Hard Strawberry Cider Recipe Fermented With Fresh Berries
This hard strawberry cider recipe makes a delicious home-brewed fruit cider, perfect for spring and summer. You can bottle strawberry hard cider with honey for a refreshing sparkling cider.
- Prep Time: 30 minutes
- Cook Time: 30 minutes
- Total Time: 1 hour
- Yield: 64 fl ounces
- Category: cider
- Method: fermentation
Ingredients
- 48 fl oz apple juice
- 16 fl oz filtered water
- 350 Grams strawberries
- 75 grams organic sugar
- 2 grams cider yeast
Instructions
- 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 air dry fully.
- Once your equipment is prepped, add the strawberries, water, and sugar to a pot, and bring to a simmer. Cook for about 15 minutes; while simmering, mash the strawberries a little with a spoon.
- Remove from heat and place a fine mesh colander over a pitcher or bowl; strain out the strawberry pulp and collect the liquid.
- Allow the strawberry liquid to cool, then, using a funnel, add it to the 1/2 gallon jug.
- 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 apple juice until simmering. Remove from heat and allow to cool to room temperature.
- Carefully using a funnel, add the apple juice 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 steady 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.
- At this point, 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. Transfer the cider from the aging jug into the carbonation-safe bottles using a funnel, 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 seven days.)
- You can age the cider for 3 more weeks in the fridge before enjoying it chilled. Keep refrigerated.
Notes
- You can use wild yeast in this recipe. 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.
- be sure to open the bottles to release the pressure occasionally when storing in the fridge for long periods. Don’t worry, though; 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.
