We continue this week with our three-part (formerly two-part) overview of home cider-making. Last week, we discussed gear and materials; for this week, we have a detailed how-to. It is especially fitting that this week’s installment should come as a companion piece to our feature about cider-maker (and Bromfield chef) Paul Correnty, as much of what follows distills Chef Paul’s cider wisdom.
Cleanliness is next to ciderliness
Cleanliness is foundational to good cider-making. Apple juice excels as a medium for growing all sorts of microorganisms, not all of which are beneficial to the cider-maker. To ensure that only the intended kind get to ferment your cider, your gear must be immaculately clean and sanitized. Sanitizer, available from homebrewing suppliers, neutralizes any airborne yeast or bacteria that may have come to rest on your gear. Several varieties are commonly available; I use Iodophor.
Whichever variety you use, you must make sure that any surface of your gear that touches your cider has been flushed or coated with sanitizer for the recommended contact time. This process must be done immediately before you use your gear, every time you use it.
On brew day
At home, cider is most conveniently made in 5-gallon batches, the standard size for fermenters.
After sanitizing your primary fermenter, fill it with 5 gallons of juice, cover it with a lid (for buckets) or stopper (for carboys), equip it with a sanitized fermentation lock, and allow the cider to reach room temperature. If you want to increase the alcohol content of the cider, you may add sugar at this point, which the yeast will convert to alcohol. To do so, hold back 1 to 2 quarts of juice; heat the juice to 150 to 170 degrees and melt 2.5 cups of sugar in the warm cider; simmer for 10 minutes to pasteurize the now extremely sweet juice; then return it to the fermenter. You can use as much as 5 cups of sugar in a 5-gallon batch if you really want to boost alcohol.
Once the juice has reached room temperature, typically 60 to 68 degrees, open the fermenter and add yeast. Before adding the yeast, make sure to sanitize the outside of the yeast packet (or vial) and any scissors required for opening. Stir in the yeast with a large sanitized metal spoon, seal up the fermenter, and step back. From here on out, the yeast does all the work.
Primary fermentation
Within a day or so, bubbles will start rising in the fermentation lock, an indication that the yeast is hard at work converting sugar into alcohol. At the peak of fermentation, bubbles will come every 5 to 10 seconds, sometimes faster. I assure you that the sound of bubbles in the air lock will become like music to your ears.
Don’t allow the fermenter to get too warm; if you’re a novice cider-maker, aim for 60 to 68 degrees. Some cider-makers, Chef Paul among them, like to ferment their ciders in the 50- to 60-degree range. This slows down the activity of the yeast and leads to less of the apple aroma dissipating in those melodious air-lock bubbles. At low temperatures, however, you run more of a risk of getting a “stuck fermentation”; if that sounds to you like something you should avoid, it is.
If you’re choosing to ferment with a Belgian ale strain, throw caution to the wind and allow the fermentation temperature to rise to 72 to 74 degrees, higher if you dare. The raison d’être of these strains is the complex flavors they produce at higher temperatures, ranging from exotic-tasting spices to plums and bananas. If you’re a fan of those idiosyncratic Belgian beers and like the idea of making cider in that mold, then try the Achouffe, Westmalle, or Rochefort strains (White Labs has these, respectively, as their 545, 530, and 540 yeasts).
As to how to control the temperature of your fermenters, the low-tech solution is to put them in a room heated to roughly the right temperature. Avoid placing the fermenter directly on a cold cellar floor, as this can drain the warmth out of the bottom of the fermenter. You can monitor temperature with self-adhesive thermometer strips that attach to the side of the fermenter.
Secondary fermentation
Once the bubbles slow way down (every minute or two) or stop altogether, primary fermentation is complete. This may take from two weeks to a month. While you can technically drink the cider right out of the primary, your cider will be improved if you allow it to rest in a secondary fermenter (typically a carboy). Transfer the cider from primary to secondary with a siphon, making sure to leave as much of the “trub” behind as you can. Trub is the spent yeast and juice particulates that have dropped to the bottom of the fermenter. Equip the secondary with a stopper and air lock, and once again step back.
Over the next few weeks or months, more particulates will drop to the bottom of the secondary, yielding a beautifully clear cider. Cellar temperatures will encourage this precipitation. Meanwhile, naturally occurring malolactic bacteria in the cider will convert any sour malic acid to somewhat less sour lactic acid, improving the cider. If you tasted the cider as you transferred it to the secondary (of course you did), and if it seemed excessively sour at the time, you can encourage the malolactic conversion by inoculating the cider with malolactic bacteria, available from your local homebrew store. These bacteria act faster at warmer temperatures; consider starting the secondary at room temperature for a few weeks, then take it down to the cellar to clarify.
During secondary fermentation is when you can add many flavor-enhancing adjuncts: fruit, oak, hops, and more. We will discuss this next time, along with the last thing that stands between you and your finished cider: bottling.
Marc Vilain is a homebrewer and the author of the monthly Press astronomy column, “Sky Walker.”
