Fermented apple cider?

Question

How do you make fermented apple cider the right way? Be detailed, please, because I don't know much about it. Thank you!

Answer 1

It's difficult to define a "right way" for any fermented beverage.  Obviously, almost every brewer or vintner in world believes that they are creating a fermented beverage the "right way".  However, there are numerous examples of sub-standard wine, beer, cider, etc.  There are, however, some rules of thumb that should help you produce better cider.

First off, if possible, juice the apples yourself rather than purchase pre-made cider or juice.  Most pre-made cider uses sweeter apples -- creating a very delicious sweet beverage.  Hard cider can be made from sweet apples, but it increases the alcohol content and you will lose apple flavor.  Your best bet is to choose 3 or more apple varieties using both sweet and tart apples.  I like a ratio of 40% tart to 60% sweet.  This will give you plenty alcohol, but also add some nice apple flavor.

After you have collected the juice, you need a good vessel to ferment in.  The vessel should be sanitized.  I like to use glass carboys commonly found at homebrew shops.  You can either use a bleach solution to sanitize, or you can purchase a food grade sanitizer.  I prefer buying iodopher -- iodine based sanitizer.  If you use bleach, make sure you rinse well; food grade sanitizers don't need to be rinsed.

Once you have your apple cider in the vessel, you have two options:

1. You can allow the cider to naturally ferment from the yeast found on apple skins.  This is easy, and often produces good results; but, sometimes you will get a dominant yeast strain that doesn't really give you great flavor.  You are also more likely to get an infected beverage -- mold or other bacteria will form on the surface of your cider.  If you choose this method, once your cider is in the fermentation vessel, you seal with an airlock and you just let time do its work.

2. You can pasteurize the cider to kill off the wild yeast and bacteria.  This can be done with chemicals or heat.  I like to use camden (sulfite) tablets - again, easy to find at homebrew or homewine shops.  You add the tablets and allow about 24-48 hours for the tablets to do their work.  Heating is also an option, but you can drive-off some of the delicious aroma and flavors this way.  If you choose this method, you must introduce a store-bought yeast to the cider to start your fermentation.  (White Labs and Wyeast both make cider yeast strains or you can try ale yeasts as well.)  I like to use a neutral yeast so that the apple flavors aren't vying with the yeast for dominant flavors.  After the yeast is added, you seal with an airlock and wait.

Normally, after about 2 weeks (whether you use method 1 or 2 outlined above) your cider is done fermenting.  At this point you should transfer to a new (sanitized) vessel for long-term aging.  Most ciders benefit from at least a few months of bulk-aging.  Some ciders, in fact, need a year or more to really reach their prime.

After aging in your secondary fermentation vessel, you can bottle the cider.  I like using wine bottles for a "still" cider - this is non-carbonated cider.  You can re-use old wine bottles, or you can buy new ones at homebrew stores.  Either way, you should sanitize the bottles first.  

If you prefer a sparkling (carbonated) cider, you should use beer bottles with caps or champaign bottles that can be capped.  To create a sparkling cider, you add some additional sugar (amount varies based on how much cider you have) to the fermented cider right before bottling.  Once in the bottle, the yeast will consume the additional sugar and produce CO2.

Cider making is part art and part science.  If you plan to make a hobby of it, take notes at all stages of your process.  What apples did you use?  What quantities?  What yeast?  What sanitization methods?  What temperatures did you ferment at?  Etc.  These variables will all change your end product.

Hopefully, this gets you where you need to go.  If you want to learn more, I recommend:

http://www.amazon.com/Cider-Hard-Sweet-H...

This book has a ton of helpful information.  Good luck!