Cider, step by step
Interactive lesson: from apples to bottle — juice and sugar, hygiene and CO₂, fermenting under an airlock, racking, resting and sparkling cider.
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The whole lesson as text
1. Apples and juice
100 kg (220 lb) of apples that would rot under the tree give you 50–60 litres of drink.
- A blend of varieties — A third sweet (Cox, Gala, Golden Delicious), a third sharp (Bramley, Granny Smith) and some bittersweet or bittersharp (Dabinett, Kingston Black, crab apples, old varieties). Sweet apples give alcohol, sharp ones freshness, bitter ones body and keeping quality.
- Only sound apples — Washed apples, with no rot. Rotten and mouldy fruit doesn't go in the press “because it'll ferment anyway”.
- Measure the °Brix — A drop of juice on the refractometer prism, then look towards the light. Write the reading down.
- Sugar and alcohol — 17 g of sugar per litre gives roughly 1 % alcohol. Juice at 11 °Brix gives roughly 6.5 %. Add sugar only if the juice is below 10 °Brix.
Why: Yeast eats the sugar in the juice and makes alcohol and carbon dioxide. Apple juice has enough sugar and acid for a drink of 5–7 %, so cider is made from pure juice.
- Cider at 5–7 % is delicate and is drunk within its first year.
- A refractometer is accurate for fresh juice; once fermentation starts, the alcohol skews the reading.
2. Hygiene and CO₂
The difference between good cider and a sour, cloudy drink lies in measuring and cleanliness.
- Wash everything — Wash demijohns, tubes and buckets with warm water and a brush, then rinse. No scented detergents.
- Sanitising — Make up the metabisulphite solution outdoors or by an open window and don't breathe the fumes: in people with asthma it can trigger an attack.
- Ventilation — A room where more than 20–30 L is fermenting needs an open window or door, or a fan drawing air out at floor level.
- A candle is no protection — It only goes out once the CO₂ is already dangerous. Put a CO₂ detector in a larger cellar and don't go in alone. If someone collapses, don't go in after them: call 999 or 112 (UK, IE) or 911 (US, CA).
Why: Fermenting 100 L of juice gives off roughly 2.5–3 m³ of carbon dioxide. CO₂ is heavier than air, colourless and odourless, and collects at floor level. At 8–10 % in the air a person loses consciousness within minutes.
- Cider is an alcoholic drink: not for children, under-18s, pregnant or breastfeeding women, or before driving.
- Making it for your own household is legal in the UK, Ireland, the US and Canada within set limits; selling needs registration and licences (HMRC, Revenue, TTB and your state). Check the rules where you live.
3. Fermentation · Locked
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4. Measuring and racking · Locked
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5. Resting and bottling · Locked
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6. Sparkling cider · Locked
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