I don't know why hard apple cider seems to conjure up images of copper stills in the woods in early autumn since I have personally never seen any stills in the woods any time of the year. Must be too many black and white old movies!
I am a hard cider aficionado! Especially whenever I am in England where they make and serve many hard ciders and especially my favorite which is a wonderful hard cider called, "Scrumpy Jack". It is not imported to the United States so I learned how to make my own version of "Scrumpy Jack" and since "Scrumpy Jack" is an English drink I use an Imperial Gallon for my measurement!
If you are reading this article at any other time other than fall, just save it until you can get some fresh apple juice.
Arlene's Home Made "Scrumpy Jack" or Hard Apple Cider
You will need 1 Imperial gallon which is 4.51 liters of fresh apple juice with absolutely no preservatives which you can get in the fall from any local orchard that sells to the public and you can adjust your sugar content to your own desired level. (The more sugar you add, the more alcohol you will get, but the longer it will take to ferment. I would recommend from 1/2 to 1 pound per Imperial gallon (4.5 l) and for sure not more than 2 pounds total and remember it is at this point you add the sugar mentioned above.
I take 2 campden tablets and dissolve them in 1 cup of warm water and I mix it into my fresh apple juice which I have poured into my primary fermentor letting it stand overnight with a large towel covering the top of the primary fermentor. My primary fermentor is usually a large plastic garbage pail or an earthenware crock used for this purpose only.
The next morning I mix up ½ tsp. of pectic enzyme powder, ¼ tsp. grape tannin, 1 tsp. of acid blend and ½ tsp. of yeast energizer in a separate glass bowl and pour it into my primary fermentor mixing well. Then I sprinkle 1 packet of all purpose wine yeast on top of the wine mix and cover with a plastic sheet and let sit for 3 to 5 days.
Once I decide it is ready I "rack" or siphon it with a hose into a secondary fermentor which is now a glass "car boy" (I prefer these over plastic ones) and I now attach an air lock. I let it sit and bubble for 3 weeks and "rack" again into another glass car boy.
Once my fermentation is finished I do a final "rack" into a clean container and then I add two ounces of white sugar gently stirring well until all dissolved. I make sure this is dissolved well by putting the sugar into a small bit of boiling water which can be boiled in my microwave. Once the sugar and apple mixture is mixed well, I bottle it and cap it using metal caps and a capper and let it sit for 3 months in a cool place out of the way where it will not be disturbed or disturb anything in the event one blows up. (This has been known to happen to the best of us, even root beer makers!) One can even cork this if you want, but you need to wire the corks down. At the end you will have a crisp, carbonated hard cider which should be served cold.
When I regularly made this recipe each fall I used 5 gallon car boys, so I multiplied this recipe by 3 successfully.
Also note that you can substitute pear juice for the apple juice.
We use cleaned, recycled glass wine and beer bottles and we usually bottle more in the smaller bottles than in the large bottles because once it is opened it will need to be drunk and if you drink more than you should you will no doubt be drunk! So bottle responsibly and no driving please!
