COOKING WITH HARD APPLE CIDER RECIPES

Steps:

• crush and dissolve campden tablets in a cup of warm water and mix well with the FRESH apple juice in your primary fermenter.
• Let stand over-night. Mix in all other ingredients except yeast making sure everything is dissolved, then sprinkle yeast over top of juice and cover with plastic sheet and ferment 3 to 5 days.
• Rack (siphon) into secondary fermenter and attach air lock.
• Rack again in 3 weeks.
• When all fermentation is finished, rack into a clean vessel and add 2 oz of white sugar and gently stir well.
• (I usually put the sugar into a bit of water and dissolve it first by boiling it in the microwave) When sugar is well mixed, bottle and age 3 months.
• This will give you a crisp, carbonated hard cider.
• * the more sugar you add, the more alcohol you will get, but the longer it will take to ferment. I would recommend from 1/2 to 1 pound per gal/4.5 l and not more than 2 lbs.

Steps:

• Other items you'll need: Stock pot, stirring spoon, 1 gallon glass jug, rubber stopper with hole for airlock (available from your local home-brew shop), Airlock (also available from your local home-brew shop), enough bottles to hold one gallon of your cider (screw top bottles that have already held carbonated beverages are ideal.).
• Pour about half of the cider into the stock pot and heat to 80°.
• Stir in honey and continue to stir until honey is completely dissolved.
• Remove from heat.
• Cool the cider to 75°.
• Funnel warm cider into 1 gallon glass jug.
• Add enough of remaining cider to fill jug (with 3 or 4 inches of space left at the top.).
• Add yeast.
• Place stopper and airlock on jug.
• Let the jug rest in a cool dark place for approximately a week.
• Fill screw top bottles with cider, then let sit for 2 or 3 more days in that same cool dark spot.
• Refrigerate and drink!