Mark's Hard Cider

"Actions are held to be good or bad, not on their own merits, but according to who does them.  There is almost no kind of outrage - torture, imprisonment without trial, assassination, the bombing of civilians - which does not change its moral color when it is committed by "our" side.  The nationalist not only does not disapprove of atrocities committed by his own side, he has a remarkable capacity for not even hearing about them." - George Orwell

Yesterday I made a run to town with the kid's car, so that a mechanic could make some repairs.  That vehicle had both of the upstream exhaust oxygen sensors throw trouble codes, which turned on the check engine light.  I found this alarming, as I had replaced one of them not too long ago.  What sort of engine event messes up both oxygen sensors at the same time???

I ordered two replacement sensors, and replaced (for the second time) the sensor that I could get to, but the other one was hiding out in a crevice, and I couldn't get a wrench on it.  That one, I had to outsource.  

Another issue is that using the right-hand turn signal or emergency flashers would blow a fuse.  Something is shorted to ground - probably up front - and needs to be located.  I don't have the wiring diagram for this car, and now that these things are all online, you have to pay hundreds of dollars for a subscription for the information.  Since I'm not an auto repair business, such a subscription would not pay for itself - so the mechanic got the job instead.

Edit:  There was a short circuit in the trailer towing wiring harness - that I was unaware existed - and they simply chopped off the wire that was causing the short circuit.  Fine with me... this isn't a tow vehicle.

Afterwards, the wife had an errand she wanted to do that I had no interest in.  Whilst she was taking care of that business, I wandered into a nearby supermarket, and guess what they had shelves and shelves of, right in the entrance?  That's right!  Unfiltered apple squeezins with no preservatives!  That's raw apple cider to civilized people.

So for about thirty bucks, I bought 5 gallons of cider, and three packets of baking yeast - because the yeast doesn't come in smaller quantities than that.

Once we arrived home, I sanitized the fermenter, dumped all the squeezins in, and added one pouch of yeast.  I was a bit concerned that the yeast might not start chewing on the sugars in the cider, because I didn't bother to oxygenate it - just used the splashing and bubbling of the cider as it fell into the fermenter. 

However, I just had a look, and the airlock is already beginning to bubble, so we aren't dealing with a "stuck" fermenting process.  It's rolling along now, just 12 hours later.  Below:  Right after I poured it in and added the yeast.  Nothing was happening yet.

This is way less hassle than brewing beer!  No cooking, no hop additions, no steeping bags of grains in your wort...  Just dump it in and go.  You just have to time it for harvest, when the good stuff is on sale.

 Once complete, this cider will initially be "dry" and "still".  Dry refers to sweetness.  If you have ever had a 'dry' wine, you know that has a very bitter and sharp alcohol taste.  This will be like that, but it will be apple-flavored.  I'll correct the dry condition after fermentation with the addition of a non-sugar sweetener - one that the dormant yeast won't wake up and also consume.  I'll likely use Splenda (sucralose), then add a bit of cinnamon.  Alternatively, you can heat the fermented cider up to 140 F (60 C), which kills the yeast, and then you can add ordinary sugar for sweetening.

After fermenting, the cider will also be "still", meaning that like wine, it won't be carbonated.  "Sparkling" is the term for carbonated (fizzy) cider.  

I might carbonate the cider, and I might not - we shall see when we get there.  Probably not though.  It's easy enough to carbonate - put it in a keg, apply carbon dioxide gas to pressurize the keg, and shake or roll the keg around until enough gas dissolves in the liquid.  More likely, I will just pour it back into the jugs that it came in, non carbonated - after I sanitize them. 

There is a US product called Mike's Hard Lemonade - a very popular drink across the country, and the title of this post is a bit tongue-in-cheek wordplay on the brand.