Yesterday, we opened one of the bottles of the batch 1 fizzy cider. It was very fizzy, spewing out of the bottle. We took a couple bottles to a party to share. Today, we racked batch two of the hard cider we made.

With that, I want to try and capture a chronology and some of the details of our cider production and consumption, as well as some of the notes about project.

For our first batch, we started with five gallons of fresh cider on October 25. We added some cider yeast, which I had not activated and let it ferment for twenty-four days. We then racked the cider and let it settle for four more days. During the racking and the subsequent bottling, we probably lost a little due to spillage, or cider that got thrown out with the dregs. We also siphoned off a few pints for testing.

With that, we ended up bottling twelve twenty-two ounce bottles of hard still cider, or about half of the cider. We also bottled nine twenty-two ounce bottles that we added two ounces of fresh sweet cider to. This was so that the remaining yeast would have a little sugar to ferment to make the cider fizzy. We also bottled four twelve ounce bottles with one ounce of fresh sweet cider. Some of this was so that we could open smaller bottles to test to see if the cider was fizzy enough.

Yesterday, three weeks after we had bottled it, we opened one of the twelve ounce bottles, and it was incredibly fizzy. The bottles that we took to the party were also incredibly fizzy. We decided we would use less fresh cider for batch two of our hard cider.

We started our second batch of hard cider on the day we bottled the first batch. This batch is six gallons. We used Belgian ale yeast for this batch. I properly activated the yeast this time, but only allowed it to work for half an hour to an hour, instead of three hours before adding it to the cider. The cider fermented for twenty-two days this time. It was still fermenting a little and we racked it off to our secondary container. Like with the first batch, we siphoned off a little bit for tasting. It is sweeter and more fruity flavored.

This time, we were going from a larger container, and so we ended up bottling eleven twelve ounce bottles directly, without them going through the second fermentation.

Between the cider we’ve given away, drank at home, and used in cooking, we are now at seven bottles twenty two ounce bottles of hard still cider from batch one, seven twenty two ounce bottles of hard fizzy cider from batch one and three twelve ounce bottles of hard fizzy cider from batch one. The hard fizzy cider is marked with a purple dot on the bottle cap. We also have eleven twelve ounce bottles of hard cider that has been through only the first fermentation from batch two. They are marked with a black Y on the cap.

Later in the week, we will bottle the rest of batch two and determine if we want to add any additional sweet cider, and if so, how much.

So far, the hard cider production process has been fun and has produced some good cider. It will be interesting to see how the ciders age and what we decide on doing next year.