14 Homemade Apple Cider Recipes: The Best of the Best

It has already been established that alcoholic beverages are associated mainly with men. Women, according to the unwritten rules of good manners, are allowed to sip sweet liquor, enjoy splashes of dry champagne, or, as much as possible, drown the load of household worries in a glass of wine. That, perhaps, is all.

Therefore, girls, I have good news for you – meet apple cider. A very light fruity drink with a slight degree, pleasant to the taste, and most importantly, was invented in medieval Europe especially for ladies.

What is this drink

Apple cider is a kind of wine made from apples (unexpected, right?). In the classic version, you need only two ingredients – the actual apples and sugar. If your apples are not very good, or if your hands grow from the wrong place, then you will have to add a little yeast.

The essence of cooking boils down to the fact that apples with sugar in the absence of oxygen begin to ferment with the formation of alcohol. Well, just like grape wine!

The story of

The classic recipe appeared in Western Europe, or rather, in Navarre, from where it then spread to French Normandy. The first mention of it dates back to the XII century, although there is not so much data about those times. But in the XVIII – XIX centuries, the production of alcohol from apples was already regulated, and the mention of it became a frequent occurrence in literature.

Surprisingly, cider was first regarded as an exclusively feminine drink. Only in the XNUMXth century did it become not shameful for the stronger sex to drink it, although in popularity the product of apple fermentation was much inferior to wine and beer.

Today it is sold in any store and is considered a premium product, as it costs a little more than beer. In recent years, cider has turned into a fashionable chip of advanced youth, riding on a natural trend.

Types

Today, production is subject to technological regulations that classify it. Real cider must contain at least 50% apple juice, and its strength must not exceed 8 revolutions.

In our stores, the former are much more common. Sharp pleasant bubbles on the tongue resemble champagne and make the product not only intoxicating, but also exquisitely tonic.

The color of real apple cider can be from almost transparent to amber-brown. Small sediment and light suspension in the bottle are allowed.

Fortress

The strength of apple cider varies from 1 to 8% and depends on the aging time, the amount of added sugar and the original quality of the raw material, i.e. apples. Traditionally, it is not fixed with alcohol, although in stores you can now find anything and even such a perversion.

You can see how many degrees contain famous brands:

• Ruwet Apple 0,33 л — 4,5 %;
• Aval Cider Artisanal 0,33 l – 6%;
• Abrau-Durso Cider Semi-sweet 0,75 l – 5,5%;
• Thatchers Rose 0,5 l – 4%;
• Fournier Rose 0,75 l — 3%.

Caloric content and composition

The calorie content of apple cider is relatively low – about 50-60 kcal per 100 g of product. Nutritional value is provided by simple carbohydrates from sugar and apples.

The composition, for example, of such a popular drink as Somersby includes drinking prepared water, apple juice concentrate, glucose-fructose syrup (sugar), citric acid and Apple flavoring.

Useful properties and harm of cider

Despite the fact that apple cider is a natural product, there are not many benefits from it. Of course, it contains vitamin C for immunity, and antioxidants for the heart and blood vessels, and pectins for digestion, however, the benefits of all this are more than offset by the presence of alcohol.

If you want to drink alcohol and choose from several options, then in terms of the number of useful nutrients, it will be in second place, second only to dry red wine.

We remind you that any alcohol is harmful to health, and therefore it is impossible to talk about any beneficial properties of alcoholic beverages in comparison, for example, with natural juices and simply raw fruits.

Противопоказания

Cider is not recommended for pregnant and lactating women because of the alcohol it contains.

For the same reason, it should not be drunk by children, people with diseases of the nervous system, and some others.

The nutritional value

Homemade apple cider contains neither proteins nor fats. Its nutritional value is due only to carbohydrates, namely fast mono- and disaccharides. In total, the drink contains approximately 5 g of pure sugar per 100 ml.

As for the factory drink, then the manufacturer is free to add as much sugar as he pleases. And this means that the nutritional value will vary depending on the brand.

Vitamins and minerals

Natural cider is rich in vitamins from apples, namely: vitamins C, E, P and group B. This means that theoretically it could increase immunity, improve the condition of the nervous system, skin and blood vessels. However, you need to drink a lot of it for such an effect, and we do not forget that cider contains alcohol!

Also, apples, and hence products from them, are rich in minerals. Phosphorus, calcium, potassium, magnesium, iron and sodium are involved in metabolism and must come from outside. Whether cider is suitable as a source of minerals is also an open question.

Tips for Choosing Apples for Cider

It is optimal if you grew them in your garden or bought them on the market from the most authentic granny. Store copies are often treated with waxes so that they retain their marketable appearance for a long time, do not rot and generally shine in the sun and delight the buyer’s eye. Such fruits categorically do not suit us, and here’s why.

Yeast is needed to start fermentation. Either we bring them in additionally, having bought them in a store, or we are content with natural wild yeast from the surface of apples. The second way is, of course, preferable.

For taste, try to choose apples with sourness. This very sourness indicates the presence of tannins, which give homemade apple cider that characteristic taste and tart bitterness.

If you are completely boring, then the following varieties are ideal:

• fragrant late Jonathan;
• Calvil snowy;
• Black Kingston is an ideal option with its characteristic aristocratic bitterness;
• Ruby Duki is an unspoken classic, a fruitful variety, so the cider will turn out to be inexpensive;
• Mac.

Cider can be prepared from one variety of apples, or by combining them with each other.

Easy Homemade Cider Recipes

Classic apple

To prepare apple cider according to the classic recipe, you will need 5 kg of apples and about 1 kg of sugar. If necessary, the number of ingredients can be increased in the same proportions.

So, during the initial preparation, apples do not need to be washed. It is enough to wipe them with a dry towel. Then remove the cuttings, stalks and leaves. Cut into quarters. The core may not be removed.

1. First you need to grind the raw materials with a juicer or meat grinder. If you have a modern juicer, then you need to put both the resulting juice and the cake into the bottle. By the way, this is a great way to dispose of cake, even if the juice is drunk. However, in this case, it must be diluted with water and additionally add sugar, citric acid and yeast to the balloon.
2. For every kilogram of apples, we add about 160 g of sugar to the balloon. The container should not be filled to the brim, leaving about ¼ of the volume for fermentation. We cover the neck with gauze and leave it in a warm, dark place for 3-4 days. Do not forget to mix the contents 1-2 times a day.
3. After the allotted time has elapsed, shake the bottle with the contents for the last time and filter the resulting. The remaining cake can be squeezed out, but without fanaticism. Now we have to put our cider on a long fermentation.
4. We cork bottles with spilled juice with a water seal, the end of which is lowered into a glass of water. Instead of a water seal, you can use a medical glove with a puncture. In this form, the future apple cider should stand for 40-60 days in a dark place at room temperature. You don’t need to shake it up.
5. Now we have to drain the liquid from the sediment. To do this, the balloon must be raised to an elevation (stool, table, cabinet) and left there for another day or two, so that the suspension we raised again settled to the bottom. Then we drain the cider with a hose, the lower end of which we suck and lower into a clean bottle. No need to lower the hose completely to the bottom of the cylinder. Don’t be greedy or you’ll have to filter all the “trapped sediment” from the cider.
6. If necessary, filter through several layers of cheesecloth.
7. For carbonation, add additional sugar to each bottle at the rate of 10 g per 1 liter of cider and seal tightly. In this form, the drink must stand for a few more weeks in order for pleasant “bulges” to form in it, like in champagne.

Everything, now the apple cider is ready, and you can drink it.

From juice without sugar

If you prepare a drink without sugar, then you will end up with a dry apple wine that is transparent, with little or no sediment. If you decide to make it from juice (without oilcake), then keep in mind that the juice should be homemade, not store-bought.

The step-by-step technology for making apple cider from juice is as follows.

1. Freshly squeezed juice should stand for at least a day.
2. Then we pour it into a clean cylinder, cork it with a water seal and keep it for at least 40 days. There will be sediment at the bottom.
3. We remove from the sediment, filter if necessary.
4. Pour into a clean container and in 3-4 days our cider is ready.

However, without the addition of sugar, apple cider will be dry and non-carbonated. It will be like a good dry wine.

carbonated cider

If you follow the traditional recipe above, you’ll have just got carbonated apple cider. Gas bubbles appear at the final stage of storage, when we add 10 g of sugar per liter of drink and tightly seal it in clean bottles.

Dry cider brut

Dry cider is always popular with the fair sex. Firstly, it contains very little alcohol, and secondly, brut has the least calories of all alcoholic beverages.

To get brut, you need to add the minimum possible amount of sugar and wait until the fermentation is complete. So sugar turns into alcohol, apple cider acquires a characteristic tart-sour taste with a slight bitterness.

Important! If you use sour apples to make apple cider, you still need to add a little more sugar. If the variety is sweet, then it will be possible to get by with the minimum declared quantities so that the juice ferments.

apple pear

To make apple-pear cider, you need to take apples and pears as a raw material in a 1: 1 ratio. Then follow the scheme described above and you will succeed!

However, experienced distillers recommend going even further in their research. To get a cider that is perfectly balanced in taste and aroma, you need to take not just any fruits, but different degrees of sweetness, moreover, in certain proportions.

This also works in the case of pear cider. It turns out that pears and apples should not be taken 1: 1, but focusing on their taste and degree of maturity.

apple honey

Apple-honey cider is not only a fragrant drink, but also 100% natural. Of course, it will cost a little more and take longer to cook than with sugar, but why not try it?

Honey long

So, a recipe with proportions for the same 5 kg of apples that we used in the classic version:

• apples – 5 kg;
• honey – 1 kg;
• water – 4 l.

Remember that apples do not need to be washed, and we do not use additional yeast.

1. We wipe the apples, remove the stalks, rot and leaves. We grind raw materials.
2. Dilute 1/3 honey 1/3 water. Pour apples and put under oppression for a month.
3. After a month, drain the cider from the sediment and pour into a clean bottle. Pour the cake again with a mixture of honey and water. We endure. We filter.
4. For the last time, pour the cake with a solution of honey in water. We endure. We filter.
5. We combine all three portions. We stand in a warm dark place for at least another month, and preferably more.
6. Strain the apple-honey cider before drinking.

With added wine yeast

If you got store-bought apples and their surface is treated with waxes and glycerin, then you can’t do without washing. In this case, to make cider you will need wine yeast in an amount of about 1 gram per liter of juice.

1. Grind apples and sprinkle with sugar at the rate of 100 grams per kilogram of vegetable raw materials. We leave for 3 days to wander.
2. We squeeze the juice, pour it into a large bottle, filling it by about ¾ of the volume. We add yeast and sugar (150 g per liter of juice). Seal with a water seal. We leave to ferment for 40-60 days.
3. Drain from the sediment, filter, bottle, leave for a month.

The alternative method is practically no different from the classic one, except for the need to buy wine yeast. However, supporters of all natural can breathe a sigh of relief.

Expensive industrial wine yeast can be easily replaced with raisins or dried grapes. 150 grams per 5 kg of apples will be enough.

Important! Raisins should not be treated with glycerin or other water retainers. Outwardly, this can be seen by the characteristic brilliance. Real dried raisins are matte with a whitish coating.

from sour apples

Cider is a drink so unpretentious and versatile that it can be made from any apple, even padanka. And she, in turn, is often sour. To counteract this, it is recommended to dilute the juice with water before closing the bottle with a water seal for fermentation.

But don’t sugarcoat it too much. Firstly, it will increase the degree, and secondly, fermentation may stop altogether. Sugar is an excellent preservative, which in large quantities just prevents fermentation and souring. Remember how long berries grated with sugar or condensed milk can be stored?

From forest apples

Cider from forest apples is not very sweet, however, its undeniable advantage is in price. In 99 cases out of 100, forest apples are given to us completely free of charge, except for the effort spent on collecting them.

A small amount of sugars in apples indicates that the raw materials will not ferment on their own, so you need to start the process with some kind of catalyst. Experienced distillers use raisins or dried apples for this (usual drying for compote or izvar). They are placed in a bottle at the stage of fermentation under a water seal, which lasts at least 40 days.

The rest of the recipe is similar to the classic one, which we talked about at the beginning of the article.

Recipe according to Brockhaus and Efron

We have already seen that apple cider is a drink common in many European countries, however, it was also known in Russia. And a very long time ago. The famous “Encyclopedic Dictionary of Brockhaus and Efron” mentions it, citing the original recipe of the XNUMXth century.

According to the recipe, for a tasty and fragrant cider, it was necessary to take 2 parts of sweet fruits and 1 part of tart ones. If you want the drink to survive the winter and generally stand for a long time, then the inverse proportions are taken – for 1 part of sweet apples, 2 parts of sour-tart ones.

And our ancestors also noticed such subtleties – it is advisable to take apples that ripen at the same time.

Cherry

As you already understood, cider is made not only from apples. It is not forbidden to add any fragrant fruits and berries to it. The main thing is that they support fermentation (they were not very acidic) and were not poisonous.

The most interesting apple cider recipe with cherries even got its own unique name.

Dragon’s blood

This is an original recipe, which is distinguished by its strength and rich scarlet color. To achieve the desired shade, cider is not made purely from apples, but cherries are added to the raw materials. Lots of cherries, almost 1:1 ratio with apples.

Cherry for this, you can take any, even sour small game.

We infuse the cider according to the standard scheme, tightly sealing the bottles with the final product to form the “champagne” effect.

To make the cider even more original, you can add strong alcohol to it – cognac or dark rum. Then “Dragon’s Blood” will 100% justify its name.

Non-alcoholic

Non-alcoholic apple cider is not exactly cider. According to the method of preparation, it is more like a sbitel or izvar. But for cases when it is necessary to refrain from drinking alcohol, this drink is quite suitable.

So, for the fastest non-alcoholic cider we need:

• apples;
• carbonated mineral water with a neutral taste;
• honey or sugar;
• spices – cinnamon, star anise, cloves, vanilla.

You need to squeeze the juice from apples, let it settle and strain. Then we heat the juice on the stove, after lowering the spices into the saucepan. No need to boil the mixture! Add honey or sugar, cool, filter again.

Before serving, dilute with carbonated mineral water to get the effect of “champagne”. Ready!

Common mistakes when making cider at home

No one is immune from mistakes, especially in the difficult task of making alcohol. So, what mistakes are most often made by beginners:

1. Wash apples, washing off wild yeast. No yeast, no fermentation.
2. Add a lot of yeast. In this case, the cider will have a characteristic yeast aroma, which will not do him good.
3. Do not stand until all the sugar has fermented. As a result, the bottles into which the finished product is poured can simply break from the gas accumulated in them.
4. Overage cider. In this case, alcoholic fermentation will turn into acetic. From the name it is clear what exactly we will get in the end.
5. Use unwashed containers. Delicate wild yeast from apples cannot compete with other life forms and die.
6. Leave the jar to wander in the room. It doesn’t happen once at a time, and during a particularly violent fermentation, the cork can shoot right into the freshly whitewashed ceiling or new furniture.

And this is not a complete list of errors. We think everyone will find something to add to it …

Related Videos

While making apple cider is a hell of a lot of work, it’s always best to watch someone more experienced do it.

How to drink cider and with what

Apple cider or fruit and berry cider is a refreshing tonic low-alcohol drink. Accordingly, it is better to serve it chilled in large glasses, decorated with a sprig of mint or a slice of lemon. You can sprinkle a little cinnamon on the cider before serving.

It is better to eat pork or poultry (suckling pig or duck in apples is almost a culinary classic). Sweet cider is usually served with desserts or fruit.

Conclusion

Apple cider is a versatile low-alcohol drink that can be served on the table for any occasion. It is perfect for both a holiday and to quench your thirst in the middle of a hot day at work in the country or in the garden.

It is very easy to make it yourself, which means it is doomed to success and now it will definitely replace store-bought beer in the refrigerator of your country house.

However, he does not need a refrigerator. Apple cider keeps fresh in the cellar or cellar in tightly sealed bottles.