Hartman’s Hard Apple Cider

I take no credit for this recipe for simple hard apple cider. Recipe came from The Homebrew Helper’s recipe for Easy Hard Cider.

This was my first successful cider (I made one last year that turned into vinegar because I let it sit in the primary too long). You put fresh apple juice (no preservatives) in a glass carboy with pectic enzyme, for clearing, and yeast for 2-2.5 weeks. Rack the cider to a second carboy after primary and let sit for at least 3 weeks. Then keg or bottle. If bottling, add 1/4C brown sugar per 1 gallon of cider into the secondary carboy before siphoning the cider to the bottles. Let the bottles sit at room temperature for two weeks. After two weeks, pop open a bottle. If you hear the “pop” sound, they are ready to be drank or put into the fridge to cool. If there is a geyser when you open, immediately put the bottles in the fridge to stop the yeast activity.

The final product is seen below:

Story behind the name: when I poured my first bottle into a glass, it had a certain look to it that reminded me of Mt. Dew. Don’t worry, it wasn’t as radioactive looking. I thought calling it the Mt. Dew Cider was too straight forward so I did some research. Barney and Ally Hartman were the brothers who founded Mt. Dew as a mixer. Therefore, the name was born.

Sláinte!