Cider Beer

Yes, you are reading this correctly, this is Laura writing this post. I'm taking my part in my first beer brewing tonight! Not gonna lie, I'm kinda excited :) I'm not a huge beer connoisseur, hence the cider beer. Tastes like juice :) So, here are the steps if any of you ladies want to impress your hubby.

1. Place all utensils in the fermenting bucket, pour in one ounce of sanitizer, and fill to the top with hot water. Let sit for 15-20 minutes. Dump out the water. Do not rinse.

2. Set the fermenting bucket on the floor. Pour in five gallons of apple cider, holding it high above the bucket so the cider aerates as it falls into the bucket.

3. Pour in 1-2 pounds of sugar. The more sugar you add, the higher the alcohol content will be.

4. Pour in one packet of brewing yeast. The yeast will eat it's way down through the sugar, producing alcohol.

5. Tightly cap the bucket and put on the airlock.

6. At this point we would ideally put the bucket in a mini fridge set to the desired temperature. Since we don't have a mini fridge, we wrap the bucket with a large towel and secure with a bungee cord. The bucket is then placed in our utility sink. We soak the towel once or twice a day with cold water to keep the bucket chilled.

7. Let the beer ferment for approximately seven days, or until the airlock stops bubbling, which means the yeast has eaten all the sugar so no more CO2 is being produced.

I'll update you in a week when we're ready to bottle our cider beer!