Hard cider...

[alexpgp]

Among the refreshments brought to Saturday's get-together was something new for me: hard apple cider. There was enough of a kick to make it noticeable, and it was clear that overindulgence would entail a price on the morning after, but I fell far short of that mark and seemed to actually wake up refreshed.

So when I took a break this afternoon from work, I did a little research on making the stuff, and it seems simple enough (at least, given my experience making kombucha and naturally fermented sauerkraut).

Sometime in the near future, I shall have to stop by a "natural foods" shop and see if I can pick up some reasonably priced apple juice, because my trial juicing of 5 apples did not produce a large quantity of liquid (perhaps they were the wrong apples—I used my favorite, Gala—or maybe it was something else).

Onward!

Comments

[fidelioscabinet.livejournal.com]

Cider apples tend not to be as sweet as eating apples, and the process uses a lot. Johnny Appleseed's trees were mostly cider varieties. Hard cider is pretty easy to make, though--it's the natural progression from unpasteurized sweet cider!

Another easy fix is ginger beer, which has negligible level of alcohol.

[alexpgp.livejournal.com]

The process does appear to consume a fair number of apples. My five-apple experiment yielded about 23 ounces of juice, which suggests I'll need about 28 apples.

A related issue is the fact that I'm running the apples through one of those centrifugal juicers (instead of a press), which imparts a taste to the juice, I suspect because so much air becomes entrained in the liquid.

I'm thinking ready-made juice might be a better alternative.

Cheers...

[mallorys-camera.livejournal.com]

Yeah, make sure they're organic apples.

[alexpgp.livejournal.com]

After doing the math on just how many apples—of any kind—I'll need to pull this off, I think I may go the way a number of online sources suggest, and start with a glass gallon jug of organic, UV-pasteurized apple juice from a chain health food store.

Cheers...