Is Cider naturally gluten free?
 

I am brewing my first hard cider for the holidays. I have a friend with celiac disease, and would love her to be able to enjoy this.

For this recipe, I only used Zeigler's Apple Cider (confirmed with a company spokesperson, the only ingredient is apples, no potassium sorbate) and WL Cider Yeast. No additional sugars during fermentation. I plan on using priming sugar during bottling for carbonation.

Thanks for the feedback.

Your cider will have about 2ppm Gluten, well below the standard to be called "Gluten Free", although not actually free of gluten.

She should be fine, but everyone is different. If you want a fully gluten free cider, use a dry yeast. S04 works fantastically.

so is the ~2ppm due to the liquid yeast or priming sugar? After second consideration, I think I will be using apple juice concentrate in place of priming sugar, if that makes a difference (about 1 can concentrate per 5 gallons).

White labs yeast has about 12ppm gluten in the packet that dilutes to about 2ppm gluten in a 5gal batch.

Oh, and you can prime with whatever you like, I suggest the concentrate as well so long as you can measure it to be the same as priming sugar.

I know nothing about brewing gluten free, but I do know about S-04, and if you're trying to go gluten free, just use it instead of the liquid yeast.

I use dry wine yeast in my cider. I'd suggest the concentrate too, but if you can't calculate that then use priming sugar.

When I've made cider I've used both wine and S04 yeast, both work really well.
I've also primed with apple juice - not concentrate, and it came out fine. You can calculate the amount you need from the label on the juice, most have to declare how much sugar they have in them these days.

I use Nottingham for my cider, although that yeast hasn't been very reliable as of late. I have some on draft right now and I can't stop drinking it.

i bought a jug of knudsens organic apple juice yesterday to spike the slow way.. i was curious how it would turn out. raised the temp to 110. added 1/2tsp of yeast nutrient. capped it and shook it for 5 minutes (well my girlfriend was cold so i gave her something to do that would warm her up). then pitched a fourth of a pack of champagne yeast. air locked and closeted the sucker. well see what happens... but for 6 bux a jug, to get a glass jug with the hard work done.... im not complaining

You put a lot more effort than I do into your cider. Open container, dump into bucket, pitch yeast, come back in 6 months. About $15 for 5gal too.

The glass jug would be nice though and yours will turn out well, I am sure of that.