Dry cider at home. How to make apple cider at home

14.05.2019 Soups

Many people in our country associate cider with the Wolf - a bully from the favorite Soviet cartoon "Well, wait a minute." It is not known why the multipliers decided to use this particular noble drink, but the bottle that was difficult to open and the gas content of its contents were remembered by both children and adults. In fact, cider has its history since the time of the Roman Empire and has always been an exclusively celebratory drinking drink.

In medieval France, cider was more popular than wine, and in the northern provinces of Brittany and Normandy continues to maintain its position to this day. The drink is valued and respected in Germany, Spain, England. Nothing prevents us from joining European culture and making apple cider at home. The harm from such a product is minimal, but the benefits are far superior to industrial designs.

General technological principles

Cider is commonly understood as an alcoholic beverage made from apples, aerated and sweetish in taste. This is a traditional cider recipe, but not the only one. There are not only sweet and semi-sweet varieties, but also dry ones. Instead of apples, you can use pears, quince and other fruits. It happens non-carbonated (quiet) cider and even non-alcoholic. Here are the main stages of home winemaking on the example of apple cider.

Fruit preparation

To understand how to make apple cider really tasty, let's deal with the composition. Industrial production of cider uses specially bred "cider" varieties of apples, for example, Yarlington Mill, Black Kingston, Bitter Tremlet. They contain a sufficient amount of tannins and acids, creating a rich natural taste of natural cider.

To achieve the same effect of garden apples, mix different varieties. You will need sour, sweet and tart varieties. Late autumnal varieties are common to apple wine. Apples are harvested by hand and left for 1-2 months in the cellar to ripen.

Lodged and poured juice should be carefully picked from the leaves and cuttings. To preserve natural yeast on the surface of the peel, it is not necessary to wash the apples. Unless they are bought in the store. Particularly contaminated can be wiped with a cloth. The benefits of using natural yeast culture far exceed the potential harm from the remaining dirt.

Now you need to chop the apples. Houses do it with the help of a food processor, blender, meat grinder, chop, crusher and any other improvised tool. Select a method based on the volume to be processed.

Juicing

According to the experience of practicing winemakers, 10–8 liters of apple juice is obtained from 10 kg of apples, and from it 5 liters of ready-made cider. Cider from store juice is not recommended. Pasteurization, used in factories, does not leave strains of microorganisms necessary for fermentation. Baking, dry and even wine yeast is not able to become a full replacement. They give a peculiar smell of carnival, hiding the fruity aroma.

Drafting the wort. Universal recipe

Three ingredients are commonly used to make the wort: apple juice, water, and sugar. Water is needed to neutralize the excessive acidity of apples. For very sweet apples, it may not be necessary. The amount of sugar and the need for water are determined by the initial sweetness of the apples. We make a summary table of the composition of the wort for different varieties of apples.

10 liters of wort will need:

Active and quiet fermentation

To maintain the sterility of the mash at the very beginning of fermentation, it is necessary to install a hydraulic lock. It will ensure the timely removal of gases and prevent souring. Popular options: latex glove and sealed hose, the end of which is immersed in water. Anyone who has already prepared a brew for moonshine will not have difficulty with their manufacture.

The behavior of the water trap is one of the indicators of the apple maw's readiness at home. Combining this item with other signs, we get the following algorithm:

  • A sediment layer formed at the bottom of the fermentation tank.
  • The taste of sweet home baked has become bitter.
  • Disappeared characteristic sour smell.
  • The gas evolution and foaming stopped: the trap hose does not blow bubbles into the water, and the glove was deflated and fell off.

Simple recipe

This recipe for apple cider is suitable for making a rich aromatic drink with a strength of at least 12 degrees. Here is used characteristic for wine production imitation with juice cake. This allows you to increase secretion.

Cooking method:

  1. Chopped apples with juice, cake and pulp are put in a container suitable for fermentation. Fill no more than 3/4, leaving room for boiling and foaming.
  2. Cover the container with a dense breathable fabric or multi-layer gauze and remove to a warm place away from direct sunlight.
  3. For 3-4 days, periodically shake the container and knock down the cap that appears on the surface. The onset of active fermentation will be reported to us by a characteristic sour smell, the formation of gas and the appearance of foam.
  4. Fermented cake carefully squeeze through a sieve, gauze or press. The resulting apple juice is poured into a clean bottle for a long fermentation.
  5. Water and sugar may be required to make the wort. Add them to taste or see how much is given in the pivot table from the previous paragraph. Sugar is dissolved in a small amount of heated water or apple juice.
  6. Now you can put a water seal on the bottle and store it in a dark room with a constant temperature of 22–27 ° C.
  7. The duration of fermentation can be 1-2 months. It depends on the amount and activity of natural yeast remaining on the peel of apples. It is important to respect the temperature.
  8. We merge won back beer from sediment into clean tara. This dry, savory drink is not cider, but for now. For clarification, we again place it in a dark cool place under the water lock for 3-4 months.
  9. During this time, periodically pour out the drink from the precipitate. After the first filtration add sugar. He will not leave anymore, so we sweeten to your taste. The absence of sediment in cider and its transparency indicate the readiness of the drink.
  10. It remains to bottle everything, be sure to sign the crop year, after which, hide it in the refrigerator.

Tightly sealed bottles boldly store up to three years. Improper storage can damage human health.

Sugar free juice recipe

The preparation of apple cider according to this method has been practiced in wineries for centuries. By tradition, cider should have a low strength and consist only of apple juice. Although the legislation of European countries sets different standards. The content of natural juice, and at the same time the usefulness of the whole product, varies from 35% in England to 100% in France.

Cooking method:

  1. Squeeze apple juice. It is best to use a professional juicer. In contrast to the past case, we get rid of the cake.
  2. Strained juice covered with gauze for 2-3 days to enhance natural fermentation. In order for the process to go faster, do not forget about compliance with the temperature regime: 22–27 ° C.
  3. Strain the fermented juice and pour into a clean container. We install the water seal and return the wort to the former warm darkened place. We monitor the activity of the release of gases from the gate.
  4. About a month after the removal of gases we drain the mash from the sediment using a tube. As in the previous recipe for apple cider, the active fermentation phase gives way to a quiet one.
  5. Merged with sediment mash again put under the shutter. Give the drink to infuse and clarify. As the precipitation merges it and filter.

Ready-made juice cider is characterized by soft transparency and a warm matte color. It's time to bottle and put in the fridge.

How to make a drink aerated?

Non-carbonated home cider is very similar to apple wine. But most people are used to seeing it sparkling and playing like champagne. To add insidious and intoxicating bubbles in the drink, you need only sugar.

Simply carbonate apple cider at home. After a stage of quiet fermentation, pour the sugar into bottles prepared for bottling. Required amount: 10 grams per 1 liter - for strong aeration, 5 grams per 1 liter - for weak.

Poured on top of the filtered apple drink, leaving 5-7 cm to cork free space. Cork the bottles tightly and remove for 3-5 days in a warm dark place. It is necessary for the renewal of fermentation, which will cause sugar.

It is very important to control the process and prevent excess gas. To do this, pour the whole batch or a small part into a plastic container and monitor the increase in its volume. To reduce the concentration of gases, you can open the tube and bleed excess. Stop fermentation and at the same time further carbonation is simple: put the cider in the fridge.

  • To prepare apple cider without sugar, but not to lose in the fortress, it is recommended to use natural flower honey.
  • You can cook non-alcoholic cider. Harm it does not cause vitamins and better preserve. You will need apple juice, orange pulp, spices and soda. The method of preparation resembles sbiten.
  • If there is no time to wait, we will teach you how to make apple cider in a week. In the first recipe, after 4–5 days of juice imitation on the press cake under the glove, the wort after filtration must be poured into bottles and refrigerated. After 3-4 days of aging, drink can be filtered and consumed. It will not be possible to achieve a high fortress, but a bright apple taste will appear.
  • The cake, the remaining push-ups of juice in the second recipe can be used to make apple samogon.

The main advice: to maintain prudence during the tasting. Cider is a refreshing, refreshing drink. With moderate use, it causes little, permissible for the alcoholic product, harm and does not cause a morning hangover.

Attention, only TODAY!

What is cider made from and how to make apple cider at home? Cider is a wonderful foaming fruit drink, which is obtained as a result of fermentation, usually apple juice, a little less juice from pears or other fruit juice without the addition of yeast. Unlike apple wine, its strength is 1–5%. Therefore, it can be used on a par with kvass to quench thirst in the hot summer time. There is no particular difficulty in its preparation, so we will try to tell you how to make apple cider at home.

How to make apple cider at home

The first step in the preparation of the drink will be the choice of varieties of apples. For cider, use sweet varieties of apples. After all, sugar is necessary for fermentation. For the first time, we will use a white filling variety - due to its wide distribution. It is well suited for our purposes. In the future, if you enjoy this drink, it will be possible to use apple varieties specifically used in its production.

  • Selected apples are cut into four parts. Remove the stalk, pith, rot and wormholes. We skip them through a meat grinder with a large mesh to produce a large meal. Place it in the pre-fermentation vessel. At this stage, sugar should not be added. Filled dishes fill the cake by two thirds. And tie the neck gauze. During the first three to five days, the fermentation process should begin and our cake should be divided into juice, sediments and small particles floating on the surface (if there are enough of them, they can form a crust).
  • Pour the juice from the sediment. For this it is convenient to use a flexible tube. Through it, the juice will flow at a slow rate, and in this way it is easier to separate the sediment.
  • The precipitate and the upper crust can be squeezed through gauze.
  • Now you can add sugar. For the first time, add about one hundred grams of sugar per liter of fermented juice. Subsequently, you yourself determine the amount of sugar that should be added to get the drink to your taste.
  • Now our juice should be poured into an airtight container and set the water seal.
  • The fermentation process will be completed after the process of gas evolution stops.
  • It remains to pour the finished cider in bottles, tightly corked and set aside for storage in a cool place.

Ready cider can be stored for up to three months.

How to make apple juice cider: a step-by-step recipe

Apple juice cider recipe. To obtain cider from apple juice, we will need a small amount of wine yeast, since the wild yeast present on the peel of apples cannot participate in the fermentation process.

  • Prepare a yeast starter. To do this, for three liters of undiluted juice, add half a glass of water to 50 grams of wine yeast and two tablespoons of sugar. Stir and leave for an hour to start the fermentation process.
  • Now add the leaven in the juice and put in a warm dark place for fermentation, setting the water seal.
  • After fermentation, pour off the yeast and filtering the drink bottled without forgetting to carefully cork them.

Here is our cider and ready. By changing the amount of sugar added after the preliminary fermentation process, we can get a sweeter drink, but at the same time a stronger one, since during the fermentation process some of the sugar will turn into alcohol. The resulting drink is characterized by the fact that it retains all the beneficial substances that are present in fresh apple fruits. Slightly effervescent, it quenches thirst remarkably.

Cider is a delicious, aromatic drink, with a strength of no more than 8 degrees. Sometimes it is also called apple wine, as it is most often made from apples. In addition to them for cider, you can use pears, garden berries. But cider became famous thanks to the original apple note. This is an aromatic drink, invigorating, with a honey flavor.

Apple cider is produced using a natural fermentation process, and no yeast is added to the beverage. Ciders are divided by taste into sweet, semi-sweet, bitter-sweet and bitter. By classification, they are dry, sweet and traditional. We recommend you try making cider at home. It is not so difficult as it may seem at first glance.

Drink history


Presumably this drink appeared in France, although some cider lovers find mention of it already in ancient Egyptian history. In any case, the history of cider has more than one hundred years. The time of appearance of the drink is considered to be the XI century. According to some legends that have come down to us, this drink was invented by Charlemagne himself.

Until the last century, apple cider was considered a drink of the poor and peasants rather than the nobility. But over time, its taste was also appreciated by the highest strata of society, and since then, many apple orchards have appeared on many famous vineyards. Today, not only manufacturers, but also ordinary people have increasingly begun to think about how to make home-made cider for holidays and family events.

Several useful nuances of use


Cider drink exceptionally cool. It is advisable to pour it into glasses or cups at a considerable distance. This is necessary in order to release the drink from carbon dioxide. Traditionally, cider is not finished off to the last drop from a glass. At the bottom of the natural drink forms a precipitate, this explains this tradition.

Choosing apples


In order to prepare apple cider at home it is important to choose the right varieties of apples. If we talk about the industrial production of the drink, then about 48 varieties of apples are officially allowed, among them - Black Kingston, Bitter Tremlett, Dabinett, Yarlington Mill. In these varieties too much tannin. For home production, you can use the varieties that are available to you. The main thing - apples should not be too sweet or sour.

For the preparation of cider do not use green, immature apples. It is also not recommended to use overripe apples, as they become less juicy due to an excess of pectin. For home production, it is better to use late and winter varieties, they have more sugars, tannins, extractives. In other words, from such varieties cider will turn out to be more saturated in taste and fragrant.

Apple preparation


Selected apples must be inspected. If there is a hint of rot, it is better not to use such an apple. Suitable fruits should be soft, juicy, without traces of blows. Can not be used for cider apples of different varieties. Only one variety will give a characteristic taste and aroma for this type of apple.

The apples are removed, stem and hearts. Apples are wiped with a dry cloth, but not washed. Natural yeast accumulates on the skin, thanks to which fermentation will occur later. It is advisable to even put rubbed apples in a dry and dark place for a couple of days. Now the apples are ready for further processing into a delicious drink.

Homemade Apple Cider Recipe


Cider, prepared according to this recipe, turns out to be tasty and fragrant, the color of honey and low strength.

Ingredients:

Or add them as a filling to the pies, but these are not all possible uses of the fruit, so as an alternative, you can try making delicious and healthy cider. What is this and how to make it at home - read on.

Meet the drink

Apple cider dubbed fragrant and delicious drink, the strength of which is about 8 degrees. It is well invigorating, toning and at the same time it is drunk quite easily.

If you have more pears or garden berries, then you can use them instead of apples, although the real apple (as cider is often called) is prepared solely on the basis of these.

Most wine connoisseurs believe that apple cider first appeared in France, although they also have opponents who claim to mention it in ancient Egyptian history. Whatever it was, but the history of this wine has more than a hundred years.

Did you know? According to the generally accepted opinion, apple cider appeared in the XI century and was invented by Charlemagne. However, until recently (up to the 19th century), it was considered rather a drink for the lower strata of society, but not for the nobility.

The natural fermentation process helps to get the desired result, for which yeast is added to the drink. Depending on the taste characteristics, all ciders can be divided into semi-sweet, sweet, bitter-sweet or bitter.

At the same time, they are classified into traditional, sweet and dry. Preparation of apple cider will not take you much time, but, given the great variety of recipes, each hostess will be able to choose for himself the most optimal option.

Useful properties and harm of apple cider

Any drink has its strengths and weaknesses, but, above all, it is important to consider its impact on the human body.

As for cider, prepared at home according to one of the popular recipes, it contains just a huge amount of useful macro- and microelements. That is, all the components of the fruit are not lost in the process of making the drink.

Back in ancient times, cider was used by folk healers to treat the blues (in modern terminology - “depressive states”), as well as diabetes and gastrointestinal diseases.


True, there was a time when the medicinal properties of the product were questioned because of its alcohol content, but scientists were able to reassure skeptics, proving the usefulness of consuming apple wine in small quantities.

Thus, it activates the gastrointestinal tract, increases appetite, normalizes pressure and dilates blood vessels, accelerates the elimination of toxins from the body, and also slows down the aging process, blocking free radicals.

Important! The usefulness of apple juice cider depends on the variety and condition of the fruit. In addition, the cooking conditions also have an effect: the home version is much more useful than the industrial one.

However, in addition to the positive aspects of the use of such a drink, do not forget about possible contraindications. The fact is that cider is a completely natural product and in some people it can provoke allergic reactions associated with individual intolerance to the constituent components of apples or other fruits used.

It is also worth remembering about the strength of apple wine (depending on the recipe, it can vary from 1 to 9%), using it in moderate doses. In addition, no other harmful effects on your body will not have a drink.

Did you know? In some beauty salons customers are offered to take a bath of apple cider, with full immersion of the body. After undergoing a similar procedure, the skin becomes silky and soft, and it is possible to smooth out shallow wrinkles.

Cooking at home

As we mentioned earlier, there are a huge number of recipes for making delicious and healthy apple wine, but in this article we will look at only a few of them, paying particular attention to the simplest and most accessible.

What is needed for cooking

The classic cider recipe provides for the use of any of the 50, in particular, such well-known as, "Styr", "Amber Altai" and "Foxville".

All of them are usually characterized by a high concentration of tannins, which give the finished drink a unique taste. Simply put, you can pick up any variety that is common in your region, the main thing is that they are tasty.

Important! Never use over-ripe or under-ripened apples, as such fruits will simply crawl or turn out to be too sour during processing, which can not but affect the final taste characteristics of the wine product being made.

For the preparation of the drink is great winter and, containing a large amount of tannins and sugars. In this case, the cider is very fragrant, tasty and healthy. Among other necessary ingredients are water and sugar, with 10 kg of apples you need to take up to 1 liter of the first component and 1.5 kg of the second.

As for kitchen utensils, the main thing is to prepare a large saucepan, and everything else can be found in the kitchen.

The easiest recipe for apple cider

A simple recipe for apple cider is ideal for those who want to get a tasty drink, but do not have much time to make it. The secret here lies in the use of wine (), through which it is possible to speed up the process of preparing cider.

The squeezing of apples, which fill a three-liter jar exactly one third, is well suited to be the basis for the future drink. Next, you need to add a little white raisins, a glass of sugar and half a teaspoon of yeast, and then pour all this with cold water, filling the jar to the brim.

After performing these steps, it remains only to put the container in a dark place and leave it there for 5-6 days. At the end of fermentation, the finished cider is filtered and it is considered ready for use.

When using this or any other recipe for creating an apple drink, you need to remember a few simple rules:


Important! The smell of fermentation, hissing and foam appear already after 8-16 hours after laying apple sauce.

  • Apple cider, which is prepared at home, should ferment at a temperature of + 18 ... + 27 ° C. But if the process does not stop after 50 days from the moment of placement for fermentation, in order to avoid bitter taste, it is necessary to pour the cider into another jar using a straw, leaving it to ferment in the same conditions for a while.

Other popular recipes

In addition to the instant apple cider recipe, there are other equally popular options for creating the described drink: for example, without sugar or with gas.

Sugar-free cider is considered a classic cooking method often used in England and France. It is characterized by simple technology and will certainly please the true connoisseurs of all natural, and   to get such a useful product, you need:



Important! If you do not plan to saturate the drink with carbon dioxide, then tightly close the container and place it for 3-4 months in a dark room with an air temperature of +6 to +12 ° C.

After the specified period, it is necessary to filter the cider once more and, bottling, cork tightly.

Now consider the option to create a sparkling apple cider. All the main stages of production remain the same as in the previous, "quiet" recipes, but at the same time there are some differences.

So, after removing the beverage from the sediment and sterilizing the bottles (glass or plastic), where it will be stored after the spill, sugar should be poured at the bottom of each of them at a rate of 10 g per 1 liter of volume. It is sugar that provokes weak fermentation with the release of the same carbon dioxide.

Apple cider is one of the simplest alcoholic beverages that can be prepared at home without much knowledge and stress. In order to prepare apple cider, you do not need to have different devices or apparatuses available, it is enough to have a container, dry yeast, rubber glove instead of a hydraulic lock, and the most important ingredient is apples or apple juice bought at the store.

The history of the emergence of this bubbly drink is still unknown, but there are many different assumptions and myths on this subject. One of them is, the one in which it is said that King Charlemagne, by chance, sat on a sack in which there were overripe apples.

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

1. We grind apples through a meat grinder to make apple porridge. Then mash must be filtered. To do this, the apple porridge is filtered through gauze, and the pulp is either discarded or used for its own purposes.

2. Spill the juice in the banks and close them with gauze for one day.

Attention, apples should be yours, 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 apple juice.

3. When the juice starts to ferment, put the jars under the water lock at room temperature for about 5 days. If the resulting strength of the drink does not suit you, then add a little more sugar over the cans and place it under the water seal for fermentation, pre-mixing the sugar in the cans.

4. Remove the cider from the sediment and brighten with bentonite. For this article. 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 put the bank for a couple of days, with the first day the bank should be shaken a couple of times.

6. Remove the cider sediment and proceed to carbonation. Take the pasteurized bottle and fall asleep there for 1 tbsp. spoon of sugar, and add the wine yeast at the tip of the knife.

7. We pour cider over these bottles (bottles should preferably be plastic, because glass can blow up), while in the bottle you need to leave a little space for gas.

8. Close the bottle caps and set for 10 days in a dark place at room temperature. After that you can start tasting!


If the areometer shows less than 12 units of sugared apple juice, then sugar should be added to the juice to raise this figure to 12.

1. Pour juice into one glass jar, pre-sterilizing it.

2. Take an incomplete teaspoon of Saf-Levure yeast and dissolve it with warm water in a small cup. Give them to stand for 15 minutes, then pour into a jar of juice.

3. Put the jar under the water lock for fermentation at room temperature for 6-7 days. After fermentation has passed, the cider must be drained from the sediment.

4. Then cider must be inoculated. To do this, pour in plastic bottles of sugar in the proportion of 3 tsp sugar per 1-liter bottle.

We send 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 the pan and put all the ingredients there.

2. Thoroughly mix everything and set on fire. Bring the mixture to a boil, then turn down the gas and let it boil for 7 minutes.

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

Then we filter the cider with gauze and bottled, or immediately served on the table, while adding a slice of orange in a cup or glass of cider.


1. First, take the apples and cut them into pieces. Put the apples in the pan and fill them with water so that they cover the apples.

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

3. Put the liquid for fermentation, then pour it into plastic bottles and close them.

4. Put the bottle for a couple of days in a cold place to carbonate the drink. After which we can proceed to tasting.


This is the fifth way to make apple cider. This recipe is quite complicated, but the result will be very good. Before cooking, you should carefully select all rotten and not 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 rest preserve wild yeast. It is necessary to focus on the ripeness of apples because there should be a lot of sugar in them.

1. First, take the apples and grind them to a mushy state with a meat grinder, juicer or other items with which this can be done.

2. Add sugar and sugar to the apple porridge sugar syrup.

3. Put the wort in a glass jar or some other fermentation tank, 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 it does not form mold.