Cider in its taste resembles apple juice, its strength is more like beer, its density is similar to champagne, and it can hardly be called non-alcoholic. He drinks easily, and there are a huge number of different cider recipes.
We choose and cook fruits
Each recipe requires proper preparation of the products. The requirements and recommendations in our case are as follows:
1. Apples should not be excessively sour or sweet - such fruits will do nothing but harm, they simply will not be able to achieve the required degree.
2. Apples for making cider at home are best taken in later varieties. The fruit should not be unripe, overripe, fallen (trace from the blow), and even more so rotten or with a worm.
3. Use only one variety for making cider, because only in this way you will achieve the pure taste of an apple drink.
4. Another important fact: under no circumstances should you wash the fruits; it is permissible only to wipe each apple with a soft rag. After washing the fruits, you will wash away the natural, wild yeast, which means you will do great harm. Indeed, it is due to this yeast that cider will ferment.
Standard Cider Recipe
There are many options for making cider, but before moving on to them, you must first master the standard, basic version. So, we bring to your attention the classic version of the preparation of cider with a small fortress, alluring aroma and subtle honey notes.
We will need:
- Apples - 5 kilograms.
- Sugar - 750 grams.
- Clean sterilized jars.
- Cinnamon, star anise, lemon - to taste.
The degree of cider depends on the amount of sugar. In the product prepared according to the recipe below, the classic 7-8 degrees.
Cooking:
- Do not peel apples, mash them using a meat grinder.
- Take cans, fill them with apple puree half.
- Pour sugar at the rate of 150 grams of sand per 1 kilogram of apples.
- Cover with two-layer gauze and hide in a dark and warm room for 4 days.
- Stir the contents daily.
- At the first signs of fermentation, i.e., when bubbles appear, start collecting juice.
- Squeeze, pour into a clean jar of 3 liters.
- Wear a medical glove over the throat of the can, making a small hole with a needle in 2 fingers.
- Hide the jar, but for 2 months.
- After this period, the glove should look fallen, the drink is light, and the sediment should lie at the bottom. Filter, pour over and seal tightly. Leave for 3 months already in a cool place so that the drink ripened.
Here is such a simple cider recipe. It is drunk chilled, poured at an average distance to allow carbon dioxide to escape. Shelf life is 6 months.
From apple juice
If for certain reasons it is impossible to make cider from natural apples, then here is the recipe that allows you to do this with the juice of these fruits.
We will need:
- Natural, undiluted juice - 3 liters.
- Sugar - 2 tablespoons.
- Wine yeast - 50 grams.
The cider recipe is simple:
- Cooking the leaven. Pour pure water into a glass halfway and add wine yeast and 2 tablespoons of sugar.
- Mix and leave for an hour to begin fermentation.
- Pour 3 liters of natural apple juice into a 3-liter sterilized jar and pour the finished sourdough there.
- We put a glove with a hole on the throat.
- After the glove drops, filter the drink, remove the yeast.
- Pour into a bottle and tightly close.
The benefit of cider is to preserve all vitamins and nutrients. It is necessary to store the product in the refrigerator, but the shelf life is short, after which the cider resembles apple cider vinegar.
Cider with honey
Ordinary apple cider can be ennobled with a delicate honey taste. We will need:
- Apples - 8 kilograms.
- Viscous natural honey - 1.5 kilograms.
- Water - 6 liters.
Cooking:
- Cut the fruit into 4 pieces and place them in a canvas bag.
- Tie the bag well and place it in an enameled pan, cover with a wooden sieve and crush it all with a load (you can use a bucket full of water).
- Dilute honey in hot boiled water and add to the pan, covering with a gauze cloth.
- For 5 days, hide in a dark, cool place until the fermentation process.
- Separate the pulp and clean liquid, pour the first again with honey water.
- Repeat the previous procedure, pouring the resulting drink into various cans.
- Mix all 3 ciders into one and remove for 9 months.
- At the end, tightly close and place in a cold place for another month.
No doubt, the process compared to the previous ones is very laborious, but the result is also worth the energy costs.
Dried fruit cider at home
To prepare a delicious apple drink, you can also use dried fruits, and the result is as if prepared from natural apples or fresh apple juice. The main condition - the dried fruit should be without seeds and peels. Cooking:
- Dried fruits are placed in a clean, preferably glass dish, and pour clean water in a proportion of 10 liters of water per 1 kilogram of dried fruits.
- Cover with gauze and leave in a cool place for 5 days before the start of fermentation.
- After the beginning of the fermentation process, clog the container and do not touch the month.
Bottled a month later and place the apple cider in a cool place to store.
Pear drink
Cider is not necessary to cook only from apples, especially if you do not like this fruit. An excellent analogue will be a pear. We will need:
- Fresh pears - 15 kilograms.
- Sugar - 750 grams.
Cooking:
- Cut the pears in half, cut out the core, make the pulp juice.
- Pour into a container for fermentation and wrap it with a completely dense gauze, put in a warm room.
- As soon as after 2 days the fermentation process begins, add sugar, mix and close with a water seal.
- In a dark room with an average temperature of 3 weeks we leave to roam.
- To filter out the precipitate, pour the clarified liquid into another container and seal tightly.
- Leave the bottles in a warm and dark place for 2 weeks.
The strength of pear cider is 5-8 degrees, and the shelf life is one year at a temperature of 15 degrees.