How to Brew Hard Cider (Sorta)

Explore Guides

Start the Guide ›

How to Brew Hard Cider (Sorta)

Chris DuBois

798 Views

Step 1 of 8

In a clean mason jar add apple juice, sugar, and yeast. Cover and shake. Remove the cover and rinse. Add a piece of paper towel to the top and replace the lid. Allow to ferment for a few days

Step 2 of 8

Shortly after shaking so you can see the air bubbles in the mixture.

Step 3 of 8

This was after about 12 hours of fermentation. Even with just bread yeast there was healthy fermentation taking place. There was a faint odor of baking bread and cider.

Step 4 of 8

Another 12 hours and the yeast have started to settle out. Bread like smell subsiding alcohol like smell is now present.

Step 5 of 8

About 36 hours later about 60 hours since fermentation began. Definite alcohol smell present along with a pleasant cider smell. Yeast have settled a lot but are still at work.

Step 6 of 8

Decided to pour a shot of the cider 60 hours in. There is still faint carbonation since the cider is still fermenting. Little touch of alcohol but WAY too sweet. Tastes like over sweet hard cider!

Step 7 of 8

This experiment was born out of boredom/curiosity. I used ingredients I had on hand (hence bakers yeast). I am quite surprised by how well this turned out. It won't win any awards but its drinkable.

Step 8 of 8

Same cider after a full week. The sweetness is almost gone and there is a tart twang to it now with a warm alcohol flavor at the back of the throat. Again, surprisingly good for so little effort!

You're Done

Follow this author & check out some other guides!

Chris DuBois

Keep Exploring

DIY

How to Make a DIY Scarf Hanger

by Robin Bastian

231

2.2k

Home

How to Get Water Directly to the Roots

by Build.com

263

7.3k

Sports & Fitness

How to Workout During Commercials

by P+K _

937

8.5k

Start Over

6 Comments

Supplies

Embed

Charence

Tennessee

Hannah S

Gothenburg, Sweden

Madge Allende Pascal

London, UK

Diane Van Every

Deziree Esposito

Jessica McElroy

Houston, Texas

Brad Conner

Denver, CO

Douglas Donahue

Phillip G

Chris DuBois

Ross McNeil

Matthew Madrid

Karl Brown

Melbourne, Victoria, Aus...

Enya Schumacher

Charlotte, North Carolin...

Katy Dulle

Steve L

Matthew Freeman

James Partsch Jr

Sven B

Mark Reis

Katie Bradshaw

Penelope Spencer

Apple Juice or cider

Mason jar

Sugar

Yeast

You can also get a growler bottle to ferment the cider in, and you could use a balloon with a hole it it on top to let out the c02. Be sure to get apple justice that doesn't have preservatives, otherwise it could kill the yeast.

Phillip G 6 months ago

Do you think the added sugar is necessary? The apple juice wouldn't have enough sugar on its own for the yeast?

Anna Sagatelova 6 months ago

I'm getting a brew kit for Christmas so in a few weeks time I'll be trying this on a larger scale with traditional cider yeast. But until then this was a fun experiment and I ended up being quite surprised by how well the bread yeast fermented the sugar.

Chris DuBois (author) 6 months ago

There are brew shops popping up a lot around tremont and Ohio city that would probably have all kinds of yeast for these projects. Looks like it'd be fun to try

Anna Sagatelova 6 months ago

Yup.

Chris DuBois (author) 6 months ago

That's fun! Are you from Cleveland?

Anna Sagatelova 6 months ago

Be first to comment on Step 1.

Be first to comment on Step 2.

Be first to comment on Step 3.

Be first to comment on Step 4.

Be first to comment on Step 5.

Be first to comment on Step 6.

Be first to comment on Step 7.