first time making cider, need recipe

i would like to make a sparking apple cider for my girlfriend, something very drinkable, and would like to know if anyone had a good recipe?

Apple juice, yeast, and time.

what kind of yeast, how much time?

Probably a champagne yeast would be good for your sparkling cider.

Are you planning to going sweet or dry?

Well, if this: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f25/man-i-love-apfelwein-14860/ Doesn't do it for ya, I'm sure you'll find something here: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f81/
And of course there's always the apple juice+yeast=cider recipe. Regards, GF.

I really suggest against a wine yeast unless you're planning on making a very "wine-like" and crazy-dry cider. For most people's taste buds an ale yeast works so much better, think s-04 or nottingham. As for time, that really depends on your tastes, I won't drink any of my cider younger than 4-5 months

I'll second the recommendation for ale yeast. I'd guess that maybe 10% tops of my friends like a super dry cider, like you would get with champagne or wine yeast. 90% prefer ale or wheat yeast.

As far as when to drink it, it kinda depends. If you cold crash it with enough residual sweetness to balance the acid, you can have something that is good to go in 2 weeks. But the drier you go, the longer you need to wait for the acids to mellow out

For a simple, basic sparkling semi-dry cider conditioned in the bottle cider, you could try this method and recipe, copied and pasted from a previous thread thread . . . .


1. add 5 gallons of pastuerized apple cider or juice to a sanitzed carboy

2. add 3 teaspoons pectic enzyme to the cider

3. add one packet of dry ale yeast such as Nottingham

4. put on a stopper and airlock, or loosely cover with sanitized aluminum foil

5. let ferment for approximately 1 week or until the cider is at the balance of sweetness /dryness you desire; if you use a hydrometer, a reading of 1.010 will be semi-dry

6. prepare a priming solution of 2/3 cups white sugar boiled in 2 cups of water; cool to room temperature

7. add priming solution and cider to bottling bucket

8. bottle and cap, using bottles made for carbonated beverages such as beer or champagne bottles

9. allow bottles to conditioned and carbonate in an area at least 70 F

10. occasionally test bottles for carbonation process by opening one and tasting

11. when desired carbonation level is reached (but before bottles begin exploding), pasteurize the cider to kill the yeast and stop fermentation; prepare a hot water bath of 190 F water, carefully set the bottles in the bath for ten minutes and remove; repeat until all the bottles are pasteurized


Any recipe uses shorthand - if something is unclear here, or if you have any questions, please feel free to ask - on this thread or via pm. Good luck!

ive got 5 gallons of apple juice, and some nottingham yeast on hand, what kind of result should i expect from that?

That's what I used in the recipe above. Using that process, I ended up with what Ben Watson calls a draft-style cider - light, crisp, semi-dry, refreshing, and sparkling. If you are familiar with Woodchuck, Strongbow, or Magners, it would be similar.

If you don't let it ferment to complete dryness, doesn't that give you a cider that wont be as clear ?

I just started my cider yesterday and I'm shooting for a strongbow clone and was under the impression that I had to let it ferment to complete dryness, rack to second carboy and wait until clear so I can bottle with priming sugar and back sweet it to desired taste ?

do i need to use pectic enzymes??? if so how much?

sorefingers23 said:

do i need to use pectic enzymes??? if so how much?

Click to expand...

So is it that you didn't read my recipe or you don't believe me?