.

We transfer the container to a black room with a temperature of 18–27 degrees for 1.5–2 months. After complete fermentation, the drink will become lighter in color and sediment will appear on the day.

Then carefully pour the drink through a straw and pass it through a gauze filter.

Pour apple cider into glass bottles and leave for 3-4 months in a black, cold room to ripen.

Apple cider without sugar

This recipe is very popular among the French and British. It contains no other ingredients except natural freshly squeezed apple juice.

So you can consume any amount of juice in the process of making homemade cider without any proportions or restrictions.

Taking into account that in this case no auxiliary ingredients are used that will help start the fermentation process, it is necessary to consume unwashed sweet apples without any chemicals. And store-bought fruits are literally not suitable for this recipe, in principle, as for the others.

And the main rule is that the sweeter the apples, the stronger the finished product.

Preparation method

Pour any amount of freshly squeezed apple juice into a sterile container and leave for a day in a dark room at room temperature.

Then we install a water seal on the neck or a honey glove with a small hole in the finger.

We transfer the container to a warm space with a temperature of 18–27 degrees for approximately 1–1.5 months.

After this time, drain the cider from the sediment using a straw and pour it into a clean container.

Now we leave the drink for 4 months in a cold room (ideally a cellar) to stabilize the taste.

Before tasting, carefully drain the apple cider from the sediment again, and then bottle it.

This drink can be stored for 6–9 months in the refrigerator or cellar.

If you want the cider to become slightly carbonated, at the bottling stage, pour almost 10 g of sweet sand into the bottom of the container and then pour in the cider.

Then the drink will begin to ferment again and carbon dioxide will appear.

Fundamentally! In this case, the bottle should only be filled to 75% of its total size with non-carbonated cider.

Cider with added wine yeast

For production, undiluted apple juice and a 3% dilution of wine yeast are useful.

Preparation method

To make 100 g of wine yeast mixture, crush a glass of unwashed berries (raspberries, strawberries, rose hips), pour 1/2 cup of boiled warm water and add 1-1.5 tbsp. l. Sahara.

Close the lid and place for 3 days in a black space at a temperature of +20 degrees. Stir once a day.

Add yeast to apple juice (sterile, boiled), poured into a perfectly sterilized container, close with a stopper with a water seal and leave for fermentation for 3-4 days.

If desired, the cider can be clarified with milk. To do this, you need to take skim milk (skim milk): put the milk in the refrigerator for a day, skim off the resulting cream, and use the remaining milk to process the wine. For 1 liter of wine take 1 tsp. milk. The wine and milk should be thoroughly mixed. After this, keep the mixture for a number of days at a temperature not lower than +15 °C. During this period of time, the wine will become clearer; after 3-5 days it can be filtered.

Cider does not sit for a long time, so you need to drink it quickly.

You can add a little cognac to the cider, which will give the wine strength and an extraordinary taste.

Sour apple cider

Ingredients

Sour apple juice – 4.5 liters of juice

Sugar – 5 glasses

Preparation method

Chop the apples, put them in a saucepan, add water so that the water covers the apples.

Leave for 2 weeks, stirring occasionally.

After 2 weeks, carefully strain and heat the liquid. Add sugar and yeast.

Cover and place in a warm space to ferment.

After the start of fermentation, pour into a barrel, and at the end of fermentation, seal the barrel.

After 6 months bottle.

Another Apple Cider Recipe

Ingredients

Apples – 5 kg apples

Honey or sugar – 1.5 kg

Preparation method

Cut sour forest or garden apples into 4 parts. Place in a clean canvas or linen bag, tie it and place in a clean enamel bowl with a lid or a wooden barrel with an irregular bottom.

Cover the top with a wooden, preferably mesh, circle, press down with a weight so that the apples do not rise, and pour syrup from boiled water and honey or sugar.

Cover the dishes with a cloth (the totality of various and interacting tissues form organs) and throw them for fermentation in the cellar.

After 4-5 weeks, making sure that the cider is fermented, carefully pour it into a clean container and throw it in the cellar.

Pour the pulp with the same syrup in the volume of drained cider and after 4-5 weeks again pour the fermented cider into a clean container, and pour the pulp a third time.

Mix the cider from all the plums and leave it in a cool place until it ferments well (usually 6-9 months).

Pour the fermented, settled, clear apple cider into bottles, seal and keep in the cellar for another 3-4 weeks.

Forest apple cider

Sort the forest apples collected in August, remove spoiled and warped fruits and allow them to age well.

Place a few dried apples on the bottom of a prepared barrel with a hole for a sleeve 10-14 cm in diameter and fill 3/4 of the size with fresh ones.

Pour cool boiled water over the apples, seal the barrel and place in the cellar for 4-5 weeks to ferment.

After draining the finished cider, pour boiled water over the pulp again and repeat throughout the winter, spring and even summer until the apples are wet.

Drained apple cider is stored in the cellar. This kind of cider is stable, but it can be very sour, so before drinking you can add sugar or juice and a little baking soda to it, and you get a tasty fizzy drink.

Dried apple cider

Cider comes out best from fruits that have been peeled before drying (without the skin and seeds), cut into slices and dried in the sun.

Preparation method

Pour dried fruits into the prepared barrel or glass bottle and pour cool boiled water (per 1 kg 10 l).

Cover with a cloth (A collection of different and interacting tissues form organs) and, without clogging, place in a cold room for 2-4 days, and then transfer to the cellar, where it is kept until the drink ferments.

First, after fermentation, plug the cider barrel with a cork (tongue) and leave it in the cellar for 3-4 weeks. The quality of such cider will increase if, first of fermentation, you pour it into bottles, putting a zest in each.

Place tightly sealed bottles in a basement or cellar in the sand in a lying position and store until consumption.

Recipe for apple cider according to Brockhaus and Efron

To obtain sweet cider created for immediate consumption, you should take 1 part tart apples and 2 parts sweet ones, but if the cider is intended to be stored for a long time, then, on the contrary, 2 parts tart apples and 1 part sweet ones; With all this, you need to combine apple varieties that ripen immediately.

Preparation method

Ripe and soft apples and pears should be pressed immediately after picking and chopping.

After vigorous fermentation, the wine is combined with yeast (in other words, from the grounds that have settled to the bottom of the vat) into clean barrels, in which quiet fermentation takes place; if it does not start, then add pure beet sugar 800-1200 g per 8 buckets to the young cider.

The fruits must be washed and peeled before crushing; utensils (vat, barrels, tubs, mugs, etc.) must also be impeccably clean. Some people dilute the must of apples and pears with water in the following quantities: in the first case – 5-8%, in the 2nd – 10-15%.

Water is poured over the pressed pulp, which after 10-12 hours is pressed again, and the acquired liquid is mixed with the initially separated clean wort. If the wort is diluted with water, then for any 8 buckets you should take 9-11 kg of sugar, which is mixed with the wort before or during fermentation.

Before bottling, finished cider, if it is cloudy, is cleaned either with the freshest wine yeast in an amount of 5-10%, or with skim milk (4/5 mugs for 8 buckets).

Is there an error or do you have anything to add?

Regular Apple Juice Cider Recipe

The main advantage of this drink is that it perfectly relieves thirst. And even though it’s not always hot outside, no one bothers you to prepare such a wonderful drink that you can simply enjoy its taste. The recipe is simple and straightforward.

Apple Cider Recipe

The best cider comes from freshly squeezed apple juice. But if you don’t have this on hand or you simply don’t want to waste energy on squeezing, use a special juice concentrate. It will also fit perfectly.

We will use the extract for the recipe. For a real 30 liter batch. One 5-liter canister is enough..

The whole recipe is divided into 2 steps:

Setting the wort for fermentation.
Bottling for carbonation and maturation.

Let's start in order.

1. Setting the wort for fermentation

dry wine yeast – 5-6 teaspoons;
apple juice extract – 5 l;
sugar or dextrose – 1-2 teaspoons;
untainted water – 25 l.

Manufacturing development:

Prepare apple juice from concentrate. We dilute the extract in a fermentation container 1 to 5: 5 l. concentrate and 25 l. water. Makes 30 liters. juice
We ferment the yeast. Pour 5-6 teaspoons (without a slide) of yeast into a glass of warm juice or water (200-250 ml). Next, add 1-2 teaspoons of sugar or dextrose to the mixture. Mix. We wait 30 minutes until foam forms on the surface of the yeast and pour the mixture into the fermentation container with juice. Mix thoroughly again and close the lid of the container (you can do it without a water seal).
Let the wort ferment. Fermentation will last approximately 7-14 days, after which we will need to carbonate the resulting liquid.

Thanks to carbonation, the cider will be saturated with carbon dioxide and completely form its own taste.

2. Carbonation of wort

Ingredients and equipment:

Manufacturing development

Disinfect all equipment: bottles, siphon, lids. For disinfection, use any alcohol-containing liquid. We recommend Deo-chlor pills. After washing, rinse the containers with clean water and proceed.
Pour 1 tbsp into each PET bottle. spoon of dextrose (not sugar!), then pour in our wort using an overflow siphon. We twist it.
Before final capping, slightly open the caps on the bottles, press on the vessel, releasing air from the bottle. Then we twist it again. We are waiting for the final ripening of the drink.

Ripening time is 3-4 weeks. After this time, the finished cider can be safely poured into glasses and enjoyed its taste with family or close friends.

Homemade apple cider recipe

Apple cider is one of those alcoholic drinks that can be prepared at home without much effort. To make cider from apples at home, you don’t need any special equipment or additives - it’s quite easy to have a huge amount of ripe apples on hand.

The true history of cider is unknown, although there are many fascinating versions. One of them says that the first cider was prepared by chance and its creator was the famous ruler Charles the Great, who accidentally sat down on a bag of overripe apples. Whether this is true or fiction is difficult to judge at the moment, but specifically in the 9th century, records appeared for the first time about the production of light wine from apples.

How to make homemade apple cider

Apples are the most popular and beloved fruit by everyone, which is grown in virtually any garden. After harvesting, quite often there are a lot of apples left on the ground, which are not suitable for storage and making homemade preparations, and almost all owners have to simply throw them away. So that fragrant fruits do not go to waste, you can make homemade apple cider.

Traditional New Apple Cider Recipe

This method is quite labor-intensive, but the resulting result will probably not disappoint you and you will not regret the time and effort spent.

Before making cider from apples, you should carefully sort through the fruits. The most suitable apples for this drink are winter varieties. All fruits must be perfectly ripe, without obvious signs of rottenness.

It is not recommended to wash the collected apples so that the fermentation process is as natural as possible. But if they are very dirty, you can lightly wash them in running water.

The cooked fruits need to be crushed to make wort. To do this, you can use an ordinary hand grater, meat grinder, blender or juicer. When using a juicer, do not throw away the pulp - making cider from apples will be much faster with it.

Mix the juice and pulp, add a little sugar, mix and put in any container for fermentation. The wort can be prepared in any enamel pan, milk can or glass jars. Using this recipe for homemade apple cider, it is possible to do without sugar, but then the fermentation process will take much longer, and the strength of the purchased drink will be much lower.

The wort for apple cider at home must be stirred once a day and closely monitored for the moment when fermentation begins. As soon as the first signs of fermentation appear on the surface, the pulp will need to be squeezed through a fine sieve or several layers of gauze. Pour the purchased juice into three to five liter jars, install a water seal on them, or put on ordinary rubber gloves. Using gloves, make a small puncture on one of your fingers so that excess carbon dioxide can escape through it.

You can make cider from apples as a weak alcoholic drink without adding sugar, but in this case the wort will ferment for a number of days longer.

Place the cans of cider in a cool, black space where they will sit for 1-2 months. When fermentation is completely over, the drink will need to be drained from the sediment. You can strain the purchased cider using several layers of gauze.

Pour homemade apple cider into small containers - it’s best to use half-liter bottles, close and put in the refrigerator. It is necessary to pour the drink right up to the neck and close it tightly, otherwise, due to the ingress of oxygen, the cider may turn into fruit vinegar.

Apple cider prepared according to this recipe can be stored for 3 years. The longer the drink sits, the tastier and more aromatic it will be.

The most common apple cider recipe

If you don’t have a lot of apples, but you want to try creating a tasty, fragrant drink, then you can use the most common method of making it. The most common apple cider recipe is to place the apple juice in a warm place and let it ferment.

Unfortunately, juice can be fermented naturally only if there is a special variety of apples and serious adherence to technology. Using ordinary apples, the manufacturing process can take several months, so it is better to add sugar and yeast.

Despite the fact that yeast is not used in the industrial production of cider, it will be completely acceptable for making a homemade drink.

The cheapest and most accessible option for owners of small gardens and personal plots is to preserve the natural juice for the winter, and make cider from the remaining pulp.

Fill unstained three-liter jars with juice squeezes - about a third. Add a few white raisins or yeast to each jar, a glass of sugar and top up with cool, unstained water.

Before preparing cider from apples, prepare a water seal or rubber gloves - this is done so that the containers with the drink are protected from oxygen.

Cover the jars and place in a warm space for 5-6 days until fermentation is complete.

Using gauze, carefully strain and pour the purchased drink into glass jars or bottles. It is necessary to pour the cider very slowly so that the sediment that falls to the bottom does not rise.

Fill the containers to the neck and seal tightly with lids.

Apple cider prepared according to this recipe can be drunk immediately. Store the drink in the refrigerator only in closed bottles, so it is better to use containers no larger than 1 liter.

Every winemaker has his own special recipe for homemade apple cider. Homemade cider can be dry and sweet, with little or no alcohol content. You can use the freshest apples or homemade apple juice; you can prepare a drink with the addition of yeast, raisins or other fruits. If desired, you can combine different varieties of apples in different proportions and always get all the new tastes and smells for any taste.

There is no special technology for making this drink, so you can become the creator of a unique, exclusive drink that can compete with even the most famous varieties of cider produced in elite wineries around the world.