A delicious hazy and tart hard orange cider made with sweet orange juice and blood orange juice. This recipe includes directions for bottling the cider with honey to create a sparkling blood orange cider.

Hard Blood Orange Cider

For a drink to be considered cider, it must contain at least 35% apple juice. I learned this while researching things for this blog. Well, my orange cider recipe includes only about 25% apple juice, and I’m still calling it cider. So, get over it now, homebrewers.

Cider must also be less than 8.5% ABV; otherwise, it is considered wine. This blood orange cider sits somewhere about 6-7% ABV.

My cider recipe’s high orange juice content produces exciting flavors reminiscent of some lambic sour beers. The high orange juice content also means more pectins in the cider and, thus, cloudiness in the final product. The hazy nature of orange cider is natural and no big deal.

I used a mix of organic orange juice, blood orange juice, and apple juice for this delicious cider. I bought the orange and apple juice bottled and pasteurized and juiced the blood oranges myself.

How to Make Hard Cider with Fruit Juice

If this is your first time making cider at home, I highly suggest starting with this half-gallon recipe. This lets you get acquainted with the process and taste test before committing to a large batch.

Here is my Amazon list for brewing supplies. If you have a local home brew store, that is also an option to get what you need.

I got all my supplies at my local homebrew store up the street from my house. At a homebrew store, you can have someone help you pick out the right supplies.

1/2 gallon glass jug (with a cap)
a second 1/2 gallon glass jug (with cap)
1 rubber stopper for brewing – You will need to make sure it is the right size for your jug. Some jugs have different diameter openings. I’ve linked the size stopper that fits my 1/2 gallon glass jug.
an S airlock for the stopper
a funnel
large pot for boiling
cheap vodka (for cleaning equipment)
Two 1-Liter swing-top bottles (carbonation safe, for bottling the cider)

Hard Blood Orange Cider Made with Orange and Apple Juice

I think brewing at home intimidates many people, so I made this recipe as easy as possible.

With this recipe, you can just buy some organic orange and apple juice at the store. I used the 365 brand of organic pressed apple juice and orange juice from Whole Foods. Both juices must be 100% fruit juice and free from any preservatives and additives. Also, make sure the juice does not have any added sugar.

For the blood orange juice, you will need to juice fresh blood oranges. I have yet to find bottled blood orange juice at the store.

I used a mix of plain orange juice with a bit of blood orange juice for this recipe to keep the cost low. You adjust the recipe to use all blood orange juice or all plain orange juice.

Here are the ingredients you’ll need:

2 Grams Cider Yeast (Saccharomyces bayanus)
Organic Pasteurized Apple Juice
Organic Orange Juice
The Juice of about 5 blood oranges (8 fl ounces)
Filtered Water
Organic Cane Sugar

blood orange cider in a 1/2 gallon glass jug. Two freshly juiced blood orange halves sit next to the jug.

Choosing Yeast for Blood Orange Cider

You can use champagne yeast or cider yeast for this recipe. If you visit a home-brew store, they should be able to help you select a cider yeast.

When buying packaged yeast, I like to make sure that the yeast species is not genetically modified. We chose to use Saccharomyces bayanus. This yeast species is associated with the natural fermentation of grapes, and it’s great for any fruit cider fermentation.

Another option is to use wild yeast. You only need about two tablespoons of wild yeast starter in place of the yeast in the recipe. Click here to learn how to make a wild yeast starter.

How to Bottle and Store Cider

Bottling and storing the cider is pretty straightforward. You need to verify that you have carbonation-safe bottles.

This is a sparkling hard cider, so we are going to carbonate it. To carbonate hard cider in the bottle, we have to add a small amount of sugar, called priming sugar, right before bottling. I like to use honey as priming sugar because it contains a lot of fermentable fructans. More fructans = more bubbles.

The yeast will feed on the freshly added sugar and produce more carbon dioxide. Since the cider is in carbonation-safe bottles with the cap secure, the CO2 is forced into the cider and becomes carbonated. Bottling 1 liter with only one tablespoon of honey is not enough sugar to excessively carbonate. It’s just enough to produce a pleasant level of carbonation.

To make this a still cider instead of sparkling cider, do not add any honey or sugar when you bottle it.

You’ll need:

Two 1-Liter Swing top bottles(Carbonation Safe)
Organic Honey

How to Bottle

Clean and sterilize the bottles.
Add one tablespoon of honey to each 1 Liter bottle.
Using a funnel, transfer the cider from the aging jug into the carbonation-safe bale top bottles, leaving the sediment in the bottom of the jug.
Cap the bottles and invert gently twice to mix the honey with the cider.
Allow to ferment at room temperature for five to seven days, then immediately place in the fridge. You can age the cider for 3 more weeks in the fridge before enjoying it chilled.

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