Hard Cider

I've always avoided hard cider... afraid I'd break my teeth.

:beer1:

Just bottled my first one-gallon batch of cider, it tasted quite dry, so I am thinking about sweetening my next batch with some splenda to get some more apple-taste out of it.
Do any of you guys know if it will mellow out a bit with aging or will it still be dry and almost without apple-taste by may 17?

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Originally Posted by Galopede

I get very confused with the American terminology here! In Britain, what you call cider, we call apple juice. What you call hard cider, we call cider! I have to read twice!

If anyone's interested in trying making their own, a good simple starting place is to Google "turbo cider". Simple recipes for making a gallon or so of "hard cider" from supermarket apple juice. Very quick and not a bad drink!

Gareth

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what's funny is when i'm in england and i ask for a lemonade and get a sprite.

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Originally Posted by flyboy

Just bottled my first one-gallon batch of cider, it tasted quite dry, so I am thinking about sweetening my next batch with some splenda to get some more apple-taste out of it.
Do any of you guys know if it will mellow out a bit with aging or will it still be dry and almost without apple-taste by may 17?

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What kind of yeast did you use?
Wine yeasts will result in a much dryer tasting product than beer yeasts. I also add brown sugar to the cider before fermentation to increase alcohol content and sweetness. I personally would not put artificial sweetener in my hard cider.

The longer you age the cider the better it will be
Matt

Started my first gallon on 4/29

1 gallon of Indian Summer Apple Cider
1 Package of Red Star Yeast
1.25 Lbs. Brown Sugar

I must say, this is going crazy with the fermintation... The balloon is huge...

just racked a 5 gallon batch of cider to secondary. fermented with 5# brown sugar and cinnamon sticks along with some of the fake frozen stuff. hoping it will be ready to drink by the fall!

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Originally Posted by gardn1mw

If you want to make hard cider make sure you get cider without any preservatives, if you get the regular cider from the grocery store the preservatives will kill the yeast. Unpasteurized cider from the mill is the way to go. I haven't been able to find preservative free cider in the store so hard cider making is seasonal for me, i only make it when i can get fresh cider from the mill. I haven't yet tried fermenting with the natural yeast in the cider but i have heard of many people having great results doing so, you just have less control over the final product.

Matt

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I read a few articles that say pasteurized store cider (100% apple juice) is OK but the preservatives are a NO NO... Mine seems to be doing good since mine is of a pasteurized varity...

Well my first batch is done fermenting... All the yeast has died off... Waiting for it to clear before I jar the batch...

I took a sample to work the other day and had it tested for proof... 20 proof or 10% alcohol... I think I'll cut it to bring it down to about 7%...

Nose, you know what your original gravity and final gravity were/are?

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Originally Posted by EmsMonkey

Nose, you know what your original gravity and final gravity were/are?

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Nope... I took it to them in a small glass vial and they put it in a machine...