Alcoholic drinks made apple cider

Tasty Apple Cider Cocktails to Make This Fall

Hot or cold, these are the most delicious (and boozy) ways to get your apple a day.

Pumpkin spice may be queen of the perpetual trend pile, with its lattes, and cookies, and well, basically everything else, but delectable apple cider will always hold a special place in our hearts as a prime flavor of fall. And the best way to make the most of cider season? Cocktails, naturally. Whether you like your apple a day chilled and shaken or want something warm to curl up by the fire with, these apple cider cocktails are sure to get you in the autumnal groove.

Ingredients

1.5 oz Redwood Empire Lost Monarch Whiskey
.25 oz Disaronno
1 oz honey syrup (honey that has been diluted 1:1 with hot water)
1 oz fresh lemon juice
2 oz apple cider

Instructions

Add all ingredients to shaker filled with ice. Shake well. Strain into coupe or cocktail glass. Garnish with thin slice of apple.

Ingredients

2 bottles of prosecco (or champagne), chilled
2 bottles of apple cider, chilled
.5 cup granulated sugar
4 tbsp pumpkin spice seasoning
12 slices of apple to garnish

Instructions

Mix the sugar and pumpkin spice seasoning; dip the top of each champagne flute in water then into the sugar/pumpkin spice mixture to create a flavorful rim for each glass. Garnish each glass with an apple slice. Combine the prosecco and the apple cider, mix well in a punch bowl and allow your guests to serve themselves or pour into prepared glasses.

Ingredients

1 oz Jägermeister
.5 oz lemon juice
.5 oz spiced pomegranate honey*
2 oz fresh apple cider
1 oz Jamaican aged rum (such as Appleton Reserve)
1 oz water

Instructions

Combine all the ingredients and heat up over stove.

*Spiced pomegranate honey: Steep cloves, fresh ginger, and cracked cinnamon sticks in pomegranate juice in a saucepan. Bring to boil and let sit to chill. Fine strain the liquid and add equal parts honey. Keep refrigerated.

Created by Willy Shine, Brand Meister

Ingredients

1 oz Tequila Cazadores Reposado
.5 oz blood orange puree
Apple cider, to taste
5 oz hot water
2 star anise pods

Instructions

Combine apple cider, hot water, and blood orange puree in a mug and mix well. Add the remaining ingredients and serve. Garnish with an orange peel.

By Manny Hinojosa, Global Brand Ambassador for Tequila Cazadores

Ingredients

1.5 oz Flor de Cana
.5 oz Amontillado sherry
.5 oz agave nectar
2 oz apple cider
2 dashes apple bitters

Instructions

Can be served hot or iced. Combine in a mug and heat or combine ingredients and shake well. Strain over fresh ice in a rocks or tall glass. Garnish with freshly grated nutmeg.

Ingredients

2 oz Reyka Vodka
1 oz ginger beer
2 oz apple cider
.25 oz simple syrup

Instructions

Combine all ingredients in a cocktail shaker, except ginger beer. Shake, and double strain into a mule cup. Add ginger beer and garnish with cinnamon stick and apple slice.

Ingredients

1 oz Aberfeldy 12 Year Old
.25 oz simple syrup
.25 oz Ancho Reyes
.25 oz lemon juice
2 dashes of Regans Orange Bitters
Apple Cider

Instructions

Combine all ingredients in a collins glass. Top with apple cider, and garnish with an orange twist.

By Gabe Urrutia of Single Malts in Miami

Ingredients

1.5 oz Dewars White Label Scotch
.5 oz Averna amaro
.5 oz ginger syrup*
.5 oz lemon juice
3 oz fresh apple cider

Instructions

Build all ingredients in a glass with ice and stir. Garnish with mint.

*Ginger Syrup: Put equal parts rough chopped ginger (peeled), boiling water, and honey in a blender. Puree and push through a fine strainer. Chill before using.

From FieldHouse Jones in Nashville, TN

Ingredients

12 oz Cointreau
32 oz cider
6 oz fresh lime juice
2 cinnamon sticks
2 whole star anise pods
2 whole cloves
2 oranges thinly sliced
1 apple, thinly sliced

Instructions

In a large saucepan, bring cider, lime, fruit and spices to a boil. Cover and remove from heat. Add the Cointreau last and steep for at least 20 minutes. Divide among individual mugs and serve hot. Garnish with a fresh cinnamon stick & slice of apple or orange.

Ingredients

2 oz Cathead Pecan Vodka
.75 oz Hoodoo Chicory Liqueur
.75 oz apple cider reduction*
.5 oz lemon juice

Instructions

Combine all ingredients in a shaker, shake, and strain. Serve over crushed ice. Garnish with apple slice and cinnamon stick

*Apple cider reduction: Combine 1 cup apple cider and 1 cinnamon stick in a saucepan. Reduce by half.

Ingredients

2 oz hard apple cider
1.5 oz Woodford Reserve Bourbon
.5 oz simple syrup
Dash Peychaud’s Bitters

Instructions

Fill a mixing glass with ice and add cider, bourbon, syrup and bitters. Shake vigorously and strain over an ice sphere in a double rocks glass. Garnish with Amarena cherries.

Ingredients

1.5 oz Tullamore D.E.W. Original
4-5 mint leaves
1 dash of Angostura bitters
.5 oz simple syrup
.5 oz fresh lemon juice
1.5 oz hard apple cider

Instructions

Fill shaker with all the ingredients except the apple cider. Shake and strain into a highball glass with fresh ice. Top with cider.

Ingredients

1.5 oz Lairds 100-proof Apple Brandy
.75 oz Bärenjäger honey liqueur
.5 oz lemon juice
3 oz apple cider, hot
2 dashes angostura bitters

Instructions

Combine all (except apple cider), dry shake, strain into a warmed coffee mug, add cider, garnish with a cinnamon stick and lemon twist studded with cloves.

Ingredients

2 oz Hornitos Black Barrel Tequila
1 oz apple cider
.75 oz fresh lime juice
.5 oz maple syrup
3 dashes Angostura bitters
Apple slice

Instructions

Combine ingredients in a shaker with ice and shake vigorously. Strain into a rocks glass over fresh ice. Garnish with an apple slice.

Ingredients

One quarter of a fresh peach
.5 oz honey syrup
2 oz Cathead Pecan Vodka
1 oz apple cider
Dash of rhubarb bitters

Instructions

Muddle fresh peach and honey syrup. Add vodka and apple cider. Shake and serve on the rocks.

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16 Incredibly Delicious Apple Cider Cocktails That Taste Like Coziness in a Glass

Impress your guests with these unique and easy-to-prepare apple cider cocktails, the crème de la crème of fall and winter drinks.

‘Tis the season for apple cider cocktails and fall drinks. Gallons of fresh apple cider are popping up at farmers’ markets, grocery stores, and seasonal celebrations, flying off the shelves as people trade their spaghetti-strap shirts for plaid flannels. Maybe you’re even getting into the seasonal spirit by making your own apple cider after a day soaking up the fall foliage while picking apples for your favorite apple recipes.

No matter what kind of apple cider you start out with, adding a few simple ingredients will help you transform this classic fall drink into an even more festive treat. Check out the creative and easy apple cider cocktail recipes below (we’ve even put together an easy-to-save, easy-to-share graphic to make trying some of these cocktail recipes even easier). There’s a sparkling apple cider drink, an apple cider sangria, and even an apple cider punch. These fun beverages using apple cider are the perfect excuse to throw a fall gathering, host your own Friendsgiving, or just snuggle up on the couch with a good book and a warm drink on a chilly day.

You’ll notice that some of the recipes for these apple cider cocktails call for simple syrup—which you can buy at the store, but as the name suggests, the sweet addition is actually pretty simple to make yourself. First, you’ll whisk together equal parts sugar and hot water until the sugar is dissolved. Then, you let the mixture chill and store it for up to one week in the fridge. That’s it! Feel free to consult our full recipe for simple syrup, which breaks down our method in more detail.

If you can’t get enough apple cider recipes (and, let’s be honest, who can in autumn?), these apple cider doughnuts are one of our favorite fall desserts, and these apple cider poached apples are another great use for all the types of apples you’re about to encounter.

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How Alcoholic Apple Cider is Made

September 27, 2021

As a people, we seem to have managed to make alcoholic drinks from all sorts of produce. Grains are transformed into beer, or spirits (e.g. whiskey). Grapes are transformed into wine, pears into perry, and apples, into cider. Making an alcoholic drink was a great way to preserve produce (and have something safer to drink than contaminated water), by now, we mostly drink them for enjoyment.

All these processes are quite similar. They start with a way to free up the sugars (aka the food for the yeast). Next, the yeasts are ‘released’ to do their job and ‘eat’ those sugars, converting them into alcohol. We’ve discussed beer-making quite extensively before, but hadn’t delved into the more fruity drinks. Since we had an ample supply of apple juice at hand, we focused these experiments on this delicious fruit. Hence it’s time to dig into the science of apple cider!

What is (hard) apple cider?

Before diving in, let’s get some terminology sorted. As is so often the case for foods and drinks, naming conventions for apple cider differ around the world. Overall, there are two types of drinks that we’ll be discussing here:

1. The juice made from an apple. This contains the sugars from the apple, it might be pasteurized or filtered, but has not otherwise been transformed. Here, we’ll refer to this as apple juice, however, some of you might refer to this drink as apple cider!
2. Fermented juice from an apple, contains alcohol. When you let cider yeasts grow and thrive in the juice from the apple they’ll form alcohol (ethanol). Here in this post we’ll be referring to it as apple cider. Some of you though might refer to this as hard cider.

It starts with apples

To make apple cider: all you truly need are apples and yeast (which might already be on your apples). Don’t underestimate the importance of apples. Since the whole drink will rely on what’s in those apples, choosing a suitable apple is important (the same is true by the way when making apple pie).

When looking for cider apples, cider makers will consider the following factors:

Sweetness (aka sugar content)

For apple juice to be converted into apple cider, yeasts need to convert sugar into alcohol (and flavors). The sugar in your apples will all be converted into alcohol during fermentation. If the sugar content of your apples is very high, you might end up with too much alcohol in your cider.

Cider makers will measure the sugar content of the apple juice by measuring the specific gravity of the juice. Beer brewers use a similar method. An apple juice with a specific gravity of 1.040 is considered to be low on the sugar content scale, one with a specific gravity of 1.075 is very high.

The specific gravity of a liquid compares the density of that liquid to another liquid. It can also be called relative density. In our case the reference is water. Since apple juice contains sugar, the density of the juice is higher than that of water.

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Acidity

For a well-balanced drink you don’t just want to taste the alcohol. The acidity of an apple adds some ‘zing’, some sourness and freshness to the drink. Too much acid though will make for an unappetizing drink.

The main acid in apples is malic acid. As such, the acidity of apples is often expressed as total acid (TA) content. The main acid at play here is malic acid. As such, 1% acidity refers to 10g of malic acid per liter of apple juice.

Some references might refer to % of tartaric acid. This is also an acid, however, is more commonly used in wine making. These two numbers can be converted into one another.

Apple juices suitable for cider making tend to have an acidity in between 4,5-7,5%. The acidity of apple juices can vary more widely though, between as low as 1g/l or as high as 15g/l.

Tannins

Tannins are a group of molecules that taste bitter and astringent. They provide some depth and interest to a drink. They are also what gives red wine their ‘body’.

Tannin can be determined using a simple chemical analysis. A low tanning apple will contain We didn’t have a grinder or press, so went ahead and used apple juice for making apple cider as part of our experiments. This apple juice specifically was made from Jonagold apples that would have otherwise been thrown out. They’re not the best for making into a cider, but still work!

Making apple juice

Once you’ve chosen your apple, the first step of making it into a cider is to transform it into a juice. You only need the juice of the apple, not the seeds, skins, etc. Extracting that juice starts by grinding the apples. While grinding you break down cell walls. These cells held onto the water, so once they’re broken the juice flows out.

After grinding, the apples are pressed to break even more cells and free up even more juices. The resulting juice won’t be clear. Instead, it will be hazy with particles floating around. In some cases, cider makers will clarify the juice at this point but most do it at a later stage, or not at all.

If you’ve ever eaten an apple you will know that if you take a bite out of the apple, and leave it out for only a little while, it will turn brown. This is caused by enzymes that initiate enzymatic browning reactions. Apart from turning brown, apple juice is also very vulnerable to spoilage by microorganisms because of the high sugar content. Therefore, manufacturers will either use the juice directly or treat it to stabilize it.

What about the rest of the apple?

Apart from the juice, you’re left with apple remainders such as peel and seeds. These are called pomace. This is full of pectin and can be used for various other applications. However, it’s not required for making apple cider.

Did you know that the pectin in apples is very helpful in setting a thick jam? It’s why jam recipes may call for apples, the pectin helps create a creamier texture.

Fermentation of the apple juice

In order to convert the apple juice into cider, the apple juice has to ferment. During fermentation the sugars in the apple are converted into alcohol and carbon dioxide (and a range of flavor molecules). Fermentation is essential for any alcoholic drink, whisky, beer, etc all start out with fermentation.

Starting with a clean slate

In order for fermentation to occur the right types of yeast need to be present. Apples contain several microorganisms, including yeasts naturally. In some cases cider makers let these naturally present microorganisms do their work at this point.

However, in a lot of cases, these may not be the right type and not give the desired flavors. Therefore, cider makers may first want to make sure that no undesirable microorganisms are present (including ones that can make you sick, pathogenic ones).

There are various ways to do this, the juice can be filtered (to take out some of that sediment which tends to contain more microorganisms) or pasteurized but the most common method is to add some sulfur dioxide (SO2). Sulfur dioxide kills all microorganisms in the juice, allowing a cider maker to start with a clean slate. However, you will have to wait several hours before adding in your specific yeast to prevent it from being deactivated by the sulfur dioxide as well!

• Cider yeast
• Yeast primed in some apple juice to test whether it’s alive

Initiating fermentation

At this point, you are either ready for the natural yeasts to do their work or you can add your chosen yeasts to the apple juice. Choosing the right type of yeast can be pretty complex. The yeast needs to thrive in apple juice for one thing and needs to make the right flavor molecules that a cider maker is looking for. The type of yeast used will definitely impact the final result of your cider. There are various yeasts out there that have been developed specifically for making apple cider. Once fermentation starts the yeast converts the sugars in the juice into alcohol, making flavor molecules along the way.

Apart from the yeast, the temperature will have a great impact on the fermentation process. Higher temperatures result in faster fermentation for instance but will give different flavors than a slower fermentation. Generally, temperatures between 15-22°C are used.

The fermentation process will last several days to weeks. By the end of it, you have an alcoholic apple cider. If left to complete fermentation entirely, the apple cider will be flat, it won’t have bubbles upon opening.

Second fermentation

After a while, the yeast starts to slow down since there is less food (sugar) available. The cider may be transferred to a new tank for the next fermentation round. During this step, not a lot of new alcohol will be formed but the flavor of the cider will continue to change. It isn’t uncommon for cider to be aged for several weeks in a tank.

Barrel aging

As we mentioned earlier, a good amount of tannins is important for an apple cider to have a well-rounded flavor profile. A way to add more of those interesting flavors is by aging the apple cider in wooden barrels. Most cider makers will use oak barrels that have already been used for other drinks such as wine or whisky. These barrels contain a lot of flavor molecules from both the wood as well as the drink that was in there before so will really impact the flavor of your cider.

Adding flavors

You can also use this second fermentation or aging step to add additional flavors. One option is to add hops, which are generally added to beer. Hops have a strong and complex flavor which will enrich the apple cider after a few days of soaking. Also, hop can help preserve a cider.

Another option is to add spices such as vanilla or cinnamon to the cider at this point. These flavors will slowly infuse into the cider.

You will also find ciders to which additional fruits (e.g. blueberries) have been added again at this point. Adding fruits though will result in more active fermentation again. Fruits contain new sugars so can revive the yeasts again! If a cider maker does not want this to happen, they can force the fermentation to stop first by adding chemicals that stop the yeast. They might do this for instance when adding back some apple juice if you want to sweeten up the cider slightly but not get more alcohol again.

Adding fizz

If you want your cider to be carbonated, you’ll need new gas to form within the bottle. This is done by adding back a little bit of sugar into the apple cider upon bottling. The yeast will again start to ferment and produce carbon dioxide. Now, since the bottles are closed, the gas can’t escape and will remain within the liquid. If too much sugar is added though the bottle might explode because of too much gas build up.

Commerical cider makers might not ferment again in the bottle. Instead, they’ll have carbonation systems (such as used for making soda) with which they can carbonate the apple cider upon bottling.

Clarification

Remember that the initial apple juice is often hazy to start with? Most apple ciders though are clear and have no particles floating around. That is because they are clarified after the fermentation process. Some of the particles have settled down to the bottom of the tank (sedimentation), so those are easy to remove. Especially after quite long fermentation times, a lot of the particles will have settled out already. In other cases, a centrifuge can be used to separate these particles or you can add ingredients that will gather these particles

See & Test the process

Angry Orchard, a brand of alcoholic cider has a nice video on their website showing all the most essential steps, starting with the apples, ending with a cider (scroll down below the recipe). If you learn best by doing so, give making your own apple cider a try!

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