i know most of us on this forum have more hobbies other than making great smoked foods. I personally have a couple others as well. One such, is fairly new to me. Making hard cider.
Earlier this fall, a buddy of mine asked me my thoughts and experience making hard cider. My response? I like most hard ciders. Let’s make some.
Thus began the newest journey. Starting with some fresh pressed, non pasteurized, no preservatives added cider, we purchased a six gallon carboy, a couple packets of yeast, and the few other miscellaneous things to get the first batch fermenting.
After pitching the yeast, it was placed under a the shelf at my buddies place where it was shaded and a consistent 68-69 degrees and left to do its job.
Pic of the cider before fermenting
Pic of 20 gallons of cider split between four car boys fermenting away.
You can see some color variation due to using a couple different types of yeast.
Closeup of the cider fermenting and frothing a little.
After the fermentation process was finished, we set the carboy outside, as at that time our weather was a balmy 40 for highs and around 32 for lows, but next to the house kept it from freezing. The key was cool it to stop the fermenting.
A carboy settled out and ready for the next step.
We transfered the fermented cider to a clean vessel via siphon, leaving the sedement in the carboy to be discarded. After transferring, we used a little of the cider to simmer with some cinnamon sticks to be added back in for flavor, and added some apple juice concentrate and dissolved brown sugar to sweeten to taste.
The cider simmering with cinnamon sticks.
After adding the sweetener and cinnamon, we bottled into gallon jugs.
The batch freshly bottled. The dark bottles were some I got from a previous event. Corks were replaced with caps a day later once we got to the brewer supply store.
The finished product. And the glass logo is from my college fraternity, sorry.
Now all that was left was labels and a name. My buddies place we affectionately call the Hula Hut (long story). So we came up with two labels with different names. Sandbar smash and this one.
This stuff turned out pretty awesome for a couple guys that didn’t know what we were doing a short time before.
Unfortunately, a couple weeks ago, a tragic house fire at my buddies (everyone is safe) claimed all of our supplies, ten plus gallons of our last batch of hooch, as well as all of his belongings. He will rise out of this, so all will be ok, but we need to start all over purchasing all of our supplies. And my stash is dwindling so it may need to start soon.
Earlier this fall, a buddy of mine asked me my thoughts and experience making hard cider. My response? I like most hard ciders. Let’s make some.
Thus began the newest journey. Starting with some fresh pressed, non pasteurized, no preservatives added cider, we purchased a six gallon carboy, a couple packets of yeast, and the few other miscellaneous things to get the first batch fermenting.
After pitching the yeast, it was placed under a the shelf at my buddies place where it was shaded and a consistent 68-69 degrees and left to do its job.
Pic of the cider before fermenting
Pic of 20 gallons of cider split between four car boys fermenting away.
You can see some color variation due to using a couple different types of yeast.
Closeup of the cider fermenting and frothing a little.
After the fermentation process was finished, we set the carboy outside, as at that time our weather was a balmy 40 for highs and around 32 for lows, but next to the house kept it from freezing. The key was cool it to stop the fermenting.
A carboy settled out and ready for the next step.
We transfered the fermented cider to a clean vessel via siphon, leaving the sedement in the carboy to be discarded. After transferring, we used a little of the cider to simmer with some cinnamon sticks to be added back in for flavor, and added some apple juice concentrate and dissolved brown sugar to sweeten to taste.
The cider simmering with cinnamon sticks.
After adding the sweetener and cinnamon, we bottled into gallon jugs.
The batch freshly bottled. The dark bottles were some I got from a previous event. Corks were replaced with caps a day later once we got to the brewer supply store.
The finished product. And the glass logo is from my college fraternity, sorry.
Now all that was left was labels and a name. My buddies place we affectionately call the Hula Hut (long story). So we came up with two labels with different names. Sandbar smash and this one.
This stuff turned out pretty awesome for a couple guys that didn’t know what we were doing a short time before.
Unfortunately, a couple weeks ago, a tragic house fire at my buddies (everyone is safe) claimed all of our supplies, ten plus gallons of our last batch of hooch, as well as all of his belongings. He will rise out of this, so all will be ok, but we need to start all over purchasing all of our supplies. And my stash is dwindling so it may need to start soon.
