Project Cider

Hello friends, there is a comic whom I don't particularly like, but he did tell a joke once that I found particularly inspiring and it went something like this:

If life gives you lemons, then find someone who life has given vodka, and have a party!

Well life hasn't given me lemons, but it did give me apples and thanks to the Internet and my local brew store it also gave me (allowed me to purchase) brew supplies and instructions. With these things in hand Project Cider went underway and my family and I now have five gallons of apple cider hopefully fermenting in my old bedroom!

We basically followed the directions from Mother Earth News for making hard cider. The only thing we changed was using potassium metabisulfite for sterilizing the bucket and to kill the wild yeast. This means we never cooked out cider or used bleach.

Here is what we've done so far:

1.) Wash, core and juice +/- 120 lbs. of assorted apples (the picture shows maybe a 1/3 of the apples used). We used primarily Granny Smith, Golden Delicious and Mutsu's, but we also threw in a few Rome Beauties just for fun. The goal is to get 5 gallons of juice.

2.) Sterilize a brewing bucket with potassium metabisulfite diluted in water.

3.) Add juice and 5/8 tsp. metabisulfite to bucket and allow to sit for 24 hours.

4.) Add 10 cups of brown sugar and yeast to the mixture and cover till the airlock stops bubbling, should take about two weeks.