Cheese calculator
Winemaking
You no longer need to ask yourself where to buy good cider — you can now make it yourself. Be sure of its taste and the top quality of the ingredients used to make it. Our recipe will show you how easy it is to make cider from apples alone, so that after about 14 days you can enjoy its flavor. That’s exactly how long it takes to produce homemade cider. Halfway through that time, i.e., after about 7 days, remember to rack it and bottle it. Racking should be done when the sugar from the fruit has completely fermented (BLg 0–1); for this, a hydrometer is recommended. After racking, add sugar for carbonation. After capping the bottles, wait about 7 days.
The entire process of making cider at home is not very demanding. It’s a good drink for beginners, not only because of the level of difficulty, but also because it lets you learn about the fermentation process. Cider is a low-alcohol beverage that ranges from 1.2 to 8.5%, depending on the sugar content in the fruit and the yeast used. It therefore has a much lower alcohol content than apple wine, which is usually 12–18%. The main difference lies in one detail – in cider, apple juice is not sweetened with sugar before fermentation.
Optionally, you can sweeten it with a non-fermentable sugar after fermentation. The best way to add a touch of sweetness is to use xylitol, which is also sold as birch sugar. Xylitol works not only for making cider; it has wide culinary applications. It is used as a sugar substitute in desserts, drinks, juices, fruit and vegetable preserves, and cakes.
It’s worth knowing that using a fermentable sugar, i.e., sucrose (vanilla sugar, white sugar, or cane sugar) or glucose, will not give the cider a sweet taste – it will only carbonate it.
Cider quenches thirst perfectly and is a drink increasingly appreciated by Poles. It tastes excellent chilled, although the ideal serving temperature for ciders is considered to be 10–12°C. To emphasize cider’s uniqueness, serve it in tall glasses resembling wine glasses on very short stems.
Homemade cider recipe
Preparation:
Wash the apples, cut them into small pieces (with the peel and core, but without the stems), then transfer them to a fermentation vessel. Pour over 1 L of hot water to prevent the apples from browning. Once cooled, add pectic enzyme (a natural agent that helps extract the juice), acid blend, and yeast. Add the dissolved honey and the remaining ingredients to the obtained juice. Leave everything to ferment in a demijohn with an airlock for about 7 days. After this time, strain the cider (e.g., through gauze or a filter bag), bottle it, seal tightly, and leave for another 7 days. Remember, the drink tastes best chilled!
For carbonation, add 4–5 g of sugar — sucrose or glucose — per each half liter of cider. To carbonate properly, make sure the sugar from the fruit has completely fermented (BLg 0–1) — a hydrometer will let you take this reading — then proceed to bottle. At this point you can also sweeten it — add a non-fermentable sugar (about 6–8 g of xylitol per half liter), which will give your drink a subtle, sweet taste. After capping the bottles, leave them at room temperature for about 4–5 days, then move them to a cooler place, if possible.
