Keeping it Simple: Let's Make Hard Cider!

Pure hard cider. Boom.

Former Siciliano's employee and longtime friend Sarah McGrath checks in with this great recipe for making hard cider. 

By Sarah McGrath

Hard cider is possibly the easiest fermented beverage to make. If you've never made cider, now is the time! It doesn't require pressing grapes, mashing grain or boiling wort. All you need is a couple of fermenters, some fresh cider, some siphon tubing and an airlock—most of which you'll find at Siciliano's (you'll have to look elsewhere for fresh/raw cider). Since fall and winter are the traditional times for pressing apples, now is the perfect season to start a batch.

There are a number of fancy things you can do to cider, which are a lot of fun, but I also like to keep it simple. This recipe makes a dry (not sweet), still (not carbonated) cider without added fermentables (like sugar or honey) or flavorings (like oak or bourbon barrel).

And it tastes great!

Equipment List

• 2 fermenters (one 6.5-gallon ale pail plus lid and one 5-gallon carboy OR one 6.5-gallon carboy and one 5-gallon carboy)
• 1 rubber stopper and airlock
• Sanitizer (I like Iodophor)
• Siphon hose (or even better, buy an autosiphon!)
• Bottles/caps/capper OR wine bottles/corks/corked

Ingredient List

• 5 gallons fresh cider without preservatives
• Pectic enzyme (optional)
• Wine yeast
• Campden tablets

Basic Instructions

1. Sanitize everything
2. Combine cider, campden and pectic enzyme
3. Wait 24 hours, then add yeast
4. Transfer cider to secondary fermenter when fermentation slows (about 1 week)
5. Bottle when fermentation stops and cider fully clears (about 2 weeks)
6. Age 6 months or longer if you can wait that long.
7. Enjoy!

Full Instructions

For starters, always make sure that any equipment that comes in contact with your cider is cleaned and sanitized. You can clean equipment with warm water and dish soap or buy a brewery grade cleanser like EZ Clean or One Step. For a sanitizer, I like Iodophor. Cleaning removes any surface dirt. Sanitizing eliminates bacteria that could spoil your cider. Remember: You can't sanitize dirt! Clean your equipment first!

You can use a 6.5-gallon ale pail (plastic) or a 6.5-gallon carboy (glass). Both work fine. Even though you're making 5 gallons of cider, you need that extra headspace for the foam that accumulates when the fermentation gets going.

Once your bucket or carboy is clean and sanitized, add your cider, pectic enzyme and crushed campden tablets (1/2 tablet per gallon). Then close up your fermenter with a lid and airlock if you're using an ale pail or with a stopper and airlock if you're using a carboy. The cider MUST not contain preservatives, like sorbates, or it will not ferment. That rules out most grocery store cider. Locally, you can get fresh cider from Hill Brothers, Klein or Engelsma orchards. If you're making a lot of cider, it is much cheaper to buy it in bulk. Many orchards are happy to fill your fermenters directly, saving them the trouble and expense of filling gallon jugs.

The pectic enzyme is optional. It ensures that the pectin from the apples won't make your cider hazy. If you don't care about hazy cider (the haze is aesthetic; it doesn't affect the taste), leave the enzyme out. If your cider is raw (not pasteurized), then haze shouldn't be a problem anyway. The campden tablets help ensure a clean fermentation by suppressing bacteria that could turn your hard cider into cider vinegar.

Now you must wait 24 hours for the campden tablets to work. Then add your yeast. Any wine yeast (and most beer yeasts) will work. There are also specialty cider yeasts available (White Labs makes a couple kinds). I like Lalvin's KIV-1116. It's fun to make several batches that are identical other than the yeast strain. That way, you can taste the effect of different yeasts and decide which you like best.

Keep the cider around room temperature, and in a day or two you will see it begin to ferment. You can see small bubbles rising and often, though not always, a foamy head will form. After about a week, depending on the temperature, the fermentation will start to slow and the yeast will begin to fall out of suspension and accumulate at the bottom of the fermenter. If you're doing your initial (primary) fermentation in a carboy you can see this accumulation. Now is the time to transfer (rack) your cider to your secondary fermenter, which has to be a carboy since it excludes oxygen better than an ale pail. You can't just pour the cider from one container to another, you have to siphon it off with a hose in order to leave those dead yeast cells on the bottom of the fermenter behind.

Siphoning is easiest with an auto siphon, which I highly recommend. You can also use a racking cane or plain hose, but, whatever you do, don't use your mouth, and keep everything sanitized! Keep your cider in the secondary fermenter at least until it clears. Then bottle it using your preferred setup. Again, everything must be sanitized first.

Alternatively, you can "bulk age" your cider in the secondary fermenter until you are ready to bottle. Although you can bottle straight from the secondary, bottling is easiest with a bottling bucket, which is just an ale pail with a spigot. Siphon the cider into the ale pail, add another crushed campden tablet, and fill bottles directly from the spigot. I use wine bottles and corks because I have a nice corker. If you don't, it is easiest to fill beer bottles and cap them with an inexpensive capper. The cider can be consumed at any time, but is generally best if you age it for at least 6 months. The more acidic the cider, the longer it takes to mellow. If you bulk age the cider in the secondary, allow at least two weeks in the bottle for the cider to settle. I'm not sure what chemical reactions are behind this process, but the flavor changes perceptibly.

The author with cider

And finally, enjoy!

Editor's Note: You'll find everything you need to make a batch of hard cider—except raw juice—at Siciliano's Market. Contact any one of the many cider houses around West Michigan for raw cider availability. Cheers!

Monday Musings: Classic October Weekend

Crushing grapes for wine, more fun
than raking leaves

By Steve Siciliano

Well it was a mixed bag for sports fans in the Great Beer State over the weekend. The Tigers did take one of two out in Oakland in the AL Division Series but losing that Saturday night game 1–0 isn’t a good sign for a team that’s been struggling with its offense. The Spartans and the Wolverines won but the Lions lost to the Packers for the twenty-third straight time in Wisconsin. I’m sure the Redwings played, but I have no clue how they did and really have no desire to look. Just can’t get into hockey during the first week of October.

The weekend weather was also a sack of diverse elements. The Sunday afternoon rain was perfect—it provided a good accompaniment for napping and Lions watching and it came down just hard enough and long enough to assuage any feelings of guilt about not raking up the steadily accumulating falling leaves. Saturday would have been a good day for yard work, but Barb and I were busy helping the steady stream of folks who showed up behind the store to take advantage of the free use of our wine and cider making equipment. It sure was a lot more fun than raking.

Just a reminder—this Saturday, October 12, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., will be the last time this season that our wine- and cider-making equipment (crushers and presses) will be available free of charge.

Also this Saturday from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. the folks from Vander Mill Cider will be setting up in the parking lot behind the store to sell fresh squeezed cider. According to Paul Vander Heide, the unpasteurized, non-sulfated cider is a blend of Jonathan, golden, gala and Ida red with a PH of 3.5 and a brix between 12 and 14.

Price of the cider will be $3.50 per gallon. Please bring cash and your own containers.

Bulk Cider from Ridge Cider Company: Saturday, Sept 21

By Chris Siciliano

Clear your calendars, folks. Starting at 11 a.m. this Saturday, September 21, Ridge Cider Company will be in Siciliano's back parking lot to sell fresh raw cider in bulk.

According to Matt Delong, our contact at Ridge, recent pressings have produced gravity readings between 1.055 and 1.060. All the apples used in the Ridge Cider company's blend—gala, red delicious, ginger gold and macs—are sourced locally from the Sparta area. The cider will be available in bulk quantities at $4.50/gallon. Please bring cash.

Matt and company will stick around filling buckets and carboys until the cider is gone or until demand wanes. However, interested customers should plan to stop by before 2 p.m. for the best shot at securing a share of the 500 gallons Matt is bringing in.

Be sure to bring your own buckets or carboys to fill, or be prepared to purchase a vessel for transportation from Siciliano's along with the other supplies you'll need (yeast, etc). Here's more information about Ridge Cider Company.

Ridge Cider Company is in the process of becoming a craft cider producer in West Michigan. In addition to the soon-to-be craft cider and apple wine products we also like to share our fresh pressed, unpasteurized, no preservative apple cider for the cider lovers, homebrewers, & fall festivities we all enjoy.

Our apples come from "The Ridge" area near Conklin, MI. To a historic apple cider mill to be pressed. The apples are pressed in an original 50-ton apple press within the mill, driven by a 17-ft water wheel. Experience a piece of history when you drink Ridge cider.

We select the finest mixture of apples, generally 50% sweet 35% sharp 15% tart, depending of the varieties being used. Great for hard cider and apple wine. The varieties we use vary depending on the time of the season as the different breed of apples are harvested at different times. However all of our apples are among the youngest and healthiest trees in "The Ridge" area ensuring flavorful apples for our cider. 

With almost 1000 acres of apple trees we have virtually every variety preferred from the consumer's perspective. We are especially pressing to sell in bulk with the homebrewer in mind.

 See you Saturday at Siciliano's Market!

New Beer Friday, Visit the Ridge Edition (August 23)

Pressing the issue

By Chris Siciliano

Here's a recommendation for the next time you find yourself with a little extra time on your hands: Head out to the rich agricultural region located to the west and north of Grand Rapids. The numerous fruit and farm stands in the area (otherwise known as "The Ridge") are well worth the trip this time of year, especially for the home wine, beer, and/or cider maker, who can no doubt find creative ways to take advantage of the late summer bounty.

Given the Ridge's proximity to Grand Rapids' developing culture of fermented arts, and also for the confluence of certain physical features that make it "one of the prime fruit growing regions in the world" (source), it would not surprise us if in coming years hard cider mills began popping up like mushrooms along the Ridge. In fact, it's appears it might already be happening, much to our delight.

Matt Delong from Ridge Cider Company contacted us recently about selling fresh raw cider in our parking lot this fall. With regard to raw cider, details are coming. In the meantime, learn more about Ridge Cider Co. by reading their description below. Then, after checking out this week's list of new beers at Siciliano's, be sure to have a look at the Video of the Week, titled "A Piece of the Ridge." It comes courtesy of Ridge Cider Co.'s Facebook page.

Ridge Cider Company is in the process of becoming a craft cider producer in West Michigan. In addition to the soon-to-be craft cider and apple wine products we also like to share our fresh pressed, unpasteurized, no preservative apple cider for the cider lovers, homebrewers, & fall festivities we all enjoy.

Our apples come from "The Ridge" area near Conklin, MI. To a historic apple cider mill to be pressed. The apples are pressed in an original 50-ton apple press within the mill, driven by a 17-ft water wheel. Experience a piece of history when you drink Ridge cider.

We select the finest mixture of apples, generally 50% sweet 35% sharp 15% tart, depending of the varieties being used. Great for hard cider and apple wine. The varieties we use vary depending on the time of the season as the different breed of apples are harvested at different times. However all of our apples are among the youngest and healthiest trees in "The Ridge" area ensuring flavorful apples for our cider.

With almost 1000 acres of apple trees we have virtually every variety preferred from the consumer's perspective. We are especially pressing to sell in bulk with the homebrewer in mind.

Remember, more details about Ridge bulk cider are on their way, just like you to Siciliano's after reading this week's list of new beers.

New and Returning Beers

• Harpoon Octoberfest, $1.49/12oz - "Several malts, including Munich and chocolate, deliver the malty character. The delicate hop aroma is not overpowering and the Willamette hops provide a gentle bitterness which balance well with the residual sweetness" (source).
• Crown Valley Imperial Pumpkin Smash, $2.39/12oz - "Our imperial pumpkin stout is deliciously roasted with dark chocolate and toffee notes with a hint of smoke and a little spice from the hops that give it a pine note. The pumpkin adds body and character for a great beer" (source).
• Dogfish Head Chicory Stout (Vintage 2012), $1.69/12oz (Special Price!) - "Chicory Stout is a rich, dark beer made with a touch of roasted chicory, organic Mexican coffee, St. John's Wort, and licorice root. It is brewed with roast barley, crystal malt and oats and hopped just right with Glacier hops. We use fair trade Organic Mexican Coatepec beans roasted to our specifications by Notting Hill Coffee Roastery in Lewes, DE" (source).
• New Holland Ichabod, $1.79/12oz - "Ichabod combines malted barley and real pumpkin with cinnamon and nutmeg in a delicious and inviting brew. A rewarding complement to many dishes, Ichabod pairs well with autumnal foods such as poultry and root vegetables. After dinner, try it with your favorite dessert" (source).
• Fort Collins 1900 Amber Lager, $2.09/12oz - "1900 is a nod to the very things that got us where we are today- crisp, clean microbrews all from the belly of a little brewery tucked away in the outskirts of Old Town. The result is a superbly refreshing, bright and delicately balanced amber lager (source).
• Big Sky Heavy Horse Scotch Ale, $1.69/12oz - "A full bodied, full flavored ale. Deep garnet red with a dense, creamy head of tan. Heavy Horse is fermented at a lower temperature and the brewing water is softened to be closer to that found in Scotland. Malts: Pale, Crystal Chocolate, Roast. Hops: Hallertau Tradition, East Kent Goldings" (source).

Ridge Cider Co. | Video of the Week

A piece of the Ridge. from Matt DeLong on Vimeo.

Cheers!

Wine & Cider Makers, Use Our Equipment for Free

By Steve Siciliano

According to area fruit growers, there should be plenty of grapes and apples available in West Michigan this fall for home wine and cider making.

Jim Hill of Hill’s Brothers Orchards reports that the apple trees at his family’s Fruit Ridge location are heavy with fruit and that picking and pressing should begin around mid-September. Hill anticipates that the cost for his cider this year will be between $2.75 and $3.00 per gallon for folks who bring in their own containers.

Brian Taylor of Taylor Ridge in Allegan said that early ripening grapes such as Marquette, Reliance, Brianna and La Crescent should be ready for picking at his vineyard in early September while the harvesting of the late ripening varieties like Cabernet Franc, Concord, and Noiret should start in mid or late October. “We had one night of beneficial frost which helped to produce a more balanced crop,” Taylor said. “Overall we will have a good amount of all varieties.”

This year there will again be specific days and times when we will offer the free use of our wine- and cider-making equipment in the parking lot behind the store. On four consecutive Saturdays beginning on September 21, our motorized crusher/de-stemmer, manual apple crusher and fruit presses will be available for free on-site use. Siciliano’s staff members will also be demonstrating basic wine- and cider-making techniques on those days and will aid in sugar and acid adjustments.

Anyone wishing to use the on-site equipment on days other than the four Saturdays (September 21 and 28 & October 5 and 12) may do so for a nominal fee. Call the store at 616-453-9674 for more details.

Cider Saturdays at Siciliano's

Photo courtesy VM's Facebook page

Mark your calendar, folks.

This Saturday (April 7) Siciliano's is hosting an in-house cider tasting with the good people from Vander Mill Winery & Brewery. The 11am-to-1pm tasting event will feature Chapman's Blend, a limited edition hard cider named for a true American legend, and I don't mean Duane Chapman (better known as Dog the Bounty Hunter). Here's the info that Paul from Vander Mill sent over.

"John Chapman was an American pioneer that was credited with bringing apple trees to the Midwest in the early 1800s. He was regarded as a kind and generous nurseryman whose apples were often used to make hard cider. Today he is better known as Johnny Appleseed. Chapman's Blend is made from a variety of American heritage apples that all come from Michigan and have over 200 years of history in the US. Varieties include: Winesap, Baldwin, Northern Spy and Jonathan. It is a semi-dry cider with a clean fruit flavor and slight carbonation. These apples offer subtleties to cider that are not possible with more dessert-like varieties. They are often more acidic and carry more tannin through to the juice."

Thanks, Paul. See you all Saturday!

Hill Bros. Orchards now pressing their award-winning cider

By Chris Siciliano

Every Thursday* from now until February 1st, the good folks at Hill Brothers Orchards & Cider Mill (6159 Peach Ridge NW) will be pressing their award-winning raw cider and filling carboys, buckets, and even old whiskey barrels dropped off ahead of time by home cidermakers and enthusiasts.

The raw cider is $2.75 per gallon; it's comprised of a secret blend of apples which has earned master cider maker Jim Hill top-prize at the Great Lakes Fruit & Veggie Expo no less than three times. Here's how to get your hands on a few gallons for your own.

The Weekly Process

• Drop your empty carboys/buckets off at Hill Bros. retail space no later than the close of business Wednesday evening (6pm). Be sure that each and every individual carboy or bucket is clearly labeled with your name, telephone number, and the number of gallons you'd like to take away. Note: your container(s) must be at least five gallons.
• The Hills will call you on Friday to let you know that your cider is ready to be picked up. If you can't make it back by Friday, you can pick your cider up on Saturday between 9am and 6pm.
• Why two trips? To cut down on waste, Jim Hill makes only as much raw cider as has been pre-ordered each week. Home cidermakers pre-order by dropping off their empty buckets/carboys ahead of time. After the apples have been pressed on Thursday, the cider settles over night. On Friday morning the Hills begin filling containers. When the containers are filled, the Hills will begin calling each container's owner.
• Since the bulk cider is unpasteurized, the Hills are adamant that it be used only for fermentation. If you'd like to try their cider raw--and you should, it's great!--they sell UV-treated cider for $4.50 per pre-packaged gallon.
• Jim or Arlene Hill will be happy to answer any questions you have regarding this process. You can reach them at (616) 784-2767.
• Stop into Siciliano's to brush up on your cidermaking know-how, or else have a look at the following two articles, both written by former-staffer and all around good guy, Weston Eaton.
• New England-style hard cider: the slow road to good drink
• Directions: Making Cider (pdf)

Points of Note

• The Hills also have for sale several dozen empty 55-gallon Heaven Hill whiskey barrels. The barrels are $85 each and would make a great conversation piece in anybody's basement, especially when filled with delicious fermenting cider or beer. Contact Jim or Arlene for more information.
• In December 2010 Jim Hill was named Master Cider Maker, an honor reserved for three-time first-prize winners in the cider category at the Great Lakes Fruit & Vegetable Exposition (source). Congratulations, Jim!
• The Hills provide raw cider to many area breweries and wineries, including New Holland and Saugatuck Brewing Co.
• Hill Brothers Orchards is "family owned and operated since 1843" (source).

*Interested parties should contact the Hills for information on their pressing schedules during the weeks of Thanksgiving and Christmas.

Images from the Mill

From Hill Bros. to Saugatuck to your glass

Waiting to be filled

For sale, $85 each, empty

Good raw cider = good hard cider

Good showing from the cider crowd

This past Sunday Vander Mill Cider Mill & Winery distributed nearly 200 gallons of raw cider to eager cider makers in Siciliano's back parking lot. A big thank you to all who participated in the pre-order/pick-up process. The excellent turnout will help ensure that this tradition continues for years to come. Oh, and in case anybody forgot to write them down, here are the specs for this year's batch of juice.

• Apples - Jonathan, Golden Delicious, Gala
• Brix - 12 (about 1.048 SG)
• Ph - 3.4

Remember to mark your calendars for Vander Fest! Tickets are on sale now at Siciliano's. Cash only please. (Rumor has it there's going to be a laser show.)

Raw cider for sale, one day only at Siciliano's

Cider, Vintage 2010

Vander Mill, a local cider mill and winery, will be selling raw cider in Siciliano's back parking lot on Sunday, October 2nd, between 2 and 4pm. The cider is available on a pre-order basis for $3.50 per gallon. To reserve yours, contact us by phone or email before 12pm noon on Friday, September 30, and provide your name, phone, and the number of gallons you'd like to purchase. The cider will be pressed on Saturday night and filled from bulk containers the next day. Interested parties will need to bring or purchase their own containers for transport.

After filling your containers, be sure to stop in to Siciliano's for the other supplies you'll need to produce your own hard cider. Whether it be buckets, carboys, chemicals, or yeast we will be more than happy to help you find what you need and also provide instruction. Please bear in mind, however, that neither Siciliano's nor its credit card machines will be involved in monetary transactions between Vander Mill and interested cider makers. This is to say, be prepared to pay cash for your raw cider.

For more information on basic cider making, please click here. For directions on making "New England style cider", please click here. General questions regarding the cider-making process may be directed to any Siciliano's employee at any time. Just stop in and see us!

New England style cider: the slow road to good drink

Buzz contributor Wes Eaton explains the process of making “New England” style cider, in his words, "a golden drink with a strong acid backbone yet pleasant apple flavor achieved through a slow, 'stressed' fermentation process".

By Wes Eaton

In days gone by, farmers would press their apple bounty into large, barn-stored wine barrels, allowing the raw cider to ferment slowly and naturally, making a strong but sweet beverage for consumption over the winter and cool spring months. Dried fruit was added for sweetness and strength, but this played a dual role as its presence also helped clear the beverage. I like to emulate this process in my home cider brewing, especially the cold fermentation stage, which is key to coaxing raw cider into a balanced and full-bodied elixir rather than an alcoholic, tepid and flabby mouthwash, so often the product of hot, vigorous fermentations. To put it more straight forward, here’s how I go about making my cider.

Attack of the giant carboy!

Once home with your cider--five or six gallons makes a worthwhile batch--sanitize your brewing pail and fill it to just beyond your target volume, say five and a gallons, leaving room enough for the yeast to rise. The extra volume is necessary as you'll lose some cider after fermentation when you siphon it from the primary bucket into the air tight glass carboy for its conditioning phase. Take a reading with your hydrometer next and note the specific gravity and potential alcohol in your record book. With no additives, my batch this year came in at 1.050 S.G., with a potential alcohol of 7%, meaning that if all sugars are converted, I’ll have a decently warming beverage. Like wine, cider “finishes dry”, meaning that all of the available sugars in solution will be eaten by the yeast, yielding a final gravity reading of below 1.000, the gravity of water.

When your fermentor is full and gravity reading recorded, your must is ready for inoculation with yeast. There are other steps that many cider makers take at this stage--testing the pH, testing the acid and making adjustments, or adding sulfites to sanitize your must from wild yeasts. Let’s leave those steps for more advanced, future batches and move straight ahead to adding the yeast. Knowing the quality of the source of your cider is key to this step [see note below], as is a little faith that good-tasting raw cider will yield great-tasting hard cider. There are many yeast options available, but I suggest a dry American or English ale yeast such as those offered by Safale. If you are a beer brewer or wine maker, it's here you would snip and sprinkle in the entire package. Not so with cider, not with New England-style cider anyway, and here's why.

Look closely: you can almost see the raisins.

Adding the standard, full-size shot of yeast (typically one package) induces a quick, healthy fermentation where the sugar is converted into alcohol over the period of days and the resulting drink must be moved quickly off the spent yeast cake. This standard fermentation, while perfectly functional, drastically changes the flavor of the raw cider, dissolving the taste of apples and accentuating to taste of alcohol. To slow this down, there are two things the old farmers figured out long ago: add only a little yeast, say a 1/4 tsp per five gallons (if any at all) and ferment your cider in a cool place, preferably between 46-56F. Simply sprinkle your yeast on the surface and attach your lid and airlock. Next, look for a cold spot in your home, like a back stairwell, cellar, three-season porch or closet on an outside wall. If the temperature temporarily drops, that’s okay; your yeast is hardy! [Editors note: both the author and Siciliano's recommend keeping your cider at room temp (68 degrees) for a day or two after pitching the yeast and before moving it to your "cellar" location; this allows the yeast to gain a necessary, if tenuous foothold.]

By this process you achieve a “stressed” fermentation -- metabolization (yeast multiplication) and alcohol conversion happen slowly, gradually, over an entire season as opposed to a number of days, thereby preserving the flavors of your carefully blended apples and providing the perception of sweetness and body despite a technically dry-finishing beverage. Let this happen in a brew pail or, if you’d rather see the colors move from leather to copper to gold, let your cider ferment in a glass carboy. You’ll know when it's time to transfer by noting this color change. As the cider begins to clear, sometime around late winter or early spring, slowly siphon the must off the now-dormant yeast cake and into a clean carboy, making sure that the carboy is topped-up to prevent oxidation from contact with air. Your cider has now undergone its long, slow primary fermentation and has been moved into a secondary vessel; it's time now to add a final ingredient: raisins.

Orange: fruit & hue.

As noted, the tannins found on raisins contribute to the desired translucence and also add both body and sweetness. Since your remaining yeast is now dormant, stressed into submission from their uphill battle against the cold, sweet wort, the concentrated sugars found on the raisins add delicate and complex flavors of plumbs and figs, ultimately enhancing the perception of apples. Specifically, I use organic white raisins. Whatever you use, be careful to choose raisins not coated with vegetable oil, a common additive. Add about a half-pound, then top up the vessel, attach your airlock and let age as long as you can, at least one month.

Your cider can then be packaged either still (non-carbonated) in bottles or racked into a home kegging set-up. To make your bottled batch sparkling, you’ll need to add fresh yeast along with 1/4 cup of corn sugar boiled and cooled in a cup of water before bottling. The result is a sparkling, golden elixir, the hue of honey, with the aroma of a summer apple orchard and taste of a crisp Fuji on a hot, summer afternoon. While this is only one way to approach making cider, this is my favorite, and I hope you too enjoy this patient and rewarding method.

Black & white for dramatic effect

*Regarding ingredients: Hard cider starts with sweet or raw cider, which is called ‘must’ or ‘wort’ by brewers, as is any unfermented fruit- or barley-based liquid. Preferably, your cider will come from an orchard and mill close to your home, one which blends the juice from a variety of acidic (tart) apples, such as Jonagold, Golden Delicious and Ida Red, with those of the sweet, sugary sort, such as Macintosh. My source is Hill Bros. Orchards & Cider Mill northwest of Grand Rapids. Winner of multiple awards for the raw stuff, Hill Bros. accommodates the amateur cider maker like no other, offering to fill buckets or even bourbon barrels with their continually-tested blend of four or five varietals, sold below three bucks a gallon well into the new year. While theirs is highly-prized cider, most any fresh, local cider will do, as long as it has not been pasteurized (UV pasteurization is fine).