This is the cheapest and easiest way to get booze. You're welcome.
2022-05-17
Making cider is really cheap and fun. It's also very easy -- I'm surprised I didn't do this as a child. I started doing it in university after discovering craft beer and also discovering how expensive craft beer is. Anyways, it is a fun, easy, rewarding, and financially responsible hobby that more people should get into.
First of all, cider usually means apple cider. And then people call cider made of pears, perry. And some people say that perry is techically not cider -- it's perry. But personally, I don't care. I call it all cider. I made have made an alcoholic beverage with just yeast, water, and table sugar -- I still called it cider. Who cares. (and yes, it did not taste good -- that wasn't the point)
Anyways. There are four essential things you need to make alcohol:
And sometimes 2, 3, and 4 can be found all together in a neat little package in the form of organic juice.
Sure, there are other things you can use or add, but these are the only things that are critical.
These four things fall into one of two catagories:
A vessel is a tool. Some other tools you might use are: a funnel, a sieve, a hydrometer (to message alcohol content), etc.
As for ingredients, that's really up to you as well. I won't talk about ingredients in depth until the ingredients section at the end.
Any vessel with a tight seal will work. I have personally made alcohol in:
The purpose of the vessel, other than a glorified bowl, is to make an airtight seal so that bacteria that will turn the cider to vinegar will not get in. Vinegar means no alcohol, which is bad if you are trying to make alcohol.
A great starter vessel is the mason jar. Easy to find. Cheap. And all things considered, does a create job at making a seal. (Maybe too great, see the next section)
You can skip this section if you don't care if you live or die.
Let's take a moment to discuss the "dangers" of making alcohol this way... If you stick to the things I mention in this list, probably nothing will ever go wrong. The worst thing that could happen is you get a batch of vinegar instead of alcohol -- not the end of the world.
People's first concern is botulism. Botulism is a concern when you are canning, not when you are fermenting. The bacteria that can cause botulism cannot survive in our concoctions.
To be fair, I have had one or two "explosions" (depending on how define explosions).
The first one was a 1.5L wine bottle filled with blackberry purée. My dumbass roommate (whomst I love) was vigously shaking the bottle to "get all the flavours out" and then said "hmm... I'm gonna tighten this already sealed bottle even more" and then twisted the cap past its threshold of twisted-ness and I watched in slow motion as this 1.5L bottle somehow became a firehose of blackberry sauce that sprayed across our kitchen, dining room, and living room. I'll never forget watching him aim it into the kitchen sink to try to contain the damage, and then see all the juice sprayed back out of the sink somehow covering an even wider surface area. It took us 6 hours to clean up and we had a purple ceiling for the next 6 months (bleach got the stain out). Any so that's something to consider if you are using something with a high volume to exit area ration type of vessel.
The second was much more dangerous. But also a special case. And it was also my roommates fault.
We had started making cider in large batches, 10L+, in a large food grade bucket. At the end of one of the fermentation cycles we had the bright idea to save the yeast colony of the batch for the next round, in hopes that it would give us a more consistent flavour and shorter ferment time (not a bad idea honestly). The yeast was a thick, bright orange sludge, which we put in a mason jar. We then put the mason jar in our special minifridge which we exclusively use for our homebrew. This would have probably been fine... except before we put the jar in the fridge my roommate said, "Hey, I'm gonna dump a cup of sugar in with the yeast -- so it doesn't get hungry." This turn the yeast jar into a glass bomb. Then the next day we went away for a week for winter break. While we were gone the thing exploded. Luckily no one was hurt and most of the mess and glass was contained in the minifridge.
Anyways... yeah... don't do that. If you are using glassware that could be potentially sealed so tightly that the only way to release pressure is for it to explode -- don't add so much yeast and sugar. I was never concerned with regular amounts of sugar and yeast, even in tightly sealed mason jars. By regular amounts, I mean something that it intended to be drinkable. When you open/burp them, you can feel the pressure and it certainly doesn't feel glass explosion worthy.
Like I said before, mason jars are a pretty decent starter option if you want to keep costs low and you don't want a ton of equipment flying around. I typically buy those pasta sauces that come in mason jars (although they tend to be a bit small) and use those. It's also really fun to experiment with mason jars because you can have a bunch of ciders going at once and they are easy to maintain.
A 1L mason is ideal, but you can go smaller (are there larger ones 🤔).
Typically the process is like this:
How often you wait and check depends on your ingredients and your climate. Sometimes, yeast will thrive and you will quickly get your desired alcohol level. Sometimes it will go slowly. Sometimes it will get "stuck".
You will be able to gauge the activity level based on bubbles/movement in the jar. There's nothing better than seeing those first bubz 🥲.
Once you find a recipe you like, the first thing you probably want to do is make more of it. So the best thing to do would be getting a big plastic bucket. These buckets look just like those ten gallon paint buckets, but it should be food grade if you want to use it for cider. And I hate to say it but you should probably buy new, plastic is porous (I hate to say it because my equipment was bought used 😳).
In addition to a bucket, you will need an airlock (to be discussed in the next section). Also, if you are buying from a homebrew shop the bucket will probably have a hole in the lid for the airlock but otherwise you will have to make it yourself.
You will also need some tubes to siphon the cider out of the bucket. You could also get a pump to make it more hygenic to siphon or you can just suck on the tube. To each their own. You will need a rigid tube the length of the bucket (ideally that fits in the airlock hole) and a long soft tube that's at least a meter/3'.
Now if you are using a big bucket to make alcohol, you do NOT want to be worrying about pressure. So you definetely will need an airlock. An airlock will allow air to leave the vessel but not enter it. This means that pressure won't build up and you won't have to burp it or worry about an explosion.
In Level One, you ferment in a jar and when your creating is ready you either drink it straight from the jar (I mean who hasn't), pour into a glass and drink, or put the whole thing in the fridge to drink later.
You may come to find that this system is actually pretty inconvient. For example, when you are showing off your beverages, some people can be pretty offput by the jar situation. Most critically though, if you are saving your drink for later, you may find that the flavour changes as time goes on. This is because even though it is in the fridge, the fermentation process hasn't stopped, it's only slowed down.
Also, if you have upgraded to an airlock situation, we will find that you drink will not be carbonated. Which is very sad. Carbonation happens because while the yeast is creting alcohol, it is also creating CO2. If it's in a sealed vessel, that CO2 will cause the cider to carbonate. If there is an airlock, it will just leave the vessel.
So to combat all these issues, we split up fermentation into two processes. The first fermentation happens in your airlocked vessel. Once you have your desired ABV and flavour, you transfer your cider to jars or bottles or something -- without an airlock -- and seal them. You have to do your best to not include the thick yeast sludge into the second ferment, but some will make in anyways. This will be enough to carbonate and continue the fermentation a bit longer.
So the process will be like this:
The only thing about this is that if you have whole fruits in the primary fermentation, the numbers might be off. How much I don't know! I'm not a chemist.
ABV means Alcohol By Volume. A 5% beer means that 5% of the the beer you're drinking is pure alcohol (ethanol).
To do this, you need a test tube and a hydrometer. All you have to do is fill the test tube with cider cider before fermentation and after, and put the hydrometer in there with it. The difference between the starting and finishing number will tell you the ABV.
A bottler is a really nice way to make you cider more appealing to the masses. No matter what it tastes like, some people -- many people -- will always judge drinks that come from buckets or jars 😢.
You don't have to buy new bottles and caps. You can reuse old ones! Which means you have a good reason to buy a couple cases of Coronas! It will save you money in the long run, okay?? It doesn't even have to be Corona, I just like them because they are clear bottles (and I like how Coronas taste). All that matter is that they are not twist-offs.
Sometimes -- and this is much more likely if you are using cheap juice -- your fermentation will get "stuck". It won't get alcoholic, it won't turn into vinegar... it will just... sit there. It might be dead, it might be taking a nap (yeast can hibernate). In this case, take some of the not-yet-cider cider liquid out, warm it up a bit. Add some more yeast and wait to see if its active (bubbles, foam on top). Then add it back to your vessel. You should also make sure your vessel is in a warm spot overall.
So ingredients-wise, all you really need is: sugar, water, yeast. And you can accomplish this by just adding table sugar, tap water, and bread yeast. It's just won't taste very good.
From southernliving.com:
Apple cider is fresh, unfiltered, and often unpasteurized. It's also considered a seasonal drink and can be hard to find outside of the autumn months. Apple juice, on the other hand, is filtered and pasteurized, which gives it a longer shelf life, a sweeter taste, and a smoother texture.
Personally, I love using non-alcoholic apple cider to make alcoholic apple cider. It's very easy to find in the fall and early winter months (gets really cheap towards the beginning of winter as well).
If you go the organic route, you typically don’t have to add any yeast. And in my experience, get a higher ABV. As a point of reference, in my experience, the cheap/fake noname juices peak at about 3.5% and the organic apple cider gets to about %7.
However if you go non-organic, your ingredients will be way cheaper. Also, lots of people like non-organic, cheap, fake, sugary juices from concentrate 🤷.
You can choose to add chopped/blended/whole fruits, or fruit juice, or both.
However if you use exclusively whole fruits, you will probably have to add some sugar (table sugar, honey, etc) to the medium (water).
Also, if you use any whole fruits at all, the typical way of measuring ABV -- by measuring the gravity of the medium before and after fermentation -- will no longer be valid.
If you are blending fruits and make the liquid too viscous, it while get gross because you won't be able to seperate the yeast from it. So what you can do is strain your blend. Put the juice part in the medium and put the solid in a mash bag. A mash bag is a bag made of cheese cloth or something like that. It basically will act as a tea back in your cider. So you will still get the benefit of use actual fruits, but you should still get something drinkable at the end.
Juice is definetly the easiest way to go. But whole fruits are fun.
Some of my thoughts...
Apples - A classic. Ferments easily, but not as crazy as the stone fruits. Good flavour.
Berries - I have only tried a few types of berries and usually in a mix. They are expensive where I live usually. So this is a catagory I need to experiment in more. The only thing I will add is that you might need a mash bag (cheesecloth tea bag thing) if you are using berries that might fall apart (blackberries, raspberries, etcß).
Citrus family - I would say leave out citrus, unless you're feeling experimental. I found that when I added lemons/limes/oranges to ciders it typically created something that tasted like dishwashing soap. If you really want something citrus-y/sour, I would advise maybe just adding some juice after the first fermentation before bottling.
Ginger - Lovely addition. The ginger flavour persists after fermentation. Adds a bit of warmth... a bit of a kick... Excellent.
Grapes - Fermented well, tasted a bit weird. Was not like wine if that's what you're thinking. Probably would have done better in a mash bag.
Peaches, plums, and other stone fruits - Excellent options. These guys WANT to be fermented. If you are not using an airlock you will have to be careful that your vessel doesn't leak or warp or explode. And the flavour works. If stone fruits weren't so delicous on their own (and also less expensive) I would be making a lot more of these types of ciders.
Typically you will be advised to use champagne yeast. This is a special yeast that is supposed to be able to survive in high alcohol environments. I have had mixed results with it. It doesn't matter if you have the best yeast in the world if its dead. Or if you are making cider with no-name peach juice from concentrate for that matter.
Bread and pizza yeast is fine. I have also used but active dry and instant yeast interchangeably without noticing a difference.
My favourite method is to just use old fruits or organic juice and to not add any yeast directly at all. The main reason is that then there is less yeast by-product in the final drink. But also it's easier and another variable that's out of my hands and I don't have to worry about.
If you are super fancy, you can also use fresh yeast. I think I did this once. No memory of the results though. Take from that what you will.
Besides the sugar that comes along with your fruit/juice, you can add sugars like:
White table sugar adds sweetness, without much else. All the other options add sweetness plus their own flavour profile -- so it really just depends on what you're into.
If you go the organic apple cider route, you don’t have to add any yeast! Or sugar! Also in my experience, organic apple cider got the dryest and most alcoholic, clocking in at about 7%.
Ingredients: Organic Apple Cider.
Time: About a week.
ABV: ~7%
Notes: Although this is my favourite, I don't think it's the favourite of most people. The apple taste is completely gone. What remains is difficult to describe. But what can I say, after years of experimentation, this is what my tastebuds drift towards. Also it's 7%!!
Buy the cheapest juices you can find and mix them all together.
I would stay away from citrus heavy blends, but a blend of equal parts: apple, peach, grape, is a crowd pleaser.
Ingredients: Cheap juice. 1/4 tsp yeast per litre.
Time: About a week in warm weather.
ABV: ~3-4%
Notes: I was surprised at how much people like this one. Fancy, fancy people preferred it to the super dry, organic cider (maybe because this is the first one we bottled?). Personally I find it too similar to the juice it once was, and far too sweet (I don't like sweets in general though, to an extreme degree). Letting it go for longer never seemed to make it more alcoholic though.
Chop up a random mix of old (but not rotting) fruits, add water and juice. You probably want about 3-4 apple sized fruits per liter (does that make sense? yes).
Alternatively, if you don't want to add juice you could add sugar water (but juice would be easier). Or do 50% water / 50% juice to bring down the alcohol/sweetness of the final product.
This is an excellent beverage to bring out at a party once most people are minimum 3 drinks in. At least in your early 20s. Not sure after that though.
Ingredients: Random fruits. 1/4 tsp yeast per litre. Water to fill the vessel.
Time: About a week in warm weather.
ABV: ~3-4%
Notes: Also, if you do the cheapest possible juice route, it will not get as alcoholic and will keep a bit of its sweetness, not sure why. Perhaps the preservatives in the juice are bad for the yeast? I'm not a scientist.
Take the organic apple cider recipe and add a handfull of hops in the secondary fermentation (if you are only doing one fermentation, then the first will do as well).
Add more or less hops depending on how much you like hops. If you are adding dried/pellet hops, start with a tsp per liter (even if you like hops). Dried whole hops, you can be a bit more carefree with.
Ingredients: Some ginger, about 30 cm3 per liter. 4 tbs sugar per liter. 1/4 tsp yeast per litre.
Time: About a week in warm weather.
ABV: ~3-4% (guessing because I never actually measured this guy)
Notes: I just peeled and sliced the ginger. Nothing crazy.
Buy a plastic jug of a couple litres of juice. (any will work, I did this with blue hawaiian punch once). Open it. Add a half tsp of yeast (any). Close and put somewhere warm. Burp every day or two. You should have an alcoholic beverage in a week or so :)