Howdy

[schmendeler]

Hello everyone-

I am just trying to gather information on home brewing. I'm a big fan of cider, so I recently came to the conclusion that I could probably make it at home. Let me know if there are any good books for beginnners; something along the lines of: Cider-making for dummies, that sort of thing. I'd like to read about it before I outlay money for equipment, etc. Thanks in advance!

 

[disaffected]

Welcome to the forum! What's cider? Ha, ok, I'm kidding. I've never brewed any cider though, as I prefer my apples in pie form, but it's a pretty popular thing on this forum, so I bet you can find plenty of information on making cider.

 

[Sir Humpsalot]

Well, if you're just starting out, why don't you join about 30 other people in making this recipe.

Apple juice, apple juice concentrate, dextrose (corn sugar), and yeast is all you need.

Get yourself a carboy ($25), a funnel ($0.99), an airlock ($1.50), a stopper for the carboy ($1.00), a bunch of bottles (free if you know where to look), a bottle capper ($20), and some caps ($3.00) and you're in business. That's about half of what you need to brew beer or make other cider recipes, so you can ease into the purchase of equipment and decide if you want to keep going. From having absolutely nothing, you should be able to get 5 gallons of this recipe into your belly for under $75. That's including the equipment which, of course, you will reuse!

No boiling required, just sanitize everything (bleach will work fine, just be extra careful to get the smell out), and mix it up. Then, as you're waiting for it to ferment, you can read up and take your time to research other recipes and learn the tricks of the trade.

And I know the thread is loooong. On page 37, you'll find that I wrote a summary of all the questions and answers in the entire thread to that point. That ought to cut down on your reading a bit.


Cheers!

 

[zoebisch01]

Welcome! Yeah cider is very easy to make (hard to perfect ) and is a great introduction to fermenting beverages. We have a local press and in the fall take apples from the trees to get some unpasteurized cider. I did my first batch in a 5 gallon water bottle in the basement. At the simplest form you don't even need to do anything but put the fresh cider into a fermentor (could be just about anything with a fairly good cover) and wait. Cider takes a good amount of time to mature though (several months usually). I encourage you to participate in the forums (great info and people here!), but for a primer this is a good one:

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/scrumpy/cider/cider.htm

 

[FrewBrew]

The first thing I'd recommend, before ANY equipment would be The Joy of Homebrewing by Charlie Papazian... great book, has all the info you need to start brewing. It's a fun hobby, cheap to start... not cheap to get REAL into.

 

[schmendeler]

thanks guys, i appreciate it! i like my cider sweeter, is there anyway to keep some sweetness without it being converted to alcohol? i read something about lactose i think, but wouldn't it possibly upset your stomach? i don't have any problems with dairy, but it occurred to me that that could cause some problems possibly. i also read that splenda will work as well. can anyone vouch for that?

once again, thanks guys (and gals?) i've got alot of research to do, i think. i wouldn't want to waste 5 gallons of applejuice if it turned rancid on me.

 

[rdwj]

thanks guys, i appreciate it! i like my cider sweeter, is there anyway to keep some sweetness without it being converted to alcohol? i read something about lactose i think, but wouldn't it possibly upset your stomach? i don't have any problems with dairy, but it occurred to me that that could cause some problems possibly. i also read that splenda will work as well. can anyone vouch for that?

once again, thanks guys (and gals?) i've got alot of research to do, i think. i wouldn't want to waste 5 gallons of applejuice if it turned rancid on me.

You can use one that doesn't ferment - like lactose. I'm not sure if people use that in cider or not, but it's often used in beer.

 

[schmendeler]

thanks, i might try lactose in half and splenda in the other...