Experimental Apple Cider

One of my mates brews his own beer at home. A while back, he came up with the idea of trying out an apple cider for the first time. He had no real clue on how to make a cider as it is a fairly different process to brewing regular beer. After a bit of research and asking around, he had a vague idea of how he would be able to brew the cider. It was not a rock solid idea, and there was a lot of room for error, hence the title 'experimental' apple cider. Regardless, I did not want to miss out on this opportunity, so we got a couple of friends together and gave him a hand. It is possible to brew this concoction without big, speciality equipment if you follow this easy recipe video. Let me show you how we made our own homemade alcoholic apple cider!

Ingredients needed to get started:

1. 24 kg of apples (we used a combination of Pink Lady and Royal Gala apples)

2. Water

3. Sugar

4. Champagne yeast

‍Step 1: Clean & chop


Fill up a clean bucket with water.

Scrub and clean the apples well. You want to remove all traces of pesticides and dirt from the skin as it will be used in the cider mash.

As always, many hands make light work, so rally up a team and start chopping! Smaller pieces are easier to blitz in the blender. Don't forget to remove the core and seeds.

You will need several empty pots to store the chopped up apples.

Step 2: Sanitise

While the team keeps chopping, start sanitising the storage equipment. It is so important that all the equipment stays clean, otherwise the entire batch could be ruined. A basic rule is "anything that the liquid will touch, must be sanitised". You may have to re-sanitise things that you drop, or touch anything else that is unsanitised.

Use a pink stain remover on the main storage drum. Add a capful of stain remover and then fill halfway with water, scrubbing vigourously. Let some of the stain remover trickle through the tap too. Then rinse the entire vat well and allow some clean water to trickle through the tap again.

Prepare the lining for the drum by using a new, clean pillowcase. Rinse it in warm water for a few minutes and then allow it to soak in a capful of equipment sanitiser.

Wring out any excess fluid and then line the inside of the storage drum.

Step 3: Blend

Fill the blender to almost maximum capacity full of apple pieces. Then add 1/2 - 1 cup of water, depending on the type of apples used. If the mixture does not blend well and you remain with big chunks, you may need to add more water.

Turn it on full whack for less than a minute. Any longer than 2 minutes on high and the heat created from the spinning blades will taint the juice and diminish the flavour. As mentioned before, if it has not ground down to a pulp in less than a minute, you will need to increase the amount of water you add.

Pour this mash into your pillowcase lined drum (looks pretty gross at the moment).

Repeat the procedure for the next couple of hours until you have worked your way through all 24kg of apples. Music, friends, food, conversation and beer will help in this process :)

When you are almost finished, have someone prepare the airtight seal by boiling some water and fill up the airtight tube.

When you are done, you should have a drum full of apple pulp and juice. Use the tap on the drum to taste the juice and add sugar accordingly to sweeten it. We mixed in two cups of sugar with 1 litre of water to bring the sweetness up a little. Add in the champagne yeast to the drum and mix well. Screw on the airtight lid and roll the drum around for a while to ensure all the ingredients are well incorporated.

Mini science lesson: Yeast is an active and alive microbe. It will start feeding on the natural sugars (and added sugars) present in the mixture. Yeast converts sugar into carbon dioxide and ethanol (drinkable alcohol).

The drum only contained 5 litres of juice. The amount you see in the picture (≈30L) is actually created by displacement from the apple pulp. As time goes on, and after pressing the pulp, the liquid should increase to approximately 15 - 20 litres if we are lucky.

Step 4: Ferment

Empty out the water you used to clean the apples, and fill it up again with water.

Place the drum full of apple pulp in this tub and allow it to ferment in a dark place (we used the garage) for at least one week. It is important to keep the temperature regulated, so we used an old fish pump & heater with a thermostat to keep the water moving (prevent algae buildup) and regulated at 20°C.

And now we play the waiting game! There are no original photos past this point as we are still waiting for the batch to brew. But the instructions to continue are as follows:

Every few days throughout the week, take the barrel out, give it a roll and shake the mixture well. Do NOT take the lid off under any circumstances! You will destroy the fermentation process and break the airtight seal!

Step 5: Bottle

After one week has passed, the brew is ready for bottling! You may leave the brew in for a second week if you wish to intensify in flavour.

You will need to firstly suspend the pillowcase full of apple pulp above the drum and allow it to drip all the fluid out of it. To quicken this process, you may apply weights to the bag or squeeze it with sanitised hands. Discard the apple pulp (compost is a good idea), then use individual amber (brown) tinted glass or plastic bottles to contain your brew. Brown glass minimises the amount of infrared and ultraviolet light let in, which can taint a delicate brew. Place one carbonation pill in the bottom of each bottle and then fill the bottles to the brim, capping quickly and then placing back in a dark environment. The carbonation pill will slowly release carbon dioxide into the beverage, providing it with the fizz typical to ciders.

Allow the ciders to ferment further for another month, to month and a half. You may leave the ciders in the fermentation stage for longer if you wish to increase the depth of flavour and alcohol content. Beware: leaving the brew for too long will ruin the entire batch and render it undrinkable. To stop fermentation, you need to kill the yeast. This is done by placing the cider in the fridge overnight. If you wish to measure the alcohol percentage by volume of your brew, place a small sample of the liquid in a hydrometer and record the result after the carbonation dissipates. 

If you've followed through up to this point, congratulations! You now have your very own homemade apple cider, ready to drink :) and it only really cost you about $2/L or so! I think you deserve a well-earned break, so kick back with a cold one and enjoy the fruits of your labour ;)

- WeCannotCook