Homebrew: Hard Cider, What You Should be Trying Now......

We covered how to make a very basic hard cider a few weeks back in THIS blog post

Today I want to talk about how you can quickly and easily turn a very basic cider in to something truly amazing.

At the stage when you would normally put the honey in, try adding a little something to the mix.

For instance, a handful of fruit or berries. Here's a batch I made a while ago that has just become ready to drink, I added a mix of fuit/berries that included Sour Cherries, Blackcurrants, Blackberries and Red Grapes in equal measure to give me a beautiful dark fruit cider

 Next batch I'm going to do a raspberry one with a handful of fresh fruit then when it's time to bottle I'll add a shot of raspberry juice to each one to really bring the flavour out in the finished cider, you can experiment and try any fruit or juice that you like. Or you could add cinnamon sticks and make a spiced/mulled cider, The possibilities are only limited by your imagination.

Unlike the flavoured ciders you'll find "off the shelf" these ones can be sweetend (or not!) to your exact taste and you will have a refreshing crisp drink with no additives or preservatives, which perfectly justifies sitting with your feet up and enjoying a cool glass of home brewed fruit cider!