I'm a commercial brewer now and have been a homebrewer since the 1980's.  I recommend using cheap vodka in the airlock rather than water.  It's self sanitizing!  Great show, Jason.

Some tips from a mead maker: You don’t need to add the potassium sorbate at the beginning. The commercial yeast will overcome the natural yeast on the apples. You don’t need nutrients for apple fermentations. The juice itself has more nutrients than the yeast will ever need for a short fermentation like a cider. Last, I’d suggest Lalvin 71B yeast. It’s a yeast that’s been designed to do malolactic fermentation, converting the tart mallic acid into lactic acid, giving the cider a creamy mouth feel. That helps make it tasty sooner.

If you really want a treat, brew a gallon of cider with ~3 lbs of honey. Add a cinnamon stick and a single clove during primary fermentation. Rack it to a new carboy once it’s finished fermenting and add oak chips or a toasted oak spiral. Bottle it, wait a year, and it will taste like bourbon!

Man you killed me when you asked Craig to take the cider into the house for your wife.  For just a second I thought you had a real bromance going on there. 😂😂

As a mead and wine maker I have to say adding sorbate pre fermentation is not necessary. That champagne yeast will overpower any natural yeast. Potassium sorbate also does NOT stop fermentation it stops yeast from being able to multiply. If you add potassium sorbate and potassium metabisulfite that combo will cause yeast to no longer be able to convert sugars to alcohol. I would also recommend using Lalvin 71B for its malolactic fermentation. Also acid blend is mostly citric acid. You can buy citric, malic and tartaric separately and use the proper acids for the fruit/s you're using.

When I was 15 I worked in a U-Pick-type apple orchard, doing everything from trimming trees to ferrying people around the orchard and collecting them and their picked apples. In addition to my pay - something under $4/hr back then, the owner would let me have a gallon or two a week of fresh apple cider, which was made on the property and sold in plastic gallon jugs. I would let it naturally ferment, releasing the pressure every day or so before the jugs could explode. It always made the most amazing tasting cider I have ever had. It also packed a heck of a wallop... I don't know what the alcohol content was, but it had to be at least as much as a strong wine. At band practice, I'd break out a jug and we would each have a couple or three glasses. I'm sure we sounded 'great' by the end of rehearsal. Good times.

Thanks for the in-cider information!

The people saying that the non-alcoholic pressed stuff isn't cider are nuts.  If its pressed from apples, it's cider, full stop.  The only thing the alcohol does is determine whether or not if it's "hard" cider.

While being incarcerated i was taught by one of my cell mates how to make “pruno.”  The county jail where i was taught only provided oranges.  In san quentin they gave apples, pears, and bananas.  I was surprised at how easy it was myself haha and the end results are pretty good if done right!

If your cider comes out tasting odd, you can always distill it... Just don't let the feds know

I live in cider making (drinking) part of England most of the farmyard cider I've seen is just the apples pressed through straw or sacking put into barrels and left to ferment, the yeast in the skin does the job, the old farmer told me the alcohol kills anything that shouldn't be in there.

Pretty much everything you did was correct, but there are some things you can do for insurance.

1. If you buy apple juice, make sure it is organic or doesn’t have any preservatives added. The preservatives will prevent healthy fermentation.
2. Using a sanitizer (like starsan) on all your equipment prior to the brew can help ensure no foreign bugs don’t contaminate anything.
3. Filling the airlock with star San or vodka can help make sure over the long fermentation no bacteria or molds make their way through the airlock.

Fun fact: Johnny Appleseed was really about planting apple trees to make applejack. Also, the apples from that era were used for applejack and cider, not eating. The apples on the 18th Century were no good eating apples.🍏

You really did Craig one dirty in the end💀

I just started watching videos at 2X speed...what a game changer!

When I was in the Navy, onboard the Nimitz, fresh fruit from the mess decks was always in high demand. Not that I ever made applejack, mind you. That would have been illegal...I just cut up fruit, added sugar and yeast and stored it in a cool, dry place till it tasted good!

Next video: a bar to put everything in, and a couple of matching barstools?

Nah, we wanted a video on DRINKING the cider!

Apple cider is a non-alcoholic beverage made from apples that is unfiltered, unsweetened, and raw. It's typically sold unpasteurized, which means it's perishable and requires refrigeration. Apple cider is different from apple juice in how it's processed. Apple juice is typically made from filtered apple juice, while apple cider is often made from unfiltered apple juice. This usually makes apple cider appear darker than apple juice

As a brewer, I was going to say some things, but looks like they were said already.

That said, I love the idea of back sweetening with brown sugar. Never tried that. Going to try that with my next batch. Thank you.

Missed some major steps related to sanitation. Carboy, bottling bucket, syphon, keg all need to be sanitized before touching the apple juice/cider for the first time.