Easy to make hard (cider)?
My one experience in the world of wine: Used unfiltered, unpasteurized cider from a local orchard. Poured it into a plastic bucket and pitched a little champagne yeast (right out of the packet), thinking that relying entirely on wild yeast might result in a fermentation that was slow to get going, leaving time for bacteria to take over. After about a week at room temperature, racked to a glass secondary and added a couple cans of 100% apple juice concentrate and some table sugar. After all fermentation stopped, primed with sterile sugar solution and put in big brown bottles. A month later, my first impression was that there might have been some bacterial contamination- it seemed tart and harsh, and the high alcohol level was harsh. It was like a bad glass of wine that’d sat out for a couple days. Over time, however, it’s gone from harsh to superbly subtle and delicious. The fermenation was easy; the key ingredient seems to have been time. After 3 years, the cider is better than any spa
Mostly with rxrfrx on this one, but if you want to make a lighter, beer-strength cider instead of an apple wine, just do these steps: Make the unpasteurized juice the way you normally would, “optionally” cook for a half hour as ZenMaster suggests. (I say optional because it’s likely to work out fine regardless, especially if your juicing process is consistently clean. But the chances of going astray are way lower if you cook it!) Pitch with some champagne yeast, leave at room temp in your primary fermenter until it stops bubbling (well, bubbles about once a minute or less) – about a week. Then, rack to secondary to let it secondarily ferment for a week. It should end up between 3-8% alcoholic another week, quite dry, and not fizzy. If you want carbonation, make a bit of priming solution (syrupy sugar water) – maybe .5L per 20L of apple-bear – and divide it equally between your final bottles. Gallon jugs, 12oz bottles, whatever. Pour the beer on top, seal the bottle(s), and keep at room
I bet that just letting some raw cider ferment would work. But I wouldn’t do it. Here’s why: 1) there are lots of local strains of bacteria and yeast that ferment various things. They vary from place to place; San Francisco’s native yeast population, for example, is famed for sourdough. That does not mean that the basic type of yeast that is living on your local apple skins is going to be the best type of yeast. You already know cider and it may taste wildly different from what you expect. Don’t waste the effort on a gamble. 2) Actually taking some time and thought is a really rewarding exercise. And may lead you into a fun activity that you will like in the future. 3) For me, I already have all the equipment, so why not? So, in the interest of making this useful, I’ll tell what happened the first time I did this. My brother in law has an apple tree, and about every three years it goes completely crazy and has a monster harvest. He knew that I brewed beer, so he suggested we go ahead a
