Brew Yer Own

UPDATE: I added some step-by-step photos here.

Today is April 1, "April Fool's Day".

My Facebook feed is full of jokes about governments banning sales of alcohol.

It must be a joke, because it could never happen, right?

Wrong.

It can happen, and it is happening in some places. And in other places, alcohol production and distribution are being deemed "non-essential". (Beer production and distribution will stop in Nuevo León)

I think this is a poor choice. Alcohol is an excellent and safe anti-anxiety treatment for many of us.

Which is why if you drink, now would be a good time to try your hand at brewing.

Keep reading and I'll tell you how to turn a bottle of apple juice into hard apple cider!

Some people think they don't like hard cider. Often it's too sweet. Fortunately, when you make your own, you get to decide how much sugar remains in the finished product, because you decide when it's done.

Ingredients and equipment below. This is the absolute simplest recipe I could put together. These are things that are easy to get in the US (at a supermarket, a homebrew store, or via the Internet). In other places, they may be different.

1. A 1-gallon jug of apple juice, preferably organic, filtered or unfiltered
2. A brewing airlock with a #6 stopper on it
3. An envelope of brewer's yeast (cider, champagne, wine, whatever)

That's all.

Here's the recipe:

1. Pour a few ounces of the apple juice into a cup. Pour some on the ground as a libation. Invoke your favorite gods, spirits, or ancestors. Drink the rest of the cup.
2. Pour some of the yeast into the bottle (read the yeast packet to decide how much).
3. Set up the airlock (varies) and put it in the bottle.
4. Put the bottle somewhere cool and dark for a couple of weeks.
5. Inspect the bottle periodically. Shortly before or after it stops bubbling, drink it. Or add some apple juice back in if you prefer a sweeter cider. Or after it stops bubbling completely (not before), bottle it.

There are lots of variations on this. There are ways to capture wild yeast, so that you are not reliant on the envelopes. There are ways to add more sugar, so that you'll have more alcohol in the finished product. You can mix in other juices if you like, or honey. There are ways to get bubbles in the bottles.

But try this recipe first, to gain confidence.

I plan to start a batch on Saturday.