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PhoenixCoyote

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Hello,
I am interested in making a carbonated hard cider to drink in this hot AZ weather. I am new to homebrewing, made 3 batches of beer so far. Does the process take longer than the beer? Can i buy a cider kit at a HBS store or online? Any advice will be greatly appreciated. Thanks.
 
Hey man-

It doesn't take a heck of a lot longer than beer, or at least normal beers. My batch took me about 10 days in primary, about a month in secondary, then bottle with a bit of extra sugar and give it 2 weeks to get fizzy.

Of course, ours may have taken longer than normal... we put 5 lbs of sugar in, I believe, a 5 gallong batch. I have no idea what the S.G. or ABV was, but I'm thinking it's higher than what you'd want to simply quench an Arizona thirst.
 
as for buying a kit, that's not necessary. (I'm not even sure they exist.) You want to get pasteurized (sp?), preservative free apple juice. You add some sugar to this (or not). Boil the sugar in water to sanitize before adding it to the juice. Throw in some ale or cider yeast, and let it do it's thing.

-walker
 
P funky said:
Hey man-

It doesn't take a heck of a lot longer than beer, or at least normal beers. My batch took me about 10 days in primary, about a month in secondary, then bottle with a bit of extra sugar and give it 2 weeks to get fizzy.

Of course, ours may have taken longer than normal... we put 5 lbs of sugar in, I believe, a 5 gallong batch. I have no idea what the S.G. or ABV was, but I'm thinking it's higher than what you'd want to simply quench an Arizona thirst.
Click to expand...
Thanks for your reply. Yours might be too strong for the AZ heat, better on a cold night in Alaska where i came from. Thanks again.
 
For hot weather, just straight juice, no extra sugar would be my choice. A good apple juice will run around 6% ABV when it is done fermenting. Some times, I'll even cut that with soda water and lots of ice.
 
Ya, I gotta agree there, though once it's done in secondary, I recommend:

Rack back into the primary (to get the sediment out of the way pre-bottling), stir in, like, 3/4 cup (NOT lb, cup!- as I learned to my chagrin) of sugar (in a simple syrup, if you want) and bottle. It'll be sparkly and delicious. Not sweet, though. If you want sweet, you have to do it differently.
 

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