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The Farnbrewer 9 step cider making process
These are the steps involved when I make a home made cider. There is some duplication of the text here and the Beer Making Steps article. I should mention that my experience to date is limited to making “turbo cider”, which is fermented from apple juice rather than fresh apples.
Step 1 – cleaning and sanatising
Clean all of the equipment. I use ChemClean to remove any organic matter accumulated in previous use. Once cleaned and rinsed, I use ChemSan to sanitise everything. This will include the fermenting vessel (Usually a Kegland 8 Litre Oxebar), hydrometer, 4 Litre Jug, funnel, etc
Step 2 – creating the cider must
Depending on the recipe, I will use varying quantities of the ingredients mentioned here.
I use between 4 and 7 litres of supermarket Apple Juice. Some of this is added to the Fermenting Vessel (FV) and given a good shake to oxygenate it. In a saucepan, I make between 0.5 and 2 Litres of black tea using tea bags and Reverse Osmosis (RO) water. The tea adds tannins which are normally found in the skin of the apples. Store bought apple juice often lack this. I optionally add lemon juice and the peel or zest of the lemon to the black tea in the pan and allow it to steep. This can improve the flavour profile. For stronger cider I may add brewing sugar to the pan, or if making Cyser I will add honey to the FV. It’s best not to heat the honey to avoid losing the subtle flavours. I sometimes add fruit that has previously been frozen and Pectolase to help breakdown that fruit. It also helps to prevent haze. If I used RO water, I add Yeast Nutrient to help the fermentation. When the pan of black tea has been allowed to cool, it is added to the FV. When the must has dropped to below 23 Celsius, a gravity reading is taken and recorded and the yeast is pitched.
Step 3 – fermentation
Ideally I’d use a Fermentation Enclosure (FE) and control the temperature, but I don’t have one yet for cider. Most of what I have made in 2026 has just been with the FV standing in large “leak containment pot” in my little home office. Cider is more forgiving of higher fermentation temperatures, especially with the right yeast. I usually use Mangrove Jacks Cider Yeast which can work at up to 24 Celsius and will create more of the desirable cidery fruity esters at those higher temperatures. That said, if it gets too warm, the office AC unit keeps things within specifications! I ferment all my cider under pressure at 10 psi. So a spunding valve is attached to the FV straight after the yeast is pitched. You can read more about spunding valves in a future article >insert link here<. Depending on how much fermentable sugar is in the must and the fermentation temperature, the fermentation could run for as little as just 5 days or perhaps up to 2 weeks. On average, I’d say it’s normally around 9 days. The way I check to see if fermentation is over is by checking that there are no more bubbles from the “blow-off” tube which I attach to the spunding valve. If desired, now would be the time to take another gravity reading to calculate the ABV %, I normally skip this to avoid introducing oxygen and assume the yeast has done it’s job and got the gravity down to 1.000 – 1.002
Step 4 – the cold crash
As soon as I’m happy the fermentation is complete, it’s time to add any post-fermentation fruit to the FV and start the so called cold-crash. This just involves attaching a CO2 line in place of the spunding valve to keep the fermenter at 10 psi. Then then FV is placed in the Conditioning Cellar (CS). The CS is always at 3 Celsius and this low temperature prevents further fermentation. This prevents the yeast from consuming the sugar in the fruit additions. The other purpose of the the cold-crash is to help any yeast and particulates to settle out and drop to the bottom of the FV. This really helps to minimise anything other than cider being transferred in the next step. The CS will get the temperature of the FV down quite quickly, normally within a few hours. It can then be left for about three days for the cold crash to complete. If there were fruit additions I will give it a shake after three days and then leave it for another three days. So in total this process can take three to six days. These timings are not critical and can be considered just a guide to the minimum times.
Step 5 – kegging
The method I use to keg the cider is called a closed loop transfer. It takes some preparation but it ensures that the cider is not exposed to oxygen as I fill the key. This hopefully eliminates the risk of the cider becoming oxidised and extends the shelf life from weeks to months. The first part of the process is to take a cleaned 8 Litre Oxebar keg (The exact same type of container I ferment the cider in) and fill it completely with sanitiser. Next I flush a gas line with CO2 and attach it to this keg. Now I grab a second cleaned and sanitised empty keg and connect a beer line from the first keg to this keg. I then push all of the sanitiser from the first keg to the second keg using CO2. Once this is done I have a keg full of CO2. Now I’m ready to do the transfer of cider from the fermenter keg (FK) to the serving/storage keg (SK). I use gravity for this so the SK has to be below the FV. The greater the difference in height the faster the flow. A CO2 flushed beer line is connect from the liquid post of the FV to the liquid post of the SK with the in-line tap closed. A little CO2 can be then vented from the SK using the Pressure Relief Valve (PRV) to ensure the FV is at a very slightly higher pressure than the SK. The in-line tap can then be opened, the beer should then flow until the pressure has equalised. Now we can attach the gas line between the FV and the SK. As the beer line is already full, gravity will now take over and the transfer will commence. This can take a while!
When I have a better set up for Cider making, I will experiment with filling the SK with CO2 generated during fermentation rather than from a CO2 bottle. > Future article <
Step 6 – cleaning again
Now is the time to clean and sanitise the 8 Litre Oxebar we used as the FV and have just emptied. It’s also a good idea to flush the beer and gas lines we used for the transfer in the previous step. The process is: rinse out the spent yeast and fruit (if any) with clean water, then with ChemClean, then water again, and finally ChemSan. I usually leave about a litre of ChemSan in the Oxebar to keep it sanitised until I next need it next.
Step 7 – Conditioning and Carbonating
Cider tastes better if it’s conditioned, that’s a fact. The longer, the better – up to a point. I’ve worked out from experience that my cider needs from between three to five weeks to mature. Over time I’ve developed these rough rules of thumb.
- Always cold crash for at least three days.
- Condition for a minimum of three weeks before sampling.
- The cider will be best from about four weeks onwards.
To date, the cider has always been finished before I’ve been able to taste how it is beyond seven weeks. Perhaps I should set a batch aside at some point and try it after two months or longer.
So I have my freshly kegged cider, what next? The keg is placed in the Conditioning Cellar (CS). This is just a repurposed chest freezer with an external temperature controller (have you realised this is a common theme at Farnbrewer). I like to condition and carbonate at the same time so all my ciders are hooked up to CO2 while conditioning. I don’t plan to ever use mixed gas for cider as it doesn’t seem to suffer from over carbonation The industry standard for cider is CO2, that’s what I’ve gone with.
This is possibly the least exciting step. The keg just sits in the CS until it’s ready. That’s it.
Step 8 – Serving (and sharing)
Once conditioning is complete and there is available space, the keg is moved to the Serving Cellar (SC) and connected to a CO2 gas line. Again, the SC is just another repurposed refrigerator with an external temperature controller. I keep my SC at between 3C and 7C depending what is currently being served. I find It’s best to let a keg stand for a couple days after it has been moved to let and sediment settle and prevent foaming at the tap.
Step 9 – Cleaning and Sanitising – yet again
Again? Yes, it is widely accepted that cleaning is typically 80-85% percent of all the work when running your own brewing operation. So yes, three of the nine steps listed here are cleaning.
Sadly, all good ciders come to an end eventually, now all we have left is a dirty keg. When the cider is freshly finished, it’s a great time to rinse the keg before the sediment has a chance to dry. I do this if I can’t immediately give the keg a full clean with ChemClean. I keep track of every piece of brewing equipment and my dedicated spreadsheet shows if an item has only been rinsed, fully cleaned with ChemClean or fully cleaned and sanitised with ChemSan. I usually leave some ChemSan in the keg before putting it into storage.
Graeme a.k.a. Farnbrewer