The Right Way to Make Homemade Apple Cider

Apple is one of the most common fruits we have. The nutritional value of apples is very balanced. It can be said that it is most suitable for the widest range of people among all fruits. It can be eaten raw or made into cider. The health-care effect of apple cider is also very good, and the method of making it is relatively simple. During the production process, you must pay attention to the thorough disinfection of the tools used to make it, so as to ensure that the cider can be preserved for a longer time.

Here’s how to make your own apple cider:

1. Raw material selection.

Choose apple varieties with high juice yield and high sugar and acid content, such as Guoguang, Hongyu, Fuji, etc. as raw materials.

2. Cleaning.

First, soak the apples in 1%-2% dilute hydrochloric acid solution, then wash them with clean water and dry them.

3. Broken.

Put the dried apples into a blender and grind them. In order to avoid breaking the seeds, the distance between the beater blades should be adjusted appropriately.

4. Juice.

Put the crushed apple pieces, juice, etc. into a ceramic jar and let it stand for 10-12 hours, then squeeze the juice at a pressure of 26 kg per square centimeter and filter it with sterilized gauze.

5. Adjust the liquid.

After obtaining the juice, immediately introduce an appropriate amount of sulfur dioxide gas to make its concentration in the juice reach 75×10-6, and then adjust the sugar and acid contents of the juice to 10%-14% and 0.4%-0.6% respectively.

6. Continue with fermentation.

Inoculate koji or lees, yeast liquid, etc. according to the mass ratio (the ratio of juice to koji after adjustment is 100:7-10), and then ferment at an ambient temperature of 28-32℃. After a few hours, you can hear a rustling sound similar to that of silkworms eating mulberry leaves, and you can see bubbles on the surface of the juice. If the ambient temperature is too low (below 10°C), it will take 3-4 days to see the fermentation reaction, and the reaction will not be strong. It takes at least 2 weeks to complete the fermentation process. After fermentation is completed, the upper part of the liquid is clear and has no residue, and it smells like wine. At this time, the alcohol content can generally reach about 10%. The upper clear liquid is then poured into a storage barrel for post-fermentation, a process that takes about a month. After the post-fermentation is completed, sulfur dioxide gas is introduced to a concentration of 100×10-6, which can effectively prevent corrosion.

7. Aging .

Within half a month, the alcohol content of the new wine in the barrel is adjusted from 10% to 18%-20%, and then aged at a temperature below 20°C. After half a year, the finished product can be obtained.