My test batch of hard apple cider is pretty good. Especially on a hot day with some ice cubes and back sweetened with a bit of apple juice. I was keen to get some more on the go for summer so I whipped up a quick batch (largely unplanned) to get into bottles.

Recipe
14.4L of store bought clear apple juice
Juice from two lemons
Two cups of water
2 bags of English black tea
Handful of raisins
SAFALE-US05 yeast in 500mL LDME starter

I hydrated the raisins in a cup of hot water. The raisins were designed to act as nutrients for the yeast. In a saucepan I put the juice of two lemons and another cup of water before bringing it to a boil for a few minutes. Once off the heat I added the two tea bags and allowed them to steep for 10 minutes. Once done I added the raisins and water and allowed it all to cool to room temperature. I had some harvested SAFALE US05 in the fridge so I got that excited with 100 grams of LDME dissolved in 500mL of boiled water. The bottled juice was poured into my sterilized fermentation vessel, then the cooled juice/water/raisins were added and I aerated it with a large spoon. Dumped in the 500mL yeast starter, screwed on the vessel lid and put an airlock in place. The whole lot was put into my temperature controlled fridge at 18.5C. I’ll leave it there for two weeks before taking a gravity reading. OG was 1.050.

Once fermentation is done I’ll be racking the cider off into the original six plastic bottles the juice came in for secondary fermentation. Some will have fruit (apples and pears) added so I can compare the outcomes.

Update 17 October 2015

Planning to put some fruit in the cider I cut up about a kilo of pears and apples today and starsanned them to remove any bacteria from the skin. I racked off the fermentation vessel into the original 6 2.2L bottles (plus one extra 750mL bottle). I packed two bottles with apple and pear, one with just pear, one with just apple and left one bottle without any fruit. All the bottles went back into the fermentation chamber set for 19C. I’ll leave them there for two weeks before putting the lot into bottles and bulk primed for secondary fermentation.

Sterilised bottles with fruit

Filled bottles

Brew Dog

Update 31 October 2015

While I was brewing some beer I sterilised 16 750 PET bottles. I primed each with 6g of white sugar (what a pain in the ass that was) before carefully draining the cider from their larger bottles into the smaller bottles. I did this with a sterilised funnel. After capping the bottles and carefully noting their contents on the lids I gave each a good shake to dissolve the sugar. The bottles were then moved to my largering cellar (garage) where, I hope in two weeks they’ll be carbonated and ready to drink!