I don't mean to offend, but..

[Skullfingr]

I've done a lot of searching and dabbled in brewing my own cider and it honestly seems like the recipe is so very simple.

Apple Juice/Cider + Yeast = Hard Cider.

Is it just me or does this not seem as complicated as folks make it out to be? Find the right juice or cider, and add a good packet of yeast and wait a long time.

Am I wrong here?

 

[Yooper]

Yep, it's that simple.

Except, it's not.

Just like wine- "get good pinot noir grapes, and make wine"! Sure, easy to say but not so easy in the end.

Sure, the recipe is that simple. But what goes into the cider isn't that simple. You want a good mix of tart cider apples, and not sweet apples. Some apple varieties have natural tannin-like flavor and give better juice than others. Some years, the apples have more sugar or less sugar. Sometimes the acidity is too much, or not enough. The basic recipe to "get cider and add yeast" is way too simplistic for accomplished cidermakers because every apple crop is different, each pressing is different, and the blend of apples can be different.

 

[Kashue]

It's a case of many small factors that can each make a significant difference. For instance I started on juice as my base and moved to apple cider, and the way cider behaves in primary ferment is already hugely different. Hands down though, the hardest part is deciding how to wrap it up. Backsweetening with natural sugars, letting it carbonate, then arresting it before all the sweet is gone is hair raising and I still don't have it just right. I think maybe the hard part isn't so much making cider RIGHT, as making it CONSISTENT. You can treat two batches just exactly the same way and end up with a very different final product. Although this is really true of any alcoholic beverage, I would think.

Mind you, the end result of all this is having to make lots and lots of cider, so I'm totally okay with it.

 

[D-Hutt]

I've been thinking about trying my hand at cider this Fall. I live in the NE and have access to tons of apples. Any particular varieties common for making hard cider that I should look out for? I've got a buddy that's making a trip up to apple country and planning to press his own cider and offered to bring back 5g for me to use - I just need to let him know the right apple to press.

 

[Skullfingr]

Thank you for all your responses! Again, I didn't mean to offend anyone but I genuinely didn't know.

I'm currently working on my second cider. The first cider was juice from concentrate bought from walmart. It turned out terrible. A bit of aging worked wonders but it wasn't something I would even give away. Now I'm working with Whole Foods' 365 organic gallon apple juice, fresh pressed and "organically pasteurized" (whatever that means) with Lavlin yeast and I suspect it will be much better.

 

[Tom_c]

You pretty much hit the nail on the head, and Kashue is exactly right. I've made several batches not varying anything, and I mean anything, from juice (same kind bought, which is where the variability comes in) to yeast to time to pretty much no variables at all, and they all taste different. I think cider is a lot like wine, in that unless you get the exact same apples from the exact same tree..... Even store bought juice varies tremendously. Once I figured out that I'd never make the same thing twice, I chilled out and enjoy making it the same way, just changing up the backsweetening trying to get the taste I'm looking for.

I've gotten a couple of buddies started with cider since they thought brewing beer would be too hard. Apple juice/cider, sugar to up the ABV, yeast, more sugar to carb, non fermentables to sweeten (if needed), done. There are a lot of things you can do with it once you get the basics down, but the basics don't need to change to have a good time with it. Apple juice/cider, sugar, yeast.

My one buddy is doing a lot of different one gallon batches until he comes up with something HE thinks is palatable, and then he'll start doing bigger batches, but it's all in what YOU like.

My current base reciepe is 4 gallons Harris Teeter Cider, 2 lbs white sugar, and Safeale S05. I keg, and use the last gallon for sweeters. I've used plain apple cider, apple juice, juice and sugar, juice and artificial sweetners, and this last batch I did a half gallon of cherry juice and a half gallon of cherry pomegrante juice. Since I keg and force carb, no worries about exploding bottles, but if careful you can still do it without a keg.