Hard Manzaita Cider!

Right now, manzanita berries are ripe.  I wanted to make a hard cider out of them and with out more than one try I ended up with a light, refreshing hard manzanita cider with an alcohol content of about 3.0.  Not many of my kitchen experiments go all that easy and turn out this goo on the first try, and I have to chalk it up to the hard apple cider that I wrote about in an earlier blog.
Hard apple cider (HAC) begins with a simple starter that is made from an apple and apple juice.  That's it.  It's one of the easiest things to do in the kitchen.
I've been using that starter in a lot of things such as the pineapple chicha from an earlier blog.  For a lot of my fermented recipes, it's taking the place of salt and whey.  And it made this foray into hard manzanita cider really simple.

Manzanita berries:

I've made mancanita cider before (using Hank Shaw's recipe:  http://honest-food.net/2010/08/22/manzanita-cider/) so I started with that, tweaking it slightly.
Mixe 2 cups of sugar with 10 cups of water, bring it to a boil and pour it over 4 cups of cleaned manzanita berries.   Let it sit about 20 minutes and mash it up with a potato masher.  No need to kill yourself mashing on this step.  The idea is just to crack open most of the berries so that they can infuse more efficiently.   Let it the mess sit overnight and then strain it.
Pour your cider into a carboy and add 1 cup of the HAC starter.  (See the blog on Hard Apple Cider for directions.  Remember the starter needs to made several days in advance of using it, so that it's all filled with bubbly goodness).
Slip on an airlock, or a balloon or whatever set up you use and leave it alone for a few days.  # days if you like it sweet.  Longer if you like it drier and with a little more alcohol to it.
When it's reached the flavor that you like, bottle, leave it alone for a day or two, then refrigerate it for about a week.
A really easy treat for some hot afternoon.

Hard Apple Cider

My friends, Deane and Darren, have me making hard apple cider.  There is nothing better on a hot day.  And I can't think of anything else I make in the kitchen that takes less work.  Really.  You peel an apple.  That's it.

Go to the store.  Buy 2 half gallon bottles of apple juice and one organically grown apple.  The juice doesn't have to be expensive, but it can't contain any nitrates or sufides or other preservatives.  Added Vitamin C is fine and it can be pasteurized.   

Open one bottle of juice and pour out about 1 cup.  Peel the apple.  Place the apple peel into the bottle of juice.

There you go.  Most of the work is done.

Now just put the bottle in a nice warm spot (it doesn't have to be all that warm actualy, but it'll take longer), and wait.  Shake the bottle up every day.  After about 3 days, you'll start to see some small bubbles around the peel.  If you open the lid, you might hear a slight 'shwoosh'.   Wait another day. It may take up to 5 days, but the point is, when the bottle gets really hard and every time you open it you get a loud 'swoosh', then your starter is ready.

Now you have a couple of options.  You can pour your second bottle of juice into a carboy, and add a cup of your stater, or you can do it the lazy way (my choice) and pour about a cup of the second bottle of juice out and replace it with one cup of your starter.  At this point, you can put your original starter in the refrigerator and drink it.  It's sweet, fizzy and delightful.  Kids love it and there isn't enough alcohol in it at this point for it to be a concern.

So now you have your first bottle of juice (the starter) tucked away in the 'fridge, and your second bottle in either a.) a carboy with a fermentation lock or b.) still in the original jug that it came from the store in.

Now just wait.  You can use a hygrometer, but I don't.  I like my cider sweet, so I let it ferment for 4-5 days.  Other people like a dryer cider and will let it ferment longer.  Totally up to you.

If you've used the carboy, bottle up your cider when it reaches the stage that you like it.  If you used the lazy woman's way, put it in the fridge. (You'll need to open the top every day to prevent too much gas buildup and making a mess in your refrigerator.)  Then just pour it from the jug.  It wont be quite as fizzy as if you bottled the cider in glass, but her, I hate washing bottles, so I'll put up with a very small amount of less 'fizzyness'.

It's delicious, cold and thirst quenching.  And easy.  Did I mention easy?

Now, wait and see what we can do with any leftover 'starter' in my next blog.