Cider: relaxed, inexpensive, tasty

By stripping down our technique, we can make 6-7 750 ml bottles of tasty cider in under an hour for around a buck a bottle.

I leverage my homebrewing skills but take shortcuts to make a good fermented cider with minimal effort while not sacrificing quality. I think we’ve succeeded: it takes about 15 minutes to start the process, then maybe 30 minutes for bottling. Each 750 ml bottle costs about $1.00 - $1.50, and is pleasantly dry with a fine carbonation. We calculate a final alcohol of 5-6%, about beer strength.

We take advantage of store bought juice (“cider”) which we know is already sterile, and ferment in the same plastic bottles they came in. We reserve some of the juice for carbonation, to minimize the need for bottling-time added sugar. 

Unfermented “apple juice” is also called “apple cider” in the US. It’s OK if it contains ascorbic acid (vitamin C), but don’t use anything with potassium sorbate which will prevent fermentation.

Below, I list our versions in reverse chronological order: our most recent versions have the most streamlined technique. In a horizontal tasting of #1 (Farmers market juice, pricey), #2 (organic BJs juice, inexpensive), #3 (non-organic BJs), we preferred the taste of the #1, but the fizz of batch #3. At this price point and taste, we’re OK using store-bought juice.

2022-03-05 #5: Costco Mott's 2 Gallon

Reserved 800ml Gyle (calculator indicated 500ml for 2G would be 2.5Vol CO2, so 800ml is too much).

Added the yeast slurry from #4 to start fermentation, and reused airlocks.

Took about 2 days to start fermenting, we'd expected it to start much quicker;

next time, just use fresh yeast.

It took a much longer time to finish fermenting than we expected, finally slowing down after 3 weeks.

2022-04-03 FG was about 1.000 @ 75F, the Gyle (unfermented juice) looked to be 1.050 @ 60F, so we're still expecting 6% alcohol or so.

When we combined the fermented cider jugs into the bottling bucket, it started fermenting again quite vigorously. While I'm concerned that we've restarted fermentation, a 1.000 FG indicates it's pretty well done. 

Added 500 ml Gyle (juice) and bottled. Because of concern about fermentation, we put them in a plastic trash can lined with a plastic trash, and added a weighted lid: if any blow, this should contain the mess.

2022-01-29 #4:
BJs organic Honeycrisp Apple Juice

2 x 96 fl oz = 192 fl oz / 5.45 L Apple Juice $7.49

5 g (1 packet) Lalvin EC-1118 sparkling wine yeast: $1

Reserved 500ml / 16 oz juice.

Add 2 airlocks and their stoppers to a 32 oz / 1 L mason jar, add bleach and water, soak a while to sterilize.

Front: airlocks in jar of bleach water

Rinse jar and airlocks well.

Pour 250 ml from each jug of Apple Juice to the jar, seal and put in fridge for later carbonation.

We will end up with 5.45 - .5 =~ 5L fermented juice, and the reserved 500ml.

Place each bottle of juice on a flat plate so that you can move it without the bottom sagging and sucking the contents of the airlock.

Hydrate the yeast in 50 ml body-temperature water.

Hydrating yeast on left, reserved juice in center

Divide hydrated yeast between the two bottles.

Add Airlock.

12:00 Ferment until it stops bubbling, 3-7 days.

Reserved juice in front, fermenters in back

2022-03-05 Bottle

500ml reserved juice

Assuming same numbers as before: 1.5G=5.67L cider, OG=1.06, FG=1.01,  72F=20C.

Bump up carbonation to 2.5 Vol CO2.

Have 0.5 Qt (2C, 1 pint, 500ml) saved Gyle.

Calculator says I need 0.43 Qt = 400ml Gyle (500ml would push it too high) 

2021-05-02 #3:
BJs conventional Cider, recycled yeast

2 new 3 Qt bottles of BJs Cider, non-organic, about $6.

Same FDA sugar content as #2 so presume 6% potential alcohol.

Added yeast slurry from the previous batch, and topped with air locks. 11:47am

2021-05-28 Primed with Gyle + Corn Sugar: Calculations:

https://www.brewersfriend.com/gyle-and-krausen-priming-calculator/

1.5 G cider

2.4 vol CO2

72F at bottling

OG 1.06

FG 1.01

Gyle: 0.3 qt (10 fl oz)

Corn sugar: 0.4 oz

Shook Gyle with Sugar, added to priming bucket

Sterilized 6 750 ml + 2 350 ml swing-top bottles

Filled with a couple ounces left over, tasted tart, promising

Carbonation was very good, better than #1 or #2: fizzy but not bubbly like soda.

Value – quality / price – was excellent.

2021-04-17 #2:
BJs organic juice, Champagne yeast

2x 3 Quart bottles of BJs Organic (from concentrate) “cider” juice.

Bleach sterilize airlocks and mason jar with lid.

Remove a 8? ounces of each bottle to a sterilized Mason jar to make space for ferment, fridge.

Hydrate 1 pkt E-1118 Champagne yeast ($1) in water, adding a bit of juice from each bottle.

Add hydrated yeast back to each bottle.

Add Airlock.

16:00

2021-04-21 Topped up, OG

Took OG from reserved 32 ounces in fridge:

1.050 = 6% = 13 brix

Added remaining juice to cider bottles and recapped with airlocks

In 5 hours started bubbling again.

Looks healthy the next days, as of 2021-04-24.

2021-05-02 Bottle

36g Corn Sugar to some water, nuked

Bleached 8 750ml bottles

FG about 1.000, maybe a bit higher, so 6% ABV or a little less.

Filled 7x 750 bottles

2021-05-30 Tastes good, definite fizz

The earlier bottle we tried, maybe a week ago, had little fizz and Irene said she didn’t like the taste -- too apple-y. This one had definite fizz, and seemed apple-y in the aroma, but not in taste. After consideration, she pronounced it good -- worth doing again.

2021-03-?? Batch #1

1 Gallon Farmers Market apple juice “cider”

1 packet Saf Cider yeast, maybe 3 years old

Put a plastic bucket with the spigot in the dishwasher to “sterilize”.

Added apple juice.

Hydrated yeast (?) and added half way through juice to aerate.

OG was about 1.050

Started fermenting, with froth on top, and air lock bubbled.

After a couple days, ferment seemed stuck.

Added corn sugar boiled with some water.

After a week or two, the murkiness cleared out.

2021-03-14 Measure, Prime, Bottle

FG was about 1.002

Alcohol = (OG - FG) * 131 = 6.3%

17g Corn Sugar boiled in water.

Added for priming, waited a bit to distribute.

Washed 5 750mL flip top bottles in light bleach water, rinsed.

Filled from bucket spigot (very handy)

2021-04-03 Taste

Irene says “like scrumpy”. Just a slight funk. Barely carbonated, but if you hold it in your mouth, you can feel the carbonation; maybe like Spanish cider that’s “bullied”.

Chris: apple and slight funk in aroma; dry, a little tart, just a touch of apple in flavor. Body seems good, a little “thick” mouthfeel, not unpleasant.

Americans would want more carbonation, but I think this is OK; I'd bump it up just a little next time.

Quesabirria Tacos: rich and crunchy

We first had Birria tacos at Fusion Street Eatery, in Dunedin, Florida: they were slow-cooked beef shank, wrapped in a crunchy fried tortilla. A week later, I stumbled across this YouTube video which was clear and direct: soak chilis, blend, fry in oil, cook meat in the sauce; to assemble, paint the corn tortillas with oil from the sauce, fry then fill and fold, fry until crisp. The "quesa" in the name is from letting the cheese melt on the tortilla while it's frying.

I cut down his recipe by half: 6 tacos were enough for the two of us for dinner, and we had lots of the cooked meat, sauce, and oil to make more anytime we want -- enough for two more dinners. My first stab at this took more than the 30 minutes prep that the chef claims, but now that I understand the process, I expect that's a reasonable time; the meat cooks in the sauce for 3 hours, so plan ahead. The recipe's slightly adapted from the print version on Vice.com.

For sauce and meat:

2 oz    60 g   guajillo chilies (about 8), stemmed
4              morita/chipotle chilies, stemmed
1              ancho chilies, stemmed
1              small plum tomato
2              garlic cloves, peeled
1 tsp          oregano
1 tsp          ground cumin
1/2 tsp        black peppercorns
1 whole        clove
1              bay leaf

1/4            white onion, peeled 
1/8 C   60 g   kosher salt
2.5 Tbs 40 ml  white vinegar

2.5 Lb   1 Kg  beef shoulder (or shank, etc)
3/4 C  200 ml  vegetable oil

For the tacos and serving:

Shredded cheese: Monterey Jack,Cheddar, Mozzarella, or Mexican cheese
Corn tortillas
Cilantro, minced
White onion, finely chopped (we used pickled red onion)
Lime wedges

Cover chilis and tomato with 4 C / 1 L water, bring to boil, remove from heat, cover, and let soften 10 minutes. Strain, retaining the liquid.

Put 2 C / 500 ml liquid into a blender, and blend the chilis and tomato, and all the other sauce ingredients (excluding the meat and oil).  Add the oil to a sauce pan over medium heat and fry the sauce for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally. 

While that's cooking, cut the meat into roughly  2 inch / 5 cm cubes, and season generously with salt and pepper. 

When the sauce is finished cooking, add the meat, and the remaining 2 C / 500 ml chili liquid to the pot. Cook until meat is tender, about three hours. 

Strain everything through a coarse sieve to hold back seeds and other bitter bits. Shred the meat by hand, forks, or a large knife.

Skim off the fat from the top of the sauce into a separate small bowl. I had about a cup / 250 ml of oil and 2 cups / 500 ml of sauce.

Sauce, meat, oil

Add some of the sauce to the meat to keep it moist.

To assemble, dip one side of the tortilla in oil, or paint it with a pastry brush. Place on hot skillet until pliable, top with cheese, meat, cilantro, onions, etc. Fold over the tortilla before it becomes too firm, and continue to fry until crispy; flip and crisp the other side. 

To serve, add some sauce to a small bowl, and add cilantro and onion. You can stuff other condiments in the taco as you like. Dip the taco in the sauce and "shove it in your mouth". It's a bit messy, but so good.