Introduction: Easy Made English Hard Cider

This is a simple, no nonsense recipe to make English Hard Cider, in a few days with very little effort.

In a small glass, add one teaspoon of wine yeast and one teaspoon of yeast nutrient. Give it a stir and cover the top of the glass with cling film. Wait 5 minutes for the mixture to begin frothing. This lets you know that it is working.

Sterilise a demijohn and rinse it out. Add 4 litres of common apple juice from your local store. It doesn't matter if its from concentrate. Brew a cup of strong tea using 2 tea bags. Add this to the apple juice (it adds tannin), then add the yeast mixture. Give it a swill around to get the contents mixed together.

Put the bung in with a standard airlock attached, filling the airlock with a little water to allow it to work.

Stand the demijohn in a warm place. Leave it to do its magic. return to it once the fermentation has finished and the brew looks pretty clear. This takes a couple of weeks in a temperate climate, but can be shorter in hot climes.

Prepare 5 to 6 bottles with a teaspoon of sugar and a teaspoon of cheap sweetener in each. Syphon off the cider into the bottles allowing a small gap at the top for a secondary fermentation to permit gas to carbonate the cider. make sure you cap these off (don't use screw lids as the pressure will burst through)

Put the bottles back in that warm place you had the demijohn and wait for a couple of weeks for the cider to create carbonation and mature.

Now the best bit. Sit in the garden with friends, eating a Ploughman's lunch whilst enjoying the chilled medium/dry taste of your cider. Lay back and think of England!