Author: Marshall Schott

My wife hates beer. Every once in awhile she’ll nurse a taster glass of Flemish Red, but for the most part, beer “just taste like beer” to her. But she absolutely enjoys a good hard cider. So a couple years ago, I researched different cider making methods, ultimately stumbling upon a very popular Apfelwine recipe that recommended the use of store-bought apple juice. I gathered my ingredients, swapping the dextrose for brown sugar, and had my first batch going in little more than 20 minutes. Three weeks passed and the concoction appeared to still be fermenting, which multiple hydrometer readings over 3 days confirmed. After another 3 weeks, the golden liquid had dropped very clear and the SG had stabalized… it was then that I realized I’d just made a 9% ABV apple wine. Even with nearly 3 volumes of CO2, my wife could barely stomach the stuff. I’d failed… and I certainly had no plans to drink it. Thank goodness for my brother-in-law who spent a few good evenings pounding glass after glass of the stuff so I wasn’t forced to shamefully pour it down the drain.

Without returning to the web to do any research, I made another batch with a couple changes in hopes of retaining more apple flavor and keeping the ABV a tad lower. I used the same store-bought apple juice, threw it all into a sanitized carboy, and fermented it with a quick working ale yeast. No sugar, no wine yeast, just juice and ale yeast. Three weeks later, I kegged and carbonated what ended up being a 5.4% hard cider that was pretty damn tasty!

Alas, the cider was far too dry for my charming companion. At 1.004, this is understandable, though I had no problem at all ripping through that keg. When it kicked, I threw together the same simple recipe, only this time I added 4 lbs of mixed berries. It came out better than I expected, another easy drinker, though still not exactly what the woman of my dreams was seeking. She deserved better than this.

With a big 4th of July/1st year birthday party approaching, I figured now was the perfect opportunity to try my hand at a technique still foreign to me. We’d recently shared some Ace hard cider, which my wife claimed was her favorite. I now had something to aim for and I knew for certain I’d have to back-sweeten my cider to get anywhere close to the flavor of Ace’s offerings. I’d read about back-sweetening numerous times, but always felt a little wary working with the chemicals required to halt the yeast. Anyway, I swapped my panties for big boy britches and forged ahead. Here’s how simple it was:

| INGREDIENTS |

– 5 gallons preservative-free Apple Juice (or cider, if you prefer). I usually get whatever’s on sale, which happened to be Tree Top on this occasion. I’ve used Best Yet brand apple juice and it has always worked well.

– 1 sachet SafAle S-04

– 0.5 tsp Potassium metabisulfite (Campden tablets)

– 2.5 tsp Potassium sorbate

| PROCESS |

Step 1: Measure the SG of the AJ in order to later calculate ABV.

Step 2: Dip top of AJ bottles in sanitizer before opening then pour into sanitized carboy.

Step 3: Sanitize top of yeast sachet then sprinkle on top of AJ

Start to finish, the brew day took less than 11 minutes… a nice change of pace from the typical 4-6 hours it takes me to make the same amount of beer!

Step 4: Ferment at 64°F to suppress ester formation, producing a very crisp and clean final product.

Step 5 (optional): Once fermentation activity has settled down a bit, which usually takes about 3 days, I like to bump the temp up a few degrees to encourage the yeast to finish a little faster. Since I had to use my fermentation chamber for beer, I moved the cider into my 74°F degree guest bathroom (the “sour shower”).

As is often the case, the krausen reappeared after the move, but only stuck around for a couple days. I took an initial FG reading after 11 days of fermentation.

I measured the gravity again 5 days later and found it had dropped a bit more.

Step 6: Add potassium metabisulfite and potassium sorbate to cider, swirling the carboy gently to incorporate, then allow it to sit for 24 hours. Some people prefer to rack out of the primary fermentor into a secondary carboy with the aforementioned chemicals. I’m a fan of single vessel fermenation, but whatever floats your boat will work here.

Step 7: Back-sweeten and package. I used 2 bottles of 100% apple juice concentrate that were totally thawed, just poured them into the sanitized keg and racked the finished cider on top of it.

Step 8: Carbonate to your liking. I prefer my hard cider sparkling and let it sit at 30 psi for 48 hours before decreasing the pressure. After another day at 13 psi, the carbonation was just right.

From bottled apple juice to delicious hard cider in just about 3 weeks, not too shabby. The best part is… SHE LIKES IT! I’ve succeeded in making a beverage my wife actually enjoys, even more than some commercial varieties. Besides adding a very pleasant sweetness, the concentrate also seems to have imparted some body to the cider, as it just feels more full than the drier versions I’ve made in the past. I have a feeling this keg will be one of the first to blow come July 4th!

| UPDATE 10/2016 |

I’ve made many batches of hard cider using store bought apple juice since writing this article and I’ve made a couple changes:

– I now use Danstar Belle Saison yeast almost exclusively. It seems to require a little longer to fully finish fermenting, but I really like the character it adds. With this yeast, I start fermentation around 68˚F, leave there a couple days, then let it ramp up naturally to anywhere between 75˚F and 78˚F.

– Because my wife enjoys it, I almost always add either mixed berries or tart cherries once fermentation is done, they get tossed directly into primary and left for another week before packaging.

Besides that, the process is about the same, couldn’t be much simpler.

| FOR THOSE WHO BOTTLE |

If you do not keg, making a sparkling back-sweetened cider can be a little more difficult due to the fact the yeast used to carbonate in the bottle have been made inactive by the potassium metabisulfite and potassium sorbate. The easiest option is to skip adding those chemicals altogether, bottle and carbonate the dry cider (which is actually very tasty), then sweeten it at the time of serving. The biggest benefit with this is that you can tweak the level of sweetness to each drinkers liking. My wife really enjoyed mixing about 25% 7-Up and 75% dry hard cider, though we also successfully experimented with blending different fruit juices into the cider. If you’re okay with still cider, you’ve nothing to worry about. Or, you can always just back-sweeten with non-fermentable sugar alcohols (e.g. Xylitol, Stevia, etc).

| SUGGESTED READING |

The Everything Hard Cider Book: All you need to know about making cider at home by Drew Beechum

The New Cider Maker’s Handbook: A Comprehensive Guide for Craft Producers by Claude Jolicoeur

Cider, Hard & Sweet: History, Traditions, and Making Your Own by Ben Watson

If you’ve been toying with the idea of making hard cider at home, I strongly encourage you to give this very simple approach a shot! The resultant refreshing beverage will surely please you and your friends. As always, please do not hesitate to ask any questions or leave comments. Cheers!

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