Cider preparation method. Apple cider at home: step-by-step instructions

In summer, as a rule, there is always a large harvest of apples; markets and shops are literally overwhelmed with a huge amount of these delicious fruits. And many summer residents sometimes wonder what to do with so much fruit. But from them you can make an excellent low-alcohol cider with a rich apple taste and pleasant aroma.

Cider was first invented in France, and in its own way taste qualities And appearance it slightly resembles sparkling wine, like champagne. Making apple cider at home does not take much time, it is very simple to make, the main thing is to have the right amount of apples and sugar on hand.

Depending on which recipe and type of fruit you prefer, the drink can turn out to be of different colors, from golden to pale green, and the taste will vary from sweet to dry. The strength of cider is usually no more than eight degrees, and its flavor notes will appeal to almost everyone. Such an invigorating drink will not harm your health, and you can drink it as much as you like, because it is made only from natural products, which means it brings benefits to the body and even “throws” vitamins into it.

Apple cider It is divided into three classes: sweet, dry and traditional, and has four flavor palettes: sweet, bitter, semi-sweet and bittersweet. It all depends on what recipe you choose, simple or more labor-intensive, because cider can be made not only from apples, but also from juice. Not so long ago it was considered a drink of commoners, but over time the taste of cider was appreciated all over the world. Today, many lovers of light drinks have begun to make this drink at home for family holidays.

How to choose and prepare fruit for cider

Absolutely any recipe requires competent selection of apples and their proper preparation. Take into account the fact that the fruits were not too sour or, on the contrary, too sweet, since this will only harm the drink and you will not achieve the required degrees. It is also not recommended to use unripe, overripe and, of course, spoiled fruits; it is best to homemade cider made from late varieties of apples, since such fruits contain more extractives and tannins.

That is, from such fruits the drink turns out more tasty with a more pronounced aroma. Therefore, you first need to carefully examine the apples, and if there is even a hint of worminess, throw away the fruit immediately. Also, they should not show signs of impacts, which means that fruit that has fallen to the ground is not suitable and must be removed from the tree for cider.

And another important nuance: you cannot use several varieties, even two. There should be only one variety; this is the only way you will get a pronounced and pure taste of homemade apple cider.

In addition, the recipe requires under no circumstances to wash the fruits, but simply wipe each of them with a soft cloth. This is necessary in order not to wash away the natural, wild yeast, from which there are enormous benefits - it is thanks to these yeasts that the fermentation process will occur. If you wash the apples, you will cause significant harm to the future cider.

Simple Homemade Cider Recipe

This recipe is for those who want to make regular classic cider at home and get a delicious, aromatic drink with a honey tint and low strength. As ingredients You will need 5 kg of apples and 750 grams of granulated sugar. Moreover, the juicier the fruits turn out to be, the more cider you will get.

If you want to diversify the taste of the drink, you can add a little cinnamon, star anise, raisins or lemon , it won't do any harm. The strength depends on the amount of sugar, this recipe gives us an average number to get the traditional seven to eight degrees. And don’t forget that the drink jars must be washed, sterilized and dried.

Drink cider chilled; pour it into a glass at a considerable distance. This is done in order to release carbon dioxide. The drink is not finished until the very end, as a small sediment remains at the bottom. It is better to store it in the cellar, or, as a last resort, in the pantry, but it is advisable not to delay the shelf life and drink the drink within six months. It will taste like apple champagne.

Homemade Apple Juice Cider Recipe

If you do not have the opportunity to make cider from natural fruits, then we bring to your attention a recipe according to which you can easily prepare this aromatic drink at home, using juice instead of fruit.

It's very easy to do, all you need is three liters of natural undiluted juice, two tablespoons of granulated sugar juice and 50 grams wine yeast . They are necessary due to the lack of wild yeast that is present on apple peels. And since you are using juice, yeast is needed for fermentation. You can also add lemon zest to taste.

• First you need to prepare the starter. How to do it? In half a glass of purified water, dilute wine yeast with two tablespoons of granulated sugar.
• Stir and leave for one hour until the fermentation process begins.
• Three liters apple juice pour into a dry jar and add the finished starter to it.
• Install a water seal or put on a rubber glove with a punctured finger.
• As soon as the glove falls off, the drink must be carefully drained from the yeast.
• The final stage: strain the cider through cheesecloth and seal the container tightly.

The amount of sugar can be varied to taste. If you add more, there will be no harm, it will just make the drink stronger and sweeter. The benefit of this cider is that it retains all the vitamins and useful material. The drink turns out to be sparkling and fizzy; it is perfect for a festive feast and quenches thirst well. It should be stored in the refrigerator, but not for long, otherwise the taste will resemble vinegar.

Video recipe for making cider from juice

Homemade apple cider recipe with honey

If you want to enhance regular cider with a honey taste, you can make an apple-honey sparkling drink. How many ingredients will this require? First of all, these are, of course, apples and honey. Need to take 8 kg of fruits, 1.5 kg of viscous natural honey and 6 liters of water . Any fruit will do, as long as it is in excellent condition. If you wish, you can also add pears, do it “half and half” with apples, this will be no less beneficial for you.

1. Cut the fruits into four parts and pour them into a canvas bag.
2. Tie the fabric tightly, put it in an enamel pan, cover it with a wooden circle with a net and press it down with a weight. A bucket of water is suitable as a load.
3. Dissolve honey in boiled water and add to the pan, covering the top with gauze.
4. Place the drink in a cool, dark place for five weeks to ferment.
5. Then drain the liquid into a clean container and pour honey syrup over the pulp again.
6. Repeat this procedure again, pouring the drink into different containers.
7. After the third time, mix all three ciders and leave them alone for nine months.
8. At the final stage, pour the drink into bottles and seal tightly.
9. Leave to ripen in a cool place for another month.

This method may be a little labor-intensive and you will have to do a lot of movements, but the result will be very impressive. You will become the owner of an incredibly tasty and healthy, without harm to health, drink with apple and honey aroma.

Homemade apple cider made from dried fruits

In order to produce excellent apple drink, it is not necessary to use fresh fruits or natural juice. They can be replaced with dried fruits. The only condition is that dried fruits must be without core, seeds and skin. The method of making cider is extremely simple and easy.

Place dried fruits in a clean container (preferably glass, a large bottle or jar), fill with purified water. One kilogram of dried fruit requires ten liters of water. There is no need to close the lid, just cover with gauze and leave for five days in a cool place until the fermentation process begins.

And only after the drink has fermented, the container should be sealed and left to ferment for one month. It is recommended to throw a handful of raisins into the bowl before this; this will only improve the taste of the drink. After the required period, the cider is bottled and stored in the basement.

Cider is a tasty, aromatic drink with a strength of no more than 8 degrees. Sometimes it is also called apple wine, since they are most often prepared from apples. In addition to them, pears and garden berries can be used for cider. But the cider became famous precisely because of its original apple note. This is an aromatic drink, invigorating, with a honey taste.

Apple cider is produced using a natural fermentation process; no yeast is added to the drink. Ciders are classified according to taste into sweet, semi-sweet, bittersweet and bitter. According to the classification, they are dry, sweet and traditional. We recommend that you try making cider at home. This is not as difficult as it might seem at first glance.

History of the drink

Several useful nuances of use

Choosing apples

Preparing apples

Homemade Apple Cider Recipe

Ingredients:

Find the most perfect, reliable homemade cider recipes on the exciting culinary website site. Try the drink options not only from apples, but also from pears, cherries and other fruits. Learn to make sodas and classic wines. Create pleasure with your own hands!

Cider is a drink originally from France. Classic cider is made by fermenting apple juice with wild yeast. However, it can also be created from other fruits and a variety of fruit combinations. The ideal ratio in a classic cider recipe is one part sour fruit (for example, apples) to two parts sweet. An interesting nuance is that the fruits should never be washed before preparing cider! This technique is used to preserve so-called natural “wild” yeast on the surface, which will help ferment the juice.

The five most commonly used ingredients in homemade cider recipes are:

Interesting recipe:
1. Carefully wash and dry the vessels in which the drink will be prepared.
2. Remove leaves and stems from apples, wipe, chop until smooth, including peel and seeds.
3. Fill the containers 2/3 full. Add sugar. Mix.
4. Cover the necks with a cloth (or gauze). Place in a warm, draft-free place for natural fermentation for 3-4 days.
5. Be sure to stir the fruit puree once a day.
6. When a characteristic yeast smell, foam and hissing appear, strain the mixture.
7. Pour the fermented juice into a clean container. Leave under a water seal for 45-70 days in a dark place.
8. When the liquid becomes lighter, gas bubbles will no longer be released and sediment will appear at the bottom, strain the cider.
9. Bottle.
10. Seal tightly.
11. Leave in a cool (10-12°) dark place to ripen for 11-12 weeks.

Five of the fastest homemade cider recipes:

Helpful Tips:
. Late and winter varieties, which contain a lot of sugars and tannins, are excellent for apple cider.
. You cannot use green or overripe fruits: unripe ones are too sour, and overripe ones have lost the necessary juiciness.

Many people unfairly ignore cider, completely unreasonably considering it a drink for the “lower strata” of society. Perhaps the drink gained notoriety because of the cheap cans that spread across Russia a couple of decades ago. low alcohol drink with an apple taste, a pronounced smell of alcohol and, neither to the village nor to the city, the inscription “Cider” on the packaging. Let me make a reservation right away - this, forgive the frankness, swill has absolutely nothing in common with cider.

The birthplace of the original drink is France, and the cider itself is sparkling wine, predominantly made from apples. But, as is commonly believed, the French know a lot about good alcohol, right?

So let’s not believe stupid stereotypes, and to dispel this offensive misconception, there is no more effective way than making apple cider yourself, following the recipes and production technologies. In this article we will look at how this drink is prepared, how to make it yourself, and also give various options preparations.

In order to make real dry homemade apple cider, you should use only apples. Their needs to be processed into pulp, in which, due to the sugar content, the process of live fermentation occurs. Making cider without adding sugar will allow us to kill several birds with one stone:

• Get a more natural taste, not “clogged” with sugar. It's no secret that dry wines allow a fuller range of flavors to be revealed. And cider, like sparkling wine, can be dry, and in this case it is called exactly the same - brut (see:).
• Reduce the calorie content of the product (which women will especially appreciate).
• Get a product that is light in alcohol content. Real cider, obtained through natural fermentation without added sugar, can be unusually light - even 2.5-3 degrees. Weak dry cider is easy to drink, perfectly quenches thirst and does not (if consumed wisely) put you in an overly “heated” state.

How to make cider with sugar?

Many compatriots prefer sweeter cider, so sugar is often used to produce this drink. Let's look at how to make cider at home with added sugar.

To make sweet homemade cider you will need 10 kilograms of apples and 1.5 kilograms of sugar. In some cases you will have to resort to adding small amount water (up to 1 liter). The simplest recipe as follows:

1. Picking apples. Ideally, apples for cooking should be picked after they have fallen. On their peel live very useful inhabitants - wild yeast, which makes the fermentation process possible. That is why the collected apples should not be washed under any circumstances; the maximum that can be done is to wipe the fruits with a dry rag.
2. Now we need to get applesauce . This can be done using a meat grinder, food processor, or even a regular blender, after removing the leaves and stalks.
3. Next you should pour applesauce into thoroughly washed (and equally well dried) containers in which fermentation will take place. At the same time, a third of the volume should be left free - this space is necessary for foam and carbon dioxide.
4. Add sugar. For every kilogram of puree you will need 100-150 grams, the exact amount is determined by taste - the puree should not become cloying.
5. Wrap the neck with gauze, put the container in a dark place. For three to four days, our future cider should be kept in a dark place at room temperature. Every day you need to stir the wort and be sure to submerge the foam in the apple juice.
6. Squeeze out the juice and pour it into a perfectly clean, dry container, in which the fermentation process will take place for 1-2 months. If you have one, install it on the container; if not, a medical glove with a pierced finger will do.
7. Drain off the remainder filter the resulting liquid through several layers of gauze. Then we bottle it and send it to a cool room for three months.
8. Enjoy resulting in a wonderful real cider!

Remember that the recipe for homemade cider can be modified by you personally, feel free to experiment!

Cider from juice

Apple juice cider is another way to make this wonderful drink without adding sugar. To make cider from juice at home, you need to squeeze out the juice (separating it from the “puree”), let it sit for 24 hours, then drain the remainder and pour it into containers equipped with water seals (or with the same glove).

To speed up fermentation, you can place the wort in a warmer room - up to 27 degrees. In this case, the process will take about a month. In principle, the drink can be consumed in a month, but it is better, as in the previous recipe, to keep it for 3-4 months in a dark room.

It is important not to disturb the sediment when pouring the drink from the fermentation tank into the bottles in which the cider will be aged; for this you can bottle it through a straw.

After aging, it should be filtered and poured into containers in which it will be stored. In the refrigerator, such a drink will not spoil even in three years. Cider made according to this recipe will be quite strong - from 6 to 10 degrees depending on the sugar content of the apples and the fermentation time.

Carbonation

Let's discuss how to make apple cider at home carbonated. To do this, put a little sugar at the bottom of each bottle before filling - about 10 grams per liter of drink. The presence of sugar will cause fermentation to begin and the drink will become carbonated due to the released carbon dioxide.

When carbonating, bottles of the drink are placed in a dark, cool room for two weeks, and it is important to periodically assess the pressure. The easiest way in this case is to use a plastic container - just periodically try to push the bottle with your fingers.

If you decide to make homemade apple cider, we recommend not limiting yourself to one recipe. You can experiment - when making part of the batch, use the simplest recipe, and for another part, for example, try not adding sugar.

Many people like to use various spices and additives, for example, cinnamon, which gives the cider an extraordinary aroma. Your homemade apple cider recipe will continue to evolve as long as you aren't afraid to experiment.

I am sure that after some time this noble light drink will become a regular part of your diet!

Apple cider is one of the simplest alcoholic drinks, which can be prepared at home without much knowledge or effort. In order to prepare apple cider, you don’t need to have different devices or devices, just have a container on hand, dry yeast, a rubber glove instead of a water seal, and the most important ingredient - apples or apple juice bought in a store.

The history of the appearance of this fizzy drink is still unknown, but there are many different assumptions and myths on this topic. One of them is the one that says that King Charlemagne accidentally sat on a bag containing overripe apples.

Nowadays, the best cider is French, but everyone has their own taste, so it is very difficult to judge on this topic.

1. Grind the apples through a meat grinder to make apple porridge. Then the puree must be filtered. To do this, we filter the apple porridge through cheesecloth, and either throw away the pulp or use it for our own purposes.

2. Pour the juice into jars and cover them with gauze for one day.

Attention, the apples must be your own, that is, from the garden, so that they have wild yeast. If you do not have the opportunity to get such apples, then add yeast to the apple juice.

3. When the juice begins to ferment, place the jars under a water seal at room temperature for about 5 days. If the resulting strength of the drink does not suit you, then add a little more sugar into the jars and place it under a water seal for further fermentation, after stirring the sugar in the jars.

4. Remove the cider from the sediment and clarify with bentonite. For this purpose Art. Dissolve a spoonful of bentonite in water to a thick consistency and pour it into cider. Mix the contents of the jar and close the lid.

5. We leave the jar for a couple of days, and during the first day the jar needs to be shaken a couple of times.

6. Remove the cider from the sediment and begin carbonation. We take pasteurized bottles and add 1 tbsp. spoon of sugar, and also add wine yeast on the tip of a knife.

7. Pour the cider into these bottles (the bottles should preferably be plastic because glass bottles can explode), while leaving a small space in the bottle for gas.

8. Close the bottles with lids and place them in a dark place at room temperature for 10 days. After this, you can start tasting!

If the hydrometer shows less than 12 sugar units in apple juice, then sugar must be added to the juice to raise this indicator to 12.

1. Pour the juice into one glass jar, having previously sterilized it.

2. Take an incomplete teaspoon of Saf-Levur yeast and dissolve it warm water in a small glass. Let them sit for 15 minutes, then pour them into a jar of juice.

3. Place the jar under a water seal to ferment at room temperature for 6-7 days. After fermentation has passed, you need to drain the cider from the sediment.

4. Then the cider must be carbonated. To do this, we fall asleep plastic bottles sugar in the proportion of 3 tsp sugar per 1 liter bottle.

We send the bottles to a dark place with room temperature for 10 days. Then you can put the cider in the refrigerator for a couple of days.

1. First, take a saucepan and put all the ingredients there.

2. Mix everything thoroughly and put on fire. Bring the mixture to a boil, then reduce the gas and let it cook for 7 minutes.

3. Then remove the drink from the stove and let it sit for a while.

Then we filter the cider using cheesecloth and bottle it, or serve it immediately, adding a slice of orange to the cup or glass of cider.

1. First, take apples and cut them into pieces. Place the apples in a saucepan and add water to cover the apples.

2. After two weeks, filter the infusion through cheesecloth and heat it. Cool the infusion and add sugar along with yeast.

3. Let the liquid ferment, then pour it into plastic bottles and close them.

4. Place the bottles in a cold place for a couple of days to carbonate the drink. After which we can start tasting.

This is already the fifth way to make cider from apples. This recipe is quite complicated, but the result will be very good. Before cooking, carefully select all rotten and non-blind apples. You should not wash the apples, but if some apples are too dirty, then they should be taken and washed so that the wild yeast remains on the rest. It is necessary to place emphasis on the ripeness of apples because they should contain a lot of sugar.

1. First, take the apples and grind them to a mushy state using a meat grinder, juicer or other items that can be used to do this.

2. Add to apple porridge sugar syrup their water and sugar.

3. Place the wort in a glass jar or some other container for fermentation, and let it stand open for 3-4 days in a warm place until fermentation begins. Moreover, the wort must be stirred every day so that mold does not form on it.