Homemade cider (beginner's method)
Cider is the natural adventure that follows the apple harvest. A few days after pressing, the juice starts to bubble on its own, the fruit's skin carried the yeasts, and there is nothing else to do but listen and wait.
Making your own cider means entrusting apple juice to wild yeasts (already present on the fruit's skin) or to added cider yeasts. Over 5 to 14 days, these micro-organisms turn the juice's sugar into alcohol (usually 4 to 7%) and carbon dioxide. It's one of the oldest fermented drinks of Europe, Normandy, Brittany, the Basque Country, Asturias, and South-West England made cultures of it. The beginner's method below is deliberately simple: to go further (dry cider, sweet cider, ageing on lees, natural carbonation), you'll need to dig deeper.
Ingredients
- Fresh homemade apple juice4.5 L
see the recipe 'Home-pressed apple juice', blend several varieties (sweet, tart, bitter/tannic if possible) for a balanced cider
- Cider-making kit1 beginner's kit
usually includes a demijohn, airlock, hydrometer, sanitiser, approx. €30 to €50 at a home-brewing shop
- Cider yeast (optional)1 sachet
optional: the apple skin brings wild yeasts, but a shop-bought cider yeast starts the fermentation faster and more reliably
Equipment
- •1 sterilised glass demijohn of 5 L minimum (often supplied in kits)
- •1 airlock (bubbler) with its bung
- •1 hydrometer (densimeter) to measure the progress of the fermentation
- •1 funnel, 1 large muslin, 1 siphoning tube (siphon)
- •Tinted glass bottles (green or brown) with caps or swing-top stoppers
Steps
- 1
Prepare the juice
Press 4.5 L of fresh apple juice (see the previous recipe). Filter it roughly through a muslin to remove the largest debris, and pour into a large sterile bucket. No need to heat or pasteurise: the apple skin naturally brings yeasts.
1 h for 4.5 L
- 2
Taste and adjust
Taste the juice: it should be balanced between acidity, tannins, and sugar. If you use an added yeast, prepare it according to the kit's instructions (usually rehydration in a little warm water) and add it to the juice.
10 min
- 3
Transfer into the demijohn
With a funnel, transfer the juice into the sterile demijohn. Don't fill to the brim (leave 15-20 cm of space at the top for the fermentation foam). Fit the airlock onto the bung and set it on top, it lets the CO₂ out while stopping air from getting in.
20 min
- 4
Let it ferment
Place the demijohn somewhere with a stable temperature (20-27 °C ideally). From the 2nd day, regular bubbles appear in the airlock: that's the fermentation. It lasts 5 to 14 days depending on the temperature, the sugar, and the yeast. The bubbling gradually slows down.
5 to 14 days
- 5
Check with the hydrometer
The cider is ready when the hydrometer drops below 1000 (the density of water) for several days in a row, the sign that all the sugars have been consumed. At that point the cider is dry; if you prefer a sweet cider, stop earlier (around 1010-1015), but be aware the fermentation will continue slowly in the bottle.
- 6
Bottle
Siphon (transfer without shaking, to avoid stirring the yeasts at the bottom back into suspension) into tinted glass bottles. If you want a sparkling cider, add 1 tsp of sugar per bottle before closing, the fermentation will resume in the bottle and create the gas (reckon 2-3 weeks).
1 h
Storage
6 to 12 months in closed bottles, lying flat and kept cool (an ideal cellar, 10-15 °C). To be drunk soon after opening (cider quickly goes flat then turns to vinegar).
How to use it
As an aperitif, alongside buckwheat galettes, with a Norman cheese (Camembert, Livarot, Pont-l'Évêque). Dry cider goes very well with white meats and pork. Sweet cider is rather for dessert. Serve cool (8 °C).
Health properties
- Polyphenols of the apple partly retained (procyanidins, quercetin)
- A traditional fermented drink: live yeasts remain in it as long as it is neither pasteurised nor filtered
- Moderate alcohol (4-7%) in occasional consumption within a Mediterranean/Celtic culture
- Without added sulphites, unlike industrial ciders (unless you add some for stabilisation)
These preparations belong to cooking and herbal tradition: they nourish and support, do not “cure” anything and replace no treatment. Ask a doctor or pharmacist before prolonged use, if under treatment, pregnant or breastfeeding, or for a child. Follow the stated storage precautions strictly.
Precautions
ALCOHOLIC DRINK (4 to 7% vol.), not intended for minors, pregnant/breastfeeding women, people on medical treatment incompatible with alcohol, or drivers before taking the wheel. Fermentation can be unpredictable: if a bottle bulges or the glass cracks, there has been an over-fermentation, NEVER force a cap, use a cloth over the bottle when opening. VERY rigorous sterilisation of all equipment: a contamination can give a sour (vinegary) or off-tasting cider. People allergic to aspirin: possible sensitivity to the salicylates in apples. Alcohol abuse is dangerous for health, to be consumed in moderation.
Sources & tradition
- · Norman, Breton, Basque, Asturian, English cider-making tradition
- · Andrew Lea, *Craft Cider Making* (2008), English-language reference
- · *L'autosuffisance, c'est possible !* (Cherche-Midi)