Recipe:Hard Cider
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This is potentially messy, but very easy and rewarding.
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[edit] What is Hard Cider?
Hard Cider is apple cider that has an alcohol added, like hard lemonade. It has a kick that kids can't drink, which gives the drinker a feeling of maturity over wide-eyed, under-aged fools who wished they could be just as cool. (For the information of those outside the USA, American cider is non-alcoholic - weird, but there it is. This process is designed to turn it into something the rest of the world would recognise.)
[edit] Ingredients
- 2 quarts apple cider**
- Red Star Champagne yeast
- Refrigerator
- Friends
** - Non-alcoholic, store-bought, thick plastic PET 1 container (Publix brand is preferred). If not Publix, just make sure the container is plastic and thick. If it's glass, just drink it as it is and don't even try this as it may break due to less flexibility.
[edit] Instructions
Crack open cider and dump in yeast. Seal the container with the lid and store the cider in a dark area at room temperature (between 70º and 85º for best result) for eight hours, or overnight whilst you sleep. Store someplace where the possibility of leak or explosion can be contained with little or no mess to clean up.
After 8 hours or you wake up, you'll notice it's bloated and possibly unstable. Place it carefully in the sink (just in case) and slowly open to release all the pressure inside. Clean up any spillage that may have run out, re-seal it, and place it into the refrigerator.
When chilled (or wait a full day to wait for most of the yeast to settle at the bottom), serve amongst your friends and yourself. Be sure to pour carefully as to not stir the bulk of the yeast at the bottom, which can change the taste. Yeast is full of vitamin B, so choke down even the last bit if you're willing to benefit from nutrients.
Keep the cider refrigerated, or the yeast will start fermenting again.
[edit] What happens
The yeast converts the sugar from the cider into alcohol, and releases carbon dioxide (CO2) constantly as a by-product, slowly building pressure within the container (called fermentation). This causes natural carbonation due to the carbon dioxide having no outlet except to saturate the cider itself. In other words, it becomes fizzy like a soda. PET 1 plastic bottles can usually withstand up to three to four times as much pressure as glass, meaning if glass were used, it would probably break and make a huge mess.
Keeping the cider refridgerated halts the sugar to alcohol fermenting. If not kept chilled, the yeast will continue, which will turn the whole drink into a highly alcoholic, non-sweet, foul-tasting substance similar to that of vinegar.
[edit] Alternative
If one does not feel interested in carbonated hard cider, it's very easy to keep it flat through a variety of methods. The easiest is to simply loosen the lid every hour or two to release the pressure, preventing CO2 saturation.
