Last night I decided to try making a really simple gallon of hard apple cider. So I purchased a gallon of organic unfiltered apple juice from my local Central Market, which conveniently comes in a glass jug which will now be the fermentation carboy.
I wanted to do this in a way that anyone can do, so I decided to use common Red Star quick rising bread yeast, which is sold in small packets in the baking isle of any grocery store. An added benefit of this is that bread yeast usually eat less sugar and tolerate less alcohol, so I am hoping it won’t turn out to be too dry.
To begin I removed 100ml, or just a couple of ounces, of the juice and put it in a sanitized container and stored it in my refrigerator. The plan is to add this juice back just before I bottle so it can “back-sweeten” the cider a little, and also add a little more fizz and carbonation to it.
Then I took a hydrometer reading, and it had a 1.052 starting specific gravity. So there should be around 7% potential alcohol. This is a good number, and not bad since I did not add any additional sugar to the juice.
Finally I pitched the yeast (about half of the envelope) and added my bung and airlock. Easiest batch of homebrew anything I have ever made! So now we wait for a couple of weeks and see how she does. 