Apple Cider

Basic Apple Cider

The cider fermenting peacefully.

Ingredients:

1 gallon fresh apple cider (without preservatives, but pasteurized is OK)
1 envelope wine yeast
1 air lock

Making apple cider is as easy as can be. All you need to do is pour about one big glass of cider out of the container to give the rest some room to bubble up. Then dump the wine yeast into the container and put the air lock on. Let everything ferment for as long as you have patience for (I was told 4 weeks is a good time). Then bottle the cider and enjoy!

If you want carbonation with your cider, you can add a little bit of honey in each bottle (of course you should use pressure safe bottles). There is enough yeast left to ferment the additional sugar, and once bottled the carbon dioxide has no place to go but the cider.

If you're in the Lansing area, you can get the wine yeast as well as the air lock for a couple bucks (quite literally) from the Red Salamander in Grand Ledge. The only place, besides the cider mills, where I know to get cider without preservatives is Quality Dairy (don't get the Meijer's or Kroger stuff).