Home Brewing Cider in New Hampshire

Bring some 5-gallon buckets or harvest baskets to the apple picking farm or your own apple grove and fill them to the brim with the best apples you can find. Check the apples you pick carefully to make sure they are not overly bruised or rotten. Apples off the ground are viable as long as they have no wormholes and are rot-free. Take the buckets to an area where you can hose them off. Rinse the apples with a medium-strength shower spray right in their buckets or baskets and drain the excess water.

Start up the processor/shredder component of your cider press unit and let it warm up. Place a collection bucket under the output chute with a clean mesh filer bag as a liner. Drop the apples in one at a time, letting each one go completely through the processor before feeding the next one in. Once your first bag is full, cinch and twist the top and place it in the cider press basket. Continue filling bags if you have more apples to process and put the other bags back in the buckets or baskets the apples came from.

Place your sterilized collection bucket under the drain spout beneath the press component. Cover the mesh bag with the round press lid and begin cranking the press handle to compress the bagged and processed apples. As you crank the handle, the juice will begin dripping through the bottom of the basket and into your collection bucket. Watch the liquid level in the collection bucket carefully as you turn the press tighter and tighter. As the level gets closer to the top and the flow of juice decreases, switch to a new bucket. Repeat the same process with each mesh bag of processed apples.

Pour the collected cider into your jugs using the funnel. To minimize spillage have a helper hold the funnel in place so it doesn't shift as you do the pouring. Leave 4 inches to 6 inches of air space in the top of each jug before filling up the next one.

Add 2 heaping tbsp. of sugar for each gallon of cider in each jug. Screw on the factory caps and shake each jug thoroughly to allow the sugar to dissolve evenly into the cider. Take off the caps and empty one small packet of baker's yeast into each jug. Cap the jugs again, shake them thoroughly, and then let them sit for 10 to 20 minutes. Come back and shake them all again. Repeat this process until the yeast is fully blended into the cider. Replace the factory caps with the airlock caps. Pour a small amount of bottled water into the airlock chambers on each cap. Let the jugs sit at room temperature for a week or two for the fermentation process to run its course, leaving you with an ample supply of delectable, hard cider to enjoy once the waiting is over.