It’s that time. We have several friends who are gifting away their apple harvests simply due to the sheer volume. If you can find a friend like that, you may want to consider making your own apple cider.

First of all, if your apples look like mine here, that’s no issue. That’s just a skin fungus and is easily dealt with by peeling. It doesn’t penetrate the actual fruit. Ugly apples are still yummy apples. (We have a post about sooty blotch on our feed) Secondly, you don’t need an apple press to make cider; you can use a juicer! That’s what I’m going to do. Add a bit of orange citrus, cinnamon sticks, whole cloves, and a sweetener like brown sugar, maple syrup, or honey. You can spike your cider with brandy or bourbon, if you enjoy that.

I have a couple jugs of kombucha that are ready for a second ferment. I’m going to make apple cider kombucha, as well. I’m also going to try and ferment a small batch of cider to see if I end up with hard cider. I’m going about it as no-fuss as possible so I’ll simply juice, spice, and set out like I would kombucha. The wild yeast from these apples should do all the work for me.

Do you make cider? Any secrets to share?