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Here’s a quick overview on how to make your own 5 gal batch of cider.  I may or may not post more in-depth description of some of the steps, leave comments on what you’d like to see.

What you need:

5 gallons of juice – I like to use Indian Summer apple cider, its only ingredient is apple juice, no preservatives.

Some extra sugar (optional, to raise alcohol content) – I used 4 cans of apple juice concentrate, plenty of sugar, not much extra water.

Yeast – I used a starter made with the sediment from the bottom of one of my bottles of cider and 1 of the cans of concentrate, left on my stir-plate for about 48 hours until it started bubbling, if you can’t make a starter, I recommend Wyeast labs #4766.  My starter is a 3rd generation of that strain.

First step, clean and sanitize your container and add your first gallon of juice:

Add another gallon:

And another:

Next I added my starter and the other 3 cans of concentrate, so that pouring the last 2 gallons of juice would mix it all in:

Now add the last 2 gallons:

Pretty full, that’s a 6.5 gal bucket

Next you’ll want to measure the initial gravity so you can calculate the abv. later:

1.056, measuring in the bucket is not exactly kosher, good thing I’m not an orthodox jew…

Now place the cleaned and sanitized cover on and then your airlock:

And the waiting begins…  Approximately 2-3 weeks depending on the room temperature.  Lucky for me I have a nice cold Minnesota basement which allows the yeasties to take their time and makes a tastier end product than if they were rushed.  It’ll be done when the airlock stops bubbling, check back in 2-3 weeks for the next step.  Hopefully by then I’ll figure out how to take and transfer the photos from the phone so they’re right side up without having to edit them somewhere in the middle of the process.  Until then hop in bed and do some sideways reading and right side up photo viewing.

Update: Here’s part 2