Tuesday, November 19, 2013

Making your own cider

The internet is a wealth of amazing knowledge! Especially when it comes to making alcohol at home.
A while back I stumbled on an awesome page describing exactly what i'd need: http://www.howtomakehardcider.com/making.html
This step by step tutorial was just what i needed to get me started.I picked up a gallon of Whole Foods Organic apple juice, borrowed a stopper from a friend and was ready to go. Well, ready to go after buying an airlock, some sanitizer and some amazing happy live English Cider Yeast from White Labs.
The first batch ended up being super tasty! Even though i brewed it with the ever classy balloon method, since i didn't have the right sized stopper for my first try. It didn't make it to bottling since i drank it all too fast out of the jug.
I'm a little spaced on nyquill right now, but the moral of the story is organic apple juice makes yummy cider. Other apple juice makes ok cider. More on this topic later.
I'm really tempted to throw some concentrates in with some water and yeast to see what happens..... Purple Jesus anyone?