English Hard Cider
(5 gallons/19 L)
Ingredients
5 gals. (19 L) fresh-pressed sweet cider, emphasis on a balance, as given in “Mixing Apples and Apples,” page 28.
4 cups (946 mL) cane sugar
2 cups (473 mL) brown sugar
2 cups (473 mL) honey
1/2 tsp. yeast nutrient
1/2 tsp. acid blend
7 grams wine yeast
Step by Step
Add sugars, honey, nutrient, and acid to cider and ferment with yeast. Rack after four weeks, bottle in corked wine bottles at about 20 weeks. Age in wine-cellar conditions for six months.
This cider is strong, still, and balanced, approximately 7 percent alcohol by volume.
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A cyser is traditionally a “sack mead,” or a sweet mead, that’s made with honey and apples. This cyser is quite like a wine, and will have a wine’s higher alcohol content when it’s finished. An important note: When buying the apple juice or cider, be sure it doesn’t contain any preservatives — like potassium sorbate, sodium benzoate or sulfites — which would kill the yeast. Check at a health-food store or find a cider producer who’ll sell you juice right off the press.