How to Make Apple Cider (and Apple Cider Vinegar)
Making your own apple cider is not that hard, promise! And with this very same apple cider, you can make your own homemade apple cider vinegar.
What a great way to get the most out of apple season!
This article will teach you the easiest way possible as it could be much more complex.
- Fermentation Type: Alcoholic (~ 5%) for the cider, and acetic for the vinegar
- Preparation time: 1 hour
- Fermentation time: 6 weeks
How to Make Apple Cider (and Apple Cider Vinegar)
Equipment
- Bowl
- Brewing sanitizer
Ingredients
- 1 g Champagne yeast (or beer yeast)
- 100 ml warm water
- 1 teaspoon cane sugar for yeast activation (+ 2 teaspoons cane sugar)
- 4 L fresh unfiltered apple juice, without preservatives
Steps
- Clean and sanitize the equipment.
- In a bowl, activate the yeast in lukewarm water with sugar, or according to the instructions on the package.
- Pour the apple juice into the carboy or jar, then the activated yeast. Close and fix the airlock.
- Ferment at room temperature (from 16 to 22°C/60 to 71°F) for 30 days or until there are no apparent bubbles in the airlock.
- Let stand in the refrigerator for 24 hours to decant the cider. The yeast will settle at the bottom.
- Sanitize the bottles, then carefully pour the cider, taking care not to lift the yeast deposit. Discard the solid residue.
- Add ½ teaspoon sugar in each bottle, close and ferment at room temperature for 2 weeks.
Keeps 2 months at room temperature or 6 months in the refrigerator.
For more information on homemade cider, see our Homemade Hard Cider Kit Manual.
How to Make Apple Cider Vinegar
If your cider has an olfactory defect – or worse, taste – everything is not lost: turn it into vinegar!
Simply replace the airlock on the carboy with a breathable cloth and then forget it in a corner of the house or attic for at least 6 months. That’s it, the trick is done! You can already get started on the preparation of marinades.
If patience is not part of your qualities, add a few drops of unpasteurized vinegar to speed up the acetic fermentation process. A visible mother of vinegar will form in vinegar. It can be used to speed up your next batch of vinegar.
Want to learn more about the process? Here is our Vinegar Making Guide 101!
Many grandmothers confirm that apple cider vinegar is excellent for digestion. Just swallow a tablespoon before meals. When we were young, we also used it to cure hangovers!
Recipe from the «Fermentation revolution» book.
Get started!
- Buy the Revolution Fermentation Hard Cider Making Kit
- Buy a fermentation carboy
- Other homemade alcohol recipes:
