today i'm going to show you how to easily make hard cider at home i'm flavoring this
cider with mango which gives this a sweet fragrance and a subtle fruity tropical taste
you don't need a bunch of equipment and this recipe only uses four ingredients
i'm Trent Musho and you're watching the Bru Sho, let's make some mango hard cider!
anyone can make hard cider i promise it's easy and i'll show you how if you're interested in
home brewing and want to simplify techniques and recipes please take a second to subscribe to my
channel so you can ride along on this home brewing journey with me if you have access to fresh apple
juice then that will work perfectly but today we're keeping things simple and we're using
store-bought apple juice this recipe calls for 2 gallons of juice and will yield just under 2
gallons once complete but feel free to scale this recipe up or down to make as much as you'd like
for store-bought juice you want to make sure it has no preservatives usually written as sorbates,
sulfites, or benzoates these preservatives will inhibit these from doing its job
if you want to know the alcohol percentage now would be a good time to take a specific
gravity reading of the juice with the hydrometer or refractometer in most cases store-bought apple
juice comes in with an original gravity of 1.050. now i put the juice in a fermenter i'm using a
conical fermenter but you can use a food grade safe bucket or at some stories you can find one
gallon glass jugs of apple juice and ferment in that it's a good idea to also make sure
your fermenter and anything else that comes in contact with your cider is clean and sanitized
this will just make sure no wild yeast or bacteria infect your cider making it undrinkable next i add
the yeast nutrient 2 teaspoons these nutrients are needed to feed the yeast so that i can have happy
healthy yeast and i can limit all flavors that come from poor yeast health it will also help kick
off fermentation faster you don't have to put in yeast nutrient but it will help make better cider
speaking of yeast i'm using Lalvin EC 1118 champagne yeast i like this yeast because it's
highly attenuative meaning the yeast will eat more of the fermentable sugars so i end with a
lower final gravity making the cider taste drier and not as sweet but if you want a sweeter cider
feel free to try one of the many other kind of yeast out there you can find yeast and yeast
nutrient at your local home brew store but i've also linked to some options in the description
i'd love to know do you like your cider suite or more on the dry side let me know in the comments
so i have the juice yeast nutrient and yeast in the fermenter i pop a top on and i shake it
around to mix things up and incorporate oxygen. oxygen is important as fermentation starts so
that the yeast can use it to do their job but once fermentation is in full swing it's important to
avoid oxygen as much as possible or else you can risk oxidizing your cider leading to off flavors.
once everything is shook up i add the airlock to allow co2 to escape and not let anything in
if you don't have an airlock you can just use a piece of foil over the top of your fermenter but
they are pretty cheap so it might be worth getting one. i set the fermenter in a cool dark area and
allow it to ferment for one to two weeks until the airlock stops bubbling at that point i take
a final gravity reading and get a reading of 0.997 which means this cider clocks in at 7 percent ABV
but we're not done yet it's time to add the mango adding fruit will impact the alcohol
percentage because there are sugars in the mango that will reignite the yeast and firm it out
but i usually don't worry about that before adding the mango some brewers might suggest transferring
to a secondary fermenter before adding the fruit a secondary allows the brewers to transfer their
cider wine or beer off the yeast to allow the beverage to clear out that way the yeast and fruit
additions don't make a mess and you can end up with a more defined flavor from those additions i
don't notice a difference so i don't transfer to a secondary but do whatever is comfortable for you.
so i add two pounds of frozen mango into a sanitized mesh bag i use a mesh bag because i just
want the essence of mango in my cider but if you want the full mango experience you can puree it
or just throw the chunks in whole just make sure that you freeze the fruit first because freezing
the fruit kills any bacteria on it you could also use fresh mango and just freeze it as well
add the mango to the fermenter and let that sit for another five days
just to make sure the sugars from the mango are fermented before kegging or bottling up
after the five days take a sample and taste it if you like it then you can move on to packaging but
if you find it's too dry you can do what is called back sweetening that is where you add in sugar to
sweeten the cider up remember those preservatives i said to avoid well if you want a sweeter cider
you will need to first stabilize it with something that will halt the yeast activity before adding
in the sugar or else the yeast will just ferment the sugar again and you'll end up with a slightly
stronger but still dry cider one example is potassium sorbate add a half teaspoon per gallon
wait 24 hours and then you can add sugars or even apple juice to sweeten to your liking if
you like still cider then you can start drinking right now but i like mine dry and sparkling so
i kegged it up as is at 14 psi for one week if you didn't back sweeten you can also bottle it
but make sure you use a priming sugar calculator and give it a few extra days for the mango sugars
to ferment out before attempting to bottle after a week in the keg it was ready to drink.
This mango cider has a nice and dry finish it's crisp and because i carbonated mine at a higher
pressure it's very effervescent and tickly on the tongue the mango adds a great floral tropical
and almost citrusy flavor and even though it's higher in alcohol it really doesn't taste boozy
you have to give this a try and get creative with the fruit you add
or add none at all in a few weeks i'll be showing you my apple pie heart cider that
i make every fall it's one you won't want to miss if you have any questions about
making cider be sure to let me know and don't forget to subscribe for more videos like this