Cider at Home

Cider - light apple wine, carbonated or without gas. You can make it from pears, as well as pear-apple mixture - the technology does not change. Apples are among the most affordable fruits; homemade cider is inexpensive. It will remind you of summer if you drink it in winter, and it will refresh you well if you use it on hot days.

Cooking Features

The process of making homemade cider is relatively uncomplicated, and even if you have never been involved in winemaking before, you will be able to make this drink yourself. It is only important to prepare raw materials and containers for fermenting wort. To avoid unpleasant surprises and get the expected result, you need to know a few subtleties.

Shopping apples for cider making will not work. They can be processed, as a result of which the bacteria that cause fermentation are destroyed. And the use of yeast for the preparation of cider traditional technology is not provided.
Using apples from your garden, try to take twice as many sour varieties than sweet ones. From this ratio of fruit raw materials, according to gourmets, cider is the most delicious. If you have only sour fruits, increase the amount of sugar relative to that indicated in the recipe. If apples are used only sweet varieties, the amount of sugar in the recipe, it is advisable to adjust to the lower side.
It is impossible to wash the apples before use, so as not to destroy the bacteria on their surface. However, it is necessary to sort out the fruits, throwing out or cutting off the broken, rotten and wormy ones. It is also necessary to thoroughly wipe the fruit with a dry cloth.
Cider can be made from apple juice or chopped fruit. In the first case, you can use the juicer, in the second case, it is advisable to just skip the fruit through a meat grinder, and with the skin and the core.
Do not fill the container in which the wort will ferment by more than three-quarters or even two-thirds. Otherwise, during fermentation, it will rise and go over the edge.
Keep in mind that apple wort will not ferment at temperatures below 18 degrees, but temperatures above 20 degrees are optimal.
When pouring out the cider, try not to let the sediment get into it, carefully filter it, otherwise it will be cloudy, unappetizing and tasteless.
If you want to get a carbonated drink, bottling the finished product, add a teaspoon of sugar or a little more (10 g per liter) to each of them, without pouring the drink to the edge of the neck by about 5-7 cm. Leave them at room temperature for 10-12 days, then transfer them to a cellar or put them in a refrigerator - fermentation will stop in a cool place.

Our ancestors began preparing cider long ago, so there are several recipes for this drink. Everyone can choose the method of making cider, which seems to him the best.

Classic Apple Cider Recipe

Composition:

apples - 10 kg;
sugar - 1-1,5 kg (depending on the sugar content of the apple variety);
water - 0, 5-1 l (depending on the juiciness of the fruit).

Method of preparation:

Spread the apples on a flat surface, let them soak for 24 hours. Loop and wipe the fruit with a dry cloth. Cut into large pieces along with the core. Mince through a meat grinder.
Mix crushed apples with sugar.
Spread the apple mass on clean cans, filling them by two thirds. Tie neck necks with gauze to prevent insects from getting inside. Leave to ferment for 2-3 days.
These days, regularly mix the contents of the cans, dropping the foam that has risen to the surface to the bottom. It is necessary that the wort does not turn sour.
After the indicated time, squeeze the apple mass through the gauze folded in several layers. If the apples were not juicy enough, you can add a little water, but not more than a liter for all the number of ingredients specified in the recipe.
Pour juice into a bottle with a narrow neck. It also can not be filled with wort more than three quarters. Install the water lock. If not, use a rubber glove. With a needle in your finger, make a thin hole for gas to escape, then fasten the glove on the neck of the bottle so that there are no gaps.
Put the bottle in a darkened room, the temperature in which is kept at 20-26 degrees. Wait for the end of fermentation. It will last from a month to 2, 5 months.
Cider should be drained from the sediment through a straw, then filtered twice through gauze folded in several layers.
Bottled cider and seal it tightly. If you want to get a drink with gas, do not forget to pour sugar on the bottom and leave a small space on top. To champagne the beverage, leave the bottles for 1, 5 weeks at room temperature.
Store the wine bottles in the basement or other cool room. Store cider preferably at a temperature of 14-16 degrees.

With this recipe, you will get apple cider with a strength of 6 to 12 degrees with or without gas (depending on the technology chosen). To use the cider will be ready 4 months after preparation.

Apple juice cider without sugar

Composition:

apples of sour varieties - 10 kg;
sweet apples - 5 kg.

Method of preparation:

The apples are sorted, wiped with a napkin, pass through the juicer.
Pour the juice into an enamel basin or pan, cover with gauze, leave for a day.
Pour the juice into the fermentation tank, install the water seal.
Place the container for 20-40 days in a room where the temperature is kept in the range of 20-27 degrees. During this time, fermentation must cease. A deflated glove or a “silent” shutter indicates that this process has ended.
After fermentation, pour out the cider from the sediment, strain, bottle it, fill it to the brim and seal it tightly.

The strength of the drink obtained according to this recipe, depending on the variety of apples used, will vary from 5 to 10 degrees. Cider will be sufficient for consummation in 3-4 months. In a cold room you can store it for up to three years.

Apple-pear cider

Composition:

apple juice - 5 l;
pear juice - 5 l;
sugar - 0.5 kg.

Method of preparation:

Fruits sort, wipe with rags, but do not wash. Cut into pieces and using a special device squeeze the juice out of them. If you don’t have a juicer designed for processing large quantities of fruit, skip slices of apples and pears through a meat grinder, squeeze through the gauze. Shop or home pasteurized juice for cider making will not work.
Pour the juice into the banks, filling them up to three-quarters. Tins, cover with a thin cloth and leave for three days. These days, periodically stir the contents of the cans.
After this period, mix the juice with sugar using about 80% of the amount of the sweet product indicated in the recipe. Pour the juice into a fermentation bottle. Stretch a glove on it or put a water seal.
After fermentation, drain the beverage from the sediment, filter.
At the bottom of the bottles, add sugar at the rate of 1 teaspoon per 0.5 liter of cider.
Bottled wine. Its level should not reach the edge of the bottle by about 6 cm.
Cork the bottles and leave for 10 days in the same room as the fermentation bottle.
After a specified time, remove the cider in a cool place.

Cider will be available in 3 months. Its fortress will be around 6-10 degrees.

Cider with honey

Composition:

apples - 9 kg;
honey - 1, 5 l;
water - 6 l.

Method of preparation:

Apples, sifting and rubbing, cut into slices and put in an enamelled tank or barrel. Cover the circle, set the top of the oppression.
Dissolve half a liter of honey in 1, 5 l of water, pour it on top.
Leave to wander for 1, 5 months.
Drain the resulting liquid in a glass bottle with a water seal.
Apply new apples with honey syrup, leave for a month. Add the resulting liquid to the one already in the fermentation tank.
Repeat the procedure with the remaining products.
After a month, drain the mixture from the sediment, bottle it and store it in a cool place for at least six months.

Honey-apple cider is healthier than usual and has a unique taste. Its only drawback is the complexity and duration of preparation.