Roland's Quick and Lazy Hard Apple Cider

[RolandD]

I've been experimenting with store bought juice to find recipes that are quick, easy, and delicious. I've come up with two, so far, that taste great and that I'm sure I can repeat with ease. This is my recipe for a simple Apple Cider. I plan on tweaking it in the future by adding tannin and/or acid blend to see how they change the flavor, but this is a delicious basic recipe on it's own.

6.75 Gallons Great Value Apple Juice (9 - 96 oz bottles)​

2 Tbls Yeast Nutrient​

1 Tbls Yeast Energizer​

1 Pkt Lalvin D-47 Yeast​

5 Cans Great Value Frozen Apple Juice Concentrate (for sweetening)​

That's it. I put the Nutrient and Energizer in the fermenter. I then aggressively pour half a bottle of juice, cap and violently shake the bottle and pour the remaining juice, repeat. I pitch the yeast dry and give it a stir.

OG 1.049

I racked to secondary after twelve days. Added K-Meta on 18th day, K-Sorb on 19th day. After 26 days, FG 1.001, I racked the cider on to the five cans of FAJC in the keg. I tapped the keg 31 days after I started this batch and I'm confident that I could have gone to Secondary after seven days, kegged after 14. The highest temp in my brew closet was 66 degrees, for the Primary, it was 71 degrees.

 

[BigJay13]

What size batch are you making? For 5 gallons would you do like 5.75 gallons apple juice and 4 cans of concentrate? Wife likes ciders but I haven’t tried to make one yet.

 

[RolandD]

What size batch are you making? For 5 gallons would you do like 5.75 gallons apple juice and 4 cans of concentrate? Wife likes ciders but I haven’t tried to make one yet.

One can of FAJC per gallon. I made this to keg in a 5 gallon corny. I like having the extra to play around with and sweeten separately. I even gave my boss a quart, still and unsweetened, because he likes dry wines. I also have a carb cap and stone so I can carbonate it in a 2L bottle and try different carb levels.

 

[Erkle42]

I've been doing something similar with my local brand of Apple Juice(Allen's).
(Per half gallon bottle: )

320gm(11-12oz) sugar
1/2 package of yeast(I've used many different kinds, they all taste pretty good)​

OG: 1.102​

(remove 200ml(6-7 oz) Apple Juice)
1)320gm(11-12oz) Sugar, (you can add your yeast nutrient here, if you want)
2)'gosh darn good shake'(tm)
3)half packet of yeast(I've used pretty much all of the red star brewing yeasts and lalvin ec-1118, k1-v1116, d-47, 71b-1122)
4) Airlock and sit for week or two. here I've played around with it because I am impatient and want to drink it. primary fermentation is typically finished 7-10 days. I've had some really nice clear ciders after two or three weeks and cold crashing.

OG: 1.10282(By calculation of dissolved grams/L)

 

[Bender]

I make something similar, but I use 4.5 gal of juice so it comes to 5 gal at the end. I don't use a stabilizer so it has to be chilled. Also, I add two Tbl of LD Carlson (Brewer's Best) apple flavoring which masks any yeasty scents.

 

[jtratcliff]

I'm a fan of Ed Wort's version of a dead-simple, dry German-style cider: Man, I love Apfelwein

I buy whatever store brand apple juice is on sale for $0.99/ half gallon and add 2 lbs brown sugar (instead of corn sugar in the original)... Montrachet yeast... drops clear in about 2 months... drinkable right away, gets better with age..

I prefer it sparkling.. 1 cup table sugar for 6 gallon batch...