HOW IT'S MADE

How to make (Hard) Apple Cider from Apple Juice

FoodCrumbles.com

October, 2021

It starts with apple juice

01.

Ideally made from apple cider apples Ours is pasteurized

Apple cider apples

02.

Are slightly acidic

Contain enough sugars

To add some 'zing'

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For the yeast to eat!

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How to measure sugar content?

Specific gravity is a measure for the density of your APPLE JUICE vs. WATER.

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Dissolving sugar in water makes water more dense.

You do so using the SPECIFIC GRAVITY

How to measure sugar content?

You'd want your apple juice to have a specific gravity of:

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1.04 - 1.075

Which is about 10-18 g/l of sugar

As a result, a higher sugar content results in a higher value for specific gravity!

How to measure sugar content?

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You use a HYDROMETER!

At higher  sugar  content

The hydrometer floats higher

& higher

Apple cider apples

02.

Also contain tannins

To add some bitterness & depth

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About 1-4 g/l

Transforming JUICE into (HARD) CIDER

03.

STEP 1: Sanitize ALL tools

STEP 2: Weigh out your CIDER YEAST

STEP 3: Test and activate the yeast

Transforming JUICE into (HARD) CIDER

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STEP 4: Add yeast to apple juice

STEP 5: Close vessel with juice + yeast

STEP 6: Add a water lock

What happens next?

The CIDER YEAST will eat the sugars and convert them into alcohol

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...and flavors!

How much alcohol? That depends on the amount of sugars!

The apple juice will FERMENT

Why a water lock?

It needs to escape, else your vessel will blow up!

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It does so through the lock

While preventing insects etc. from entering

The yeast makes CARBON DIOXIDE, a gas

Transforming JUICE into (HARD) CIDER

03.

Transforming JUICE into (HARD) CIDER

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SEVERAL weeks (about 4) later...

Yeasts have eaten all the sugars, they're done!

STEP 7: Transfer ALCOHOLIC apple juice (=cider) into bottles

Transforming JUICE into (HARD) CIDER

03.

Transforming JUICE into (HARD) CIDER

03.

STEP 8 (optional): add a little (!) sugar  to the bottles

Fresh food for the yeast! They'll produce new CARBON DIOXIDE

But, it will be trapped in the bottle, carbonating your CIDER!

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Transforming JUICE into (HARD) CIDER

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Transforming JUICE into (HARD) CIDER

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STEP 9 (final one): Wait, and wait a little longer

Let the cider age and develop flavor

In the meantime, read our FULL article :-)!

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