Our Hard Cider Kit has everything you need (other than some fresh cider) for 3 batches of tart, dry and bubbly hard cider. Making hard cider is even easier than making beer and making beer is pretty easy!
7.0% Alcohol by Volume
CIDER MAKING INSTRUCTIONS:
BEER MAKING INSTRUCTIONS:
CIDER MAKING INSTRUCTIONS:
AMERICAN
PALE ALE
HARD CIDER
HARD CIDER
KIT INCLUDES
What’s Inside.
Before getting started, take a moment to review everything that’s included in your kit.
Equipment & Ingredients
A. 1 Gallon Fermentation Jug
B. Airlock
C. Racking Cane & Tip
D. Sanitizer Packets (3)
E. Screw Cap Stopper
F. Tubing Clamp
G. Dry Cider Yeast
H. Tubing
Equipment Not
Included But Helpful
Ingredients Not Included But Needed
1 Gallon Apple Cider (Pasteurized & Preservative Free)
3 Tablespoons Honey (for bottling 2 weeks after brew day)
0. PRE-BREW: PREPARE & SANITIZE
Keeping clean is important when making cider.
Really important, actually (but nothing scary). Proper sanitization helps ensure a successful brew-day and a really tasty batch of cider.
To start off, prepare the area where you’ll be brewing by decluttering your stovetop and clearing off a surface like a kitchen table or countertop.
Prepare Your Sanitizer
Your kit includes 3 Sanitizer Packets (D). Diluted with water, one packet makes 2 full gallons of no-rinse sanitizer.
Using the 1 Gallon Fermentation Jug (fermenter) in your kit (A), dissolve half of one of your sanitizer packets (the rest are for future batches!) with 1 gallon of water. Shake the jug to dilute the sanitizer powder.
Save the remainder of that same sanitizer packet for bottling in a couple weeks (Step 5).
Once prepared, pour some of your sanitizer solution into a bowl. You’ll want to place anything that will be touching your cider into the sanitizer for at least 1 minute to make sure it’s clean and ready to use.
Review Your Instructions
Before moving on, make sure to read through the rest of the instructions so that you know what’s in store.
Ask Questions
At any point in the brewing process, remember you can email us for support at info@brooklynbrewshop.com.
1. GET CIDER
Find any cider that is pasteurized (UV pasteurized is great) and preservative free (you don’t want to use any cider that has potassium sorbate or sodium benzoate in it). Your local farmer’s market or natural grocer are great sources.
Remove cider from your refrigerator and let warm to room temperature before you start making your hard cider.
If you are juicing your own apples, or using a cider that is entirely unpasturized, bring your cider to a boil and then let cool to room temperature before the next step.
1. GET CIDER
Find any cider that is pasteurized (UV pasteurized is great) and preservative free (you don’t want to use any cider that has potassium sorbate or sodium benzoate in it). Your local farmer’s market or natural grocer are great sources.
Remove cider from your refrigerator and let warm to room temperature before you start making your hard cider.
If you are juicing your own apples, or using a cider that is entirely unpasturized, bring your cider to a boil and then let cool to room temperature before the next step.
2. FERMENTATION
Place funnel in the mouth of the fermentation jug and pour your room temperature cider into the fermenter.
“Pitch” yeast (G). (Toss the whole packet in.) Shake aggressively. You’re basically waking up the yeast and getting more air into the cider.
Attach sanitized screw-top stopper (E) to bottle. Slide rubber tubing (H) no more than 1” (2.5 cm) into the stopper and place the other end in small bowl of sanitizer. You’ve just made a “blow-off tube”. It allows CO2 to escape.
Let sit for two or three days or until vigorous bubbling subsides. This is when fermentation is highest. You may notice bubbles and foam at the top of the cider. After bubbling calms down, clean tubing and ready your airlock.
Sanitize, then re-assemble airlock (B), filling up to line with sanitizer. Insert airlock into hole in stopper.
Keep at room temperature for two weeks without disturbing other than to show off to friends. (If cider is still bubbling, leave sitting until it stops.)
In the meantime, drink cider or beer with self-closing swing tops, or ask for empties at a bar that has some. If you have a bottle capper and caps, you can save two six packs of non-twistoff bottles instead.
3. BOTTLING
2 Weeks After Brew Day.
If your cider is still cloudy, let ferment for another week or until it clears up more.
To start, thoroughly rinse bottles with water.
Mix remainder of sanitizer packet with water. Fill each bottle with a little sanitizer and shake. After 1 minute, empty bottles of sanitizer and drain upside down.
Dissolve 3 tablespoons honey with 1/2 cup water. (Try not to exceed 3 tablespoons.) Pour mixture into a sanitized pot. You will be siphoning your cider into the same pot in the next steps. Carbonation comes from adding sugar when bottling, so if you filled your jug with less than the
full gallon in the last step, use less honey when bottling. Using too much honey can result in your cider being over-carbon- ated.
Siphoning
(It all happens quickly, so you may want to practice with a pot of water.)
A. Attach open tubing clamp (F) to tubing.
B. Fill the flexible vinyl tubing with sanitizer. You can do this by submerging the coiled tubing in a bowl of sanitizer.
C. Attach the black racking cane tip to the long end of your racking cane (C). The tip will prevents sediment from getting sucked up when siphoning. Attach sanitized tubing to the short curved end of your sanitized racking cane. It will be a snug fit.
Run it under hot water if you’re having difficulty fitting the tubing onto the racking cane.
D. Pinch tubing clamp closed.
E. Remove screw-cap stopper from jug, and place racking cane into jug, just above the sediment at the bottom.
F. Lower end of tubing not connected to racking cane into sink. Suction will force cider up and through the racking cane and tubing. Open tubing clamp, let sanitizer flow into sink until cider just starts to flow out of the tubing, then clamp shut. Open clamp on tubing, allowing cider to flow into pot with sugar solution. Tilt jug when cider level is getting low, but be careful in not sucking up the sediment.
4. CLOSE YOUR BOTTLES
After filling your pot, siphon the cider from the pot into bottles, pinching the tubing clamp to the stop flow after each bottle.
Close bottles either using self-closing swing top bottles or a bottle capper and caps.
Once you're all done bottling, store your cider in a dark place for 2 weeks.
5. ENJOY!
After a couple weeks, chill your cider completely in the fridge, and enjoy!
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Brooklyn Brew Shop is a Brooklyn, NY based food start up dedicated to helping people easily make beer, cider, bubbly & food that's as good as (if not better than) the world's best breweries and restaurants.
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