Making Hard Apple Cider Using Store Bought Apple Juice
Making Hard Apple Cider Using Store Bought Apple Juice
For the home brewing enthusiast interested in brewing apple cider, but who finds themselves located away from a fresh source for orchard milled juice, you will be glad to know that there are other sources for your must. You can make hard apple cider using store bought juice. Store bought juice is a fair replacement for freshly milled juice, as long as it does not contain preservatives. 100% pure juice is best suited to this application, and pasteurized juice may also be preferred, since this process eliminates bacteria or unwanted yeasts that may be present in the juice. I personally used filtered, pasteurized juice from cans, with very decent results! Of course, yeast needed to be added to ferment the juice, as did a good amount of sugar to reach the alcoholic level I was going for, but a decent level can be achieved without the addition of sugars.
Here is the method I used for 5 gallons, which resulted in a slow fermenting, dry, still cider:
1.
Purchase enough cans of Juice for 5 gallons (I purchased 15 cans, which were on sale for .99)
2. Pour the cans into a primary fermentation vessel
3. Inoculate with a white wine yeast. I added the yeast dry, but you may want to start the process by following the yeast preparation procedure on the package. There is no need to sterilize the juice with campden tablets if it is pasteurized.
4. Allow a few days to a week for the vigorous bubbling ferment to start and settle.
5. Transfer the liquid into the secondary fermentation vessel and fit with an air lock.
6. Keep the fermenting cider in a cool, dark place with little disturbance and let the juice continue to ferment until dry (when the bubbles stop).
7. Rack into another vessel or bottle after 30 days.
8. Let the cider age for 6 months to a year.
This isn’t exactly the best procedure for brewing cider, and the initial results showed. I began giving samples to friends and relatives to very little good response. I thought my efforts had failed me, so I left the cider to sit quietly away from harsh criticism and up turned noses. It wasn’t until approximately a year after I had racked the cider into a keeping vessel that I decided to try the cider again. This tasting proved to be much better than before, and I began sharing once again. To my delight, I began receiving requests for bottles of this cider, reminding some of Boone’s Farm Wine, a fact that I am very proud of.
Because of the clarity of the filtered, pasteurized juice, the resulting cider was quite clear, without the use of clearing agents or filtering of the finished product. The only clearing procedure was the racking off after thirty days, and allowing other particles to settle for the year. I’m sure by using a better procedure one could achieve superior results, but I am quite happy with my results of making apple cider with store bought juice.