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The Insider on Cider - A recipe for hard cider |
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Written by DJ Spiess
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Saturday, 11 August 2007 |
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Page 1 of 2 Here's a fun recipe for hard apple cider! Try this for your fall beverages instead of beer.
With fall fast approaching, you might consider starting a hard cider. Hard cider makes a great alternative to beer and is very popular even with those who do not like beer. There are cider kits floating around like the one from Vinoka, but since Vinoka was recently purchased by RJ Spagnols, it is not clear if these kits are still available. Many homebrew stores have these kits on clearance. 
Cider is very easy to make. All you really need is apple juice and yeast. The best apple juice is juice pressed from fresh apples right off the orchard, but many of us simply do not live near a good source of apples. We created a very tasty cider using apple juice from the store. You can use either cider or apple juice, just make sure it does not contain any preservatives. You will have a difficult time fermenting apple juice with preservatives. Mott's apple juice is a good choice. We used Archer Farms apple cider from Target. To make the hard cider, simply pour apple juice in the fermenter, add sugar and yeast, and wait till it ferments completely. Once the specific gravity has reached 1.000, add potassium sorbate. The resulting cider will be very dry since apple juice is a very fast and clean fermentable. Once you have stabilized your cider with potassium sorbate, you can add honey and apple concentrate to give a better apple flavor.
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