- 32 fl oz organic orange juice
- 8 fl oz organic blood orange juice
- 16 fl oz apple juice
- 8 fl oz filtered water
- 75 grams organic sugar
- 2 grams cider yeast
- Note: This recipe results in a beverage with a significant amount of alcohol. If any readers here want a non-alcoholic version of this recipe, please try our Carrot Blood Orange Kombucha instead.
- Clean and sanitize all of your equipment. I like to wash the jug with soap and water, allow it to air dry a bit, then rinse the jug with cheap vodka, and allow it to fully air dry.
- Once your equipment is prepped, add 1 cup of boiling water to the 1/2 gallon jug.
- Add the sugar to the jug and swirl it around to dissolve. Allow it to cool to room temperature.
- Add in the cider yeast and mix gently by swirling. Wait about 30 minutes for the yeast to get frothy and active.
- In the meantime, heat the orange, apple, and blood orange juice until simmering. Remove from heat and allow to cool to room temperature.
- Carefully using a funnel, add the juice mix to the jug leaving two inches of headspace (see pictures above).
- Cap the jug and swirl it around for about a minute.
- Remove the cap and place the airlock and stopper in the jug (see pictures above).
- After a few hours, you should notice a lot of bubbling in the cider and activity in the airlock.
- Allow the cider to ferment for 7 to 14 days until the bubbling completely stops, and you no longer see any activity in the airlock. At this point, you should see a lot of sediment in the bottom of the jug.
- Racking the cider: Remove the airlock and, using a funnel, transfer the cider to a new, clean jug for aging. Be careful pouring; pour gently and in one stead pour, leaving the sediment in the bottom of the original jug.*
- Cap the jug with a regular lid. Allow the cider to age at a cool room temperature or in the fridge for four weeks.
- After aging, you can rack the cider again with more aging time or move on to bottling.
- To Bottle the cider with honey: Clean and sterilize two 1-liter carbonation-safe 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 bottles, leaving any sediment in the bottom of the jug. Cap the bottles and invert gently twice to mix the honey with the cider.
- Allow to ferment in the bottles at a cool room temperature for five days, then immediately store in the fridge. (check the carbonation by carefully opening a bottle over the sink, if it is not carbonated enough you can leave it at room temperature for a few more days and check the carbonation again.)
- You can age the cider for 3 more weeks in the bottles in the fridge before enjoying it chilled. Keep refrigerated.
