Homemade Hard Pumpkin Cider with Warm Fall Spices
The only hard cider you need this fall. This pumpkin cider is fermented with organic apple juice, pumpkin juice, warm fall spices, and sugar. Bottle this cider with honey for a delightful sparkling holiday drink.
- Prep Time: 30 minutes
- Cook Time: 30 minutes
- Total Time: 1 hour
- Yield: 64 ounces
- Category: cider
- Method: fermentation
Ingredients
- 56 fl oz apple juice
- 8 fl oz pumpkin juice (strained from pumpkin puree)*
- 75 grams sugar
- 1 cinnamon stick
- 2 cloves
- 2 grams cider yeast
Instructions
- Open a 16 ounce can of pumpkin puree. Place a colander in a large bowl and line the colander with a few layers of cheesecloth or butter muslin. Dump the puree in the cheesecloth-lined colander and allow the pumpkin juice to separate from the pulp, collecting the juice in the bowl. This should give you over 8 fl ounces of pumpkin juice.
- 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 pumpkin juice, cinnamon, clove and sugar to a small pot, and bring to a simmer. Stir until all the sugar is dissolved.
- Remove the cinnamon stick and clove. Allow the pumpkin 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 (if using a metal pot you can place the pot in a bowl of ice to cool it down faster).
- Carefully using a funnel, add the apple juice to the jug leaving two inches of headspace.
- 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
- use a 1/2 gallon jug for this recipe, unless you are doubling it.
- You can use wild yeast in this recipe. You only need about two tablespoons of wild yeast starter in place of the packaged 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. Do NOT 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.
