Well, I’m just about to break out my fermentation containers again. I have enough materials on hand to make almost 30 gallons of beer, and need only to get some additional stuff to make some sparkling apple cider for the Thanksgiving/Christmas seasons.
Speaking of which… a simple not-quite-recipe (you’ll have to read between the lines, that is, have some brewing knowledge to get this one) for a simple, inexpensive sparkling apple cider:
Enough frozen apple juice (can have vitamin C but no other preservatives!) to make about 4 gallons of juice.
About 4 cups of sugar
Some wine yeast–preferably “champagne” yeast, but almost any WINE yeast will do
You get the picture. After fermentation for at least a week, you can rack the resultant cider and continue to ferment for another month or so. If you have a hydrometer to measure alcoholic content, you can use that to determine your preferred level. Bottle in bottles designed to hold high-pressure carbonation, like those used for any sparkling wine or juice (will need bottle caps and a bottle capper or sparkling wine corks and wires OR just use some handy-dandy Grolsch swingtop bottles like I do) with anywhere from 1/2 teaspoon to a teaspoon of sugar per bottle to “charge” the bottles, depending on the size of the bottle. 1/2 teaspoon for a typical 12oz beer bottle, 3/4 for a 16oz and a teaspoon for a typical sparkling wine bottle.
Each 4 gallons will allow you to bottle almost 40 12oz bottles of the sparkling goodness. Anchor Steam bottles are particularly attractive for this use, if sparkling wine bottles or Grolsch swingtops aren’t available. I’ve also used some nice green Stella Artois bottles for sparkling hard cider, as well.
Let ’em carbonate in the bottle for a week or two, then store ’em in a cool place (I’m thinking our garage will be cool enough by then)
Most excellent imbibery!
