# Anyone make Hard Cider? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 5, 2004, 8:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-make-hard-cider/267619 "2004-10-05T08:22:25Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![ralph124c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2004, 8:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-make-hard-cider/267619/1 "2004-10-05T08:22:25Z")
I’m thinking of brewing a batch of hard cider. A friend told me that a good recipe is the following: -fresh (unpasteurized cider) -i cup honey/gallon cider -1/4 cup raisins per gallon cider -wine yeast(cjampaign yeast) Directions: heat mixture to just below boiling; maintain for min. 5 minutes. Pour mixture into clean (disinfected carboy); cover. Pitch yeast when mixture reeaches room temp… Close carboy, ferment until gas production drops to 1 bubble/minute. Bottle; age 2-4 weeks; enjoy! ---
**Author:** ![Walkabout](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/46a35a/32.png) [@Walkabout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walkabout)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2004, 11:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-make-hard-cider/267619/2 "2004-10-05T11:45:46Z")
Gee, I thought it was just leaving a container of fresh cider on top of the refrigerator for a week or so. 😃 I never knew there was a _recipe_. ---
**Author:** ![Ethilrist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ethilrist/32/4604_2.png) [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2004, 12:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-make-hard-cider/267619/3 "2004-10-05T12:27:47Z")
I’d amend your directions as follows: Directions: heat mixture to just below boiling ( **170 degrees if you have a cooking thermometer; add raisins** ; maintain for min. 5 minutes. **Cover with a lid that fits well. Mark pot with message saying _DO NOT OPEN._ Wait until it is no longer warm to the touch; if you want, you can immerse it in the sink with enough ice water to almost make the pot float.** Pour mixture into clean (disinfected carboy); cover. Pitch yeast when mixture reeaches room temp. Close carboy, ferment until gas production drops to 1 bubble/minute. Bottle; age 2-4 weeks; enjoy! You really want to kill the native yeasts on the raisins unless you’re interested in food experiments with unpredictable results. _e Coli_ is not your friend. ---
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2004, 12:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-make-hard-cider/267619/4 "2004-10-05T12:31:59Z")
It looks like a good, controlled recipe (as much as you can ever control fermentation - my last batch of mulberry mead, Oy! What a headache!) I’ve never gotten too serious about hard cider - I love it, but it’s so easy to make by folk method. I just upcap unpasteurized cider, squeeze in a bunch of honey and drop in a few raisins. I place a piece of gauze secured with a rubberband over the opening to prevent critters and leaves from getting in. Then I leave it on our back porch, where it’s cool. Three or four days later, I have hard cider. I’m wondering about the near-boiling of your unpastuerized cider. Aren’t you basically pasteurizing it? (I’m not sure of the official “pasteurization” temperature). I suppose that’s why you have to add yeast - the naturally occuring yeast would be killed by the near-boiling. I don’t add yeast to mine because I don’t heat it. ---
**Author:** ![Ethilrist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ethilrist/32/4604_2.png) [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2004, 12:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-make-hard-cider/267619/5 "2004-10-11T12:12:02Z")
:smack: :smack: :smack: DON’T BOIL THE CIDER! You’re not trying to make jelly. Instead: Buy pasteurized, preservative-free apple juice/cider. For each galllon of cider you buy: [ol] [li]Boil 1 pint of water.[/li][li]Add a pound of honey (that’s a honey bear’s worth). [/li][li]Turn the heat down low.[/li][li]Add the raisins.[/li][li]Maintain at about 170 degrees for fifteen minutes.[/li][li]Turn the heat off, cover. Wait for it to cool off for an hour or two.[/li][li]Add the cider to the carboy.[/li][li]Add honey-water mix to carboy.[/li][li]If the carboy’s not warm to the touch, pitch your yeast. If it is too warm, affix fermentation lock and wait an hour or two.[/li][/ol]