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NEED an Excellent 18th/19th Century Recipe for HARD Cider

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Friends,

As I was very successful (by asking on this forum) in receiving several GREAT recipes for Old-style chicken & "flat"/"slick" dumplings, from some of our forum's members.

NOW I would like a GOOD RECIPE for HARD CIDER that has NO "modern ingredients", nitrates added, preservatives, "color improvements" or "added modern improvements".
(The company that was making a REAL, naturally fermented, "small batch" & traditional hard cider has "sold out" to a larger company, which "discontinued" some of the previous "niche products". One of those "gone forever products" was their "Natural Cider".)

yours, satx
 
Well that's a tall order my friend...

You see the basic hard cider was simply the apples were harvested, rinsed, and allowed to "mellow" aka soften a bit, and then they were put into a "cider press" which was a round trough with a stone wheel, and a horse moved the wheel around in a circle, mashing the apples and causing the juice plus some pulp to flow. This was then kegged, with a loose bung, allowed to ferment for about a week, and then sealed.

If there was a sulphur smell, oh well, it was ignored, and today we know this to be a bacteria growing in the cider.

The other problem is that most of your "cider" apple varieties from the 19th century and before, no longer exist other than a few trees in arboreatums.

Add to that the fact that cider houses in England would mix the sweet cider from different types of apples in a secret, proprietary ratio, and then ferment it to get their characteristic hard cider.

OK enough about why it's "tough".

To Make about Two Gallons of Hard Cyder (super basic method)

Phase One
Go out and buy, or mail order, 2 rubber stoppers and 2 plastic fermentation locks, plus order about 6 packets of ale yeast. Don't buy wine yeast, don't buy liquid yeast... dry ale yeast. Nottingham, Cooper, Munich, and Edme are all good. I use Edme a lot.

Buy a quart of sweet cider that doesn't list any preservatives on the label, drink about a third, then pour in one of the packets of yeast, install one of the stoppers and one of the fermentation locks into the spout of the quart container. Don't forget to add water to the lock. Leave it on your kitchen counter for several days.... if it ferments you know that it indeed doesn't have preservatives.

Test complete; end of phase one

Phase Two


Buy two gallons of the same cider in plastic, gallon containers. Empty the cider into a large, clean, stock pot, and save the gallon containers and the lids. Heat the cider in the pot until it boils. At the same time, thoroughly clean the gallon containers and the lids. Make room in the fridge for the two gallon containers

When the cider boils it kills off any bacteria, mold, and wild yeast that may give you bad smells and flavors. Remove the cider from the heat and let it sit for about 30 minutes to begin cooling. Then....Carefully, using a funnel, pour the almost boiling cider back into the two cider containers, leaving about a 3" gap from the spout to the level of the cider. You may have more cider than you need. Cap the containers while hot, and place them into the fridge to cool. You might want to put a towel down so the gallon jugs of hot cider don't "shock" the shelf in your fridge and crack or break it.

Let this cool overnight. The containers will look like they have "shrunk" the next morning.

You now have sterile cider; end of phase two

Phase Three

The next morning....
Clean both stoppers and both fermentation locks. Remove the two gallon containers of cider from the fridge, remove the caps, and add one or two packets of dry ale yeast to each container. Install the stoppers and fermentation locks, and place on the kitchen counter on the towel for about a week to ten days, out of the sunlight. After about two to three days you should see lots of bubbling in the fermentation lock, as long as the room temp is above 50 degrees F. Watch the fermentation lock and be sure that evaporation doesn't cause it to loose too much water. At the end of 10 days you should be done with bubbling, if not wait until it stops.

You now have hard cider: End of Phase Three

Follow Up

If you have even the faintest "rotten egg" smell then something wasn't clean enough and you have bacteria in the cyder. Most folks start over.

You can remove the stoppers and locks, and replace them with the gallon jug caps and put the jugs in the fridge. You can start drinking the stuff. Over time though, the yeast cells in the jugs may give you odd flavors...

So... what I would do is to get a couple of gallon, water jugs with screw caps while the cider ferments. Empty these, and when the cider is done fermenting, I'd clean my funnel, and then decant the cider from the fermenting jugs into the clean, empty water jugs. The pulp and old yeast cells will have settled to the bottom of the fermentation jugs, so gently decant, and try not to transfer the crud (called Trub) to the new jugs. (This process is called "racking") Transfer the stoppers and fermentation locks to the new jugs, and watch them for about three days, checking for more bubbles... to ensure you got complete fermentation. Then remove the stoppers and locks, and seal the jugs with the caps and put both jugs in the fridge.

These should store well and not give you any odd flavors.

Enjoy

LD
 
WOW!!! THANKS, Dave!!!

Much of what you posted is "technique" that is quite similar to the methods that I have used to make homemade wine, from a variety of fresh fruits, since my "ancient college DAZE".====> I'd bet that MANY folks here will, after reading your most excellent/complete instructions, will be motivated to start making their own homemade wine/beer/ale/mead/etc.

What I'm actually HOPING is that someone here has a specific mixture of varieties of apple juice to make a GREAT hard cider, from the apples that are commonly available from grocery stores/farmers markets/etc. "out in the colonies".
(The so-called "Mexican Market" on the Poteet Highway, east of SA has at least 20 kinds of apples for sale by the crate, each SAT/SUN. = Surely, at least ONE of TWO of those would be suitable for making hard cider.)

Btw, a local "gourmet grocery store" here in The Alamo City makes/sells "natural apple juice" but I have not the least idea as to WHICH variety of apples that the store is using. I've asked at the store about which variety/varieties that they use but hat learned nothing specific. - The "natural" apple juice is prepared/jugged "off-site".
(The store sells the apples by the gallon in similar plastic jugs to those used for milk.)

Incidentally, I have about 3 cases of empty liter-size "flip cap" bottles for German beer, which I "scavenged from the trash" from BEETHOVEN MAENNERCHOR, originally to bottle "still wine".
(I'm still watching "the trash cans" for more "flippy" bottles, as they are NOT cheap to buy from the "home-brew supply stores".)
Those "flippies" will be soaked to remove the labels/sterilized/"re-used" for bottling my homemade cider.

A "Most Secret" message to you: I've for over a decade made a POWERFUL "fortified wine" by setting the still wine in covered 10 gallon ceramic crocks out on the "screened-in porch" at our family's WV "mountain lair" on the top of North Mountain in the wintertime.
After the wine spends a night in the "near zero temperature", I break away & discard the ICE in the wine, allow it to re-freeze & continue "throwing out the ice" until nothing further will freeze.
(After completion of that "natural activity", the resulting "product" will "knock your hat off" and may cause "happy smiles followed by hilarity, dizziness and sometimes unconsciousness", should you drink too many steins of it!!! = CHUCKLE.)

NOTE: The nation in Central America, to which we are retiring by 2016, will allow "householders" (including PENSIONADOS, like us "old folks") to make up to 400 liters per year of "home-distilled spirits" for "family uses", for a license payment of about 22.oo USD.
While the SALE of "home distilled spirits" is unlawful, BARTER of such "homemade goods" for "useful & necessary home supplies" IS lawful there.
(As fresh fruits & grains are readily available, at a LOW price "down there", I will be constructing "a suitable still", soon after arrival "in country". = TWO 31 gallon, stainless steel, beer "barrels" AND a "fruit press" will be in my "40 foot sealift container", as "personal effects" & "household goods" for that "construction project".)

THANKS AGAIN for your help.

yours, satx
 
I have been making "Hard Cider" for over sixty years. The method is simple, 1. Wash( In cold water ) and grind your apples, 2. Put the pulp in a press and press out the cider. ( Some people will let the apple pulp set a few days before pressing )3. Place the cider in clean jugs or barrels, with a "water trap" to keep out oxygen ( we want cider- not vinegar). Let set until it stops bubbling. ,then drink. Some people like to add sugar or honey. when they put it in the jugs ,myself I like to mix three parts cider with one part concord grape juice. The best cider is made using three or more varieties of apples. The natural yeasts will work just fine. If you let your hard cider slowly freeze and drain of the last 1/5 before it freezes you have apple jack. A much higher alcohol content. :idunno: :hmm: :idunno:
 
THANK YOU for that. - Frankly, I don't know enough to know how traditional that the cider made by her techniques are BUT they sound GREAT.

yours, satx
 
The first time I saw your post I found a traditional one using wooden barrels and no yeast. Figured I'd get back to it....now, can't find it! :doh: oy vey!
 
Don't you just hate it, when that happens???? = I had found some "difficult to locate technical data" on 1958 OMC outboard motors & now it's G-O-N-E, GONE from the net.
(!@#$%^!)

yours, satx
 
Just love it when my "senior moments" drag into half hours! :doh:
 
Hell, my senior moments have drug into a lifestyle. :haha:
 
by setting the still wine ..., out on the "screened-in porch" ..., in the wintertime.
After the wine spends a night in the "near zero temperature", I break away & discard the ICE in the wine, allow it to re-freeze & continue "throwing out the ice" until nothing further will freeze.

BEWARE


Crystal distillation, i.e. removal of ice after freezing is the traditional method of making true apple jack. Usually this is done once, but after repeated freezing and ice removal, you have cider oil.

Beware, however, for unlike heat distillation, the impurities when removing ice are not separated, and in fact are concentrated. So the trace methanol and other impurities is a greater portion of the beverage content, and may lead to a temporary condition known as apple palsy. It will also cause wicked hangovers.

OH and if you are moving to a place where heat distillation is allowed...then if you get the rotten egg smell from the cider (or any other fermented fruit beverage), simply distill it into apple brandy, run it through some activated charcoal, and enjoy.

LD
 
INTERESTING & THANK YOU for your input.

YEP. Where we are retiring "way down South", I can LAWFULLY make up to 400 Liters of "distilled spirits" (of any sort) for payment of a yearly "flat tax" of about 22.ooUSD.

As I can LAWFULLY "trade or barter excess home-distilled spirits" for "needful household supplies & purposes" (Quoted from page 96ff of THE CONDENSED GUIDE TO THE FEDERAL CIVIL CODE OF REGULATION, FOR PENSIONADOS & NEW RESIDENTS, published in English, October 2013), I'm quite sure that I WILL make the allowable 400 Liters per year!!!
(Years ago, our family made our living by converting corn production into certain "liquid assets". = CHUCKLE.)

yours, satx
 
All of these recipes are most interesting! Being a city boy myself, I bought unpasteurized cider, put raisins (sugar and yeast) into the plastic jug, and put it in the fridge. Once or twice a day I'd crack the lid and squeeze all the fermentation gas out of the jug, and close it back without letting air in to expand the jug. When the jug expanded, I'd squeeze it again.
5 days too a week, I had some good stuff.
I don't buy much fruit today, it's grown for its ability to withstand shipping and look good, but it tastes like Styrofoam.
11 years ago, I was in Capitol Reef NP in Utah. They had groves of heritage apples, free for the picking if you ate them on the spot. They were delicious, like apples used to taste. I ate more right then than I had in years.
If I find more apples like that...I may have to try one of these recipes. Hard cider is a joyous gift of God to Man. :thumbsup:
 
IF I could find such GREAT-TASTING apples as that here, I'd be out there picking them, grinding them into "mush" & extracting the juice.
(Btw, I truly MISS the GREAT-tasting peaches from my "home county" up in NE Texas.- We have MILES & MILES of peach orchards in Camp County & I used to buy the "over-ripes" by the BUSHEL, that are cheap enough that the growers sell them for "hog food", to make GREAT peach homemade wine from.)

yours, satx
 
Ya really have to be careful about eating too much fresh fruit at one time. It can bring on the "fresh fruit two step", so called because you can't get more than two steps away from "The Convenience". A group of us took a bunch of stuff to a mission in the Texas valley. They grow a lot of extremely good citrus there. On our way back, we stopped at a road side fruit stand. They were cutting up oranges and grapefruit and giving it to customers to taste. It was absolutely delicious. So, we each bought a sack or oranges and a sack of grapefruit to take home. Then we bought one sack of oranges and one sack of grapefruit for us to eat on the way home. The four of us ate the whole sack of oranges and the whole sack of grapefruit on the way home. The next day, none of us dared to leave home. Charmin made money that day. :haha:
 
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