Really, if you want to trace the origins of this blog, you really could probably point to the hard cider recipe that I stumbled across. For anyone that likes hard ciders, or is curious about creating alcohol in your house, then you should check it out. It would be remiss of me if I said that, but didn’t provide a link to the great folks over at Paupered Chef. So just click this bitch, and off you go! Alright, have the saved for reading later? Good. Now, making your own hard cider is stupid easy. It should be illegal, and it used to be back in prohibition. Hard ciders were highly popular beverages before the prohibition era, and are only now starting to come back. Personally, I like mine tart and crisp, but feel free to throw ideas of your own down in the comments.
Four Yeasts Enter, One Yeast Leaves.
All you need to make your own hard cider is a few simple things: a glass container to ferment in, a bung to plug said container, an airlock so that the yeast can let the CO2 out and keep air from getting in, yeast to turn those sugars in to alcohol, and of course some cider. Fresh cider works best. The pasteurized can work, but is harder to get going than non-pasteurized. The stuff at whole foods comes in glass gallon jugs, and (here in Denver) it is only about $4 per jug. So I then went to our local homebrew store, The Brew Hut, and purchased a #6 stopper and a cheap airlock (about $2). While I was there I couldn’t decide on what yeast to try it with, so… so I couldn’t just pick one. I had to pick a few. Four, to be exact. Over at Paupered Chef they talked about having luck with the lager yeast, so I grabbed two of those (the S-23 and the W-34/70), an ale (S-04), and a generic “brew” yeast (T-52). This of course led to needing more bottles of cider, and more airlocks. At about $7 per packet of yeast and $2 per airlock/stopper combo, I walked out of The Brew Hut having spent about $36.
Now, once I arrived back at the kitchen, I noticed on the yeast packages that each package was designed to make about 8 gallons. Naturally, I didn’t have 32 gallons of apple juice around, and I wasn’t sure I’d want to spend that much. So instead I just used a guesstimated portion. As someone pointed out to me, when the yeast runs out of sugar it will stop. This means that exact measuring of the yeast isn’t required, as it will just make the fermentation faster/slower. Which is good, because despite my mild OCD, I really suck at measuring things. I am pretty sure it is a medical condition.
Now, if you want the exact steps on how to do this, flip over to that link you opened up back at the top of this post (you did open it, right?) and follow their instructions. First, I’m too lazy to retype them all. Secondly, it would just be stealing the good work that they’ve already done. Plus, you should be visiting that site anyway if you like good food.
So what we all want to know is the results, I’m sure. At a local taste testing (read: game night at my place) I asked people to evaluate the ciders, and when people showed up for Thanksgiving/Wine Party/etc., I gathered additional data. By a (near) landslide, the S-23 lager yeast was voted the best. It had an almost beery quality to it that was just damn delicious. Lacking a little in the complexity, but nothing I wouldn’t (and didn’t) drink. Second place went to the ale yeast (S-04, if you’re keeping score) which had a lot more apple flavor. It really hid the beer-yeast origins, but was almost too much like apple juice. Third place (though perhaps mentally last for me) was the other lager. The W-34/70 yeast just produced something that smelled vile and tasted really bland. It had a little bit of apple left, but mostly tasted like drinking flower. Hardly any trace of the alcohol either. Now on to the “last place” yeast, the generic brew yeast (T-52) did smell a little weird. My tasting panels mostly didn’t finish it, but my good buddy Stephen and I actually enjoyed it. To me it had the most bite, and while the aroma was a bit off-putting, the flavor wasn’t bad at all.
Cider is an easy introduction to home brewing; go grab some ingredients and give it a shot. There are a lot more yeasts to try, and I can’t tackle them all alone. So get out there and begin your brewing voyage. Then drop your opinions down in the comments!