This is a recipe I specifically make each year so we can drink it on Thanksgiving morning at my good buddy’s house.? It just so happens that the 5 gallons lasts a bit longer than that one event…but that’s beside the point.? Enjoy!

Ingredients

• 5 Gallons Fresh Apple Cider (Whole Foods is a good place to get this)
• 5 Campden Tablets
• 1 ? tsp Pectic Enzyme
• 1 ? tsp Acid Blend
• 1 packet Yeast (Champagne yeast for dry, beer yeast for semi-dry or White Labs English Cider yeast which is my choice)
• Yeast nutrients

Basic Directions

• Sanitize all equipment as required for all beer/wine making (don?t forget this step when transferring to secondary fermenter and bottling)
• Crush Campden tabs and dissolve in 1 cup of cool water
• Stir in Pectic Enzyme (prevents haze in finished product), yeast nutrient and acid blend
• Pour mixture into primary fermenter
• Add all the apple cider to the fermenter
• Stir thoroughly and cover fermenter
• Let rest at room temperature overnight
• Open fermeneter and add 1 packet/container of yeast
• Replace lid and attach the air lock.
• Fermentation should start in about 12 hours, bubbling vigorously at first and lessening
• Let ferment 7 ? 10 days or until there is less than one bubble per minute
• Place primary fermenter on counter top 24 hours prior to the next step
• SANITIZE ALL EQUIPMENT
• Siphon the cider into the secondary fermenter
• Attach airlock and let rest 14 days
• Taste testing time!
  • If it is a little bland you can add ? tsp of acid blend or to taste (go easy)
  • Can add apple flavor enhancer
• For sweetness, up to 3lbs of lactose sweetner (non fermentable sugar) can be added
  • Be sure your boil the lactose in water before adding to the fermenter
• I personally use growler?s from the Upstream brewery here in Omaha to bottle?but you can use any beer or wine bottles for this.? Take your pick.

You can get creative with this recipe.? Add cinnamon if you want at the tail end of it?s resting point to add a spice to it.

Add a couple pounds of sugar (highly recommend corn sugar or honey as they ferment without too many after tastes) ?to the juice before fermenting to make it even more dry (and more strong).? The more sugar you add to your juice before fermenting, the stronger the alcohol content.? It will have nothing to do with sweetness in the finished product.

You can also use Potassium Sorbate after your cider has rested the final 14 days to make the yeast sterile and thus preventing it from fermenting any longer.? Once this is done you can add all kinds of sweetners to take it up to a sweetness of your liking.?

Get creating ? post your comments and/or suggestions.? If you find something better that works ? I?ll probably change my recipe so bring it on!