Usually I go the lazy route and just buy apple juice from the store, add invert sugar, and some other spices. Good write up though!

Appreciate the info, been brewing beer for a while but never tried making a cider. I think I’ll give this a try and see how it goes. Plenty of apple orchards near me so I might pick my own for a specific blend.

When I used to make cider, I used store-bought juice and fermented with safale s-04. I like my cider slightly sweet, so after fermentation I would add some frozen apple juice concentrate to sweeten it and then keg it and refrigerate it immediately so the added sugars don't ferment.

I also use the grocery store juice (with no preservatives), add some honey, and I like it dryer, so I use champagne yeast.