Cider In Bottle

This weekend we attempted our second batch of cider–I am quickly becoming a convert–in addition to a brown ale.  We've heard some descriptions of fermenting the cider directly in the bottle in which it comes and we thought that it would be a good idea to give it a try.

We planned to do about 3 gallons in the carboy and through a bizarre mixup we ended up with 6 half-gallon bottles (rather than 3 one-gallon bottles).  This worked out well for us, in spite of a little extra plastic-bottle waste.  All but one of the bottles ended up in the carboy. The remaining bottle became our test subject.

We opened the bottle, poured out a little cider (to provide some air and make room for the yeast to do its work).  To the bottle we added about 1 gram of dry wine yeast and a tablespoon or so of lemon juice.

We had a stopper that fit the opening of the bottle perfectly, but some folks recommend covering it with sanitized aluminum foil.  That might do if you don't happen to have a stopper and an airlock.

Cider is already very easy to prepare, and ferments very quickly but the prospect of success with such a low-tech system holds the promise of sparing me from any more dry days.

We got both batches of cider pitched right around 3:00pm on Sunday, and that little bottle is bubbling quite a bit just about 30 hours later.

Tuesday or Wednesday we'll seal it back up and stick it in the refrigerator and it should be ready to drink.

homebrew, cider