Making hard apple cider is one of the easiest ways to preserve your apple harvest. After following the instructions on How to Make Hard Cider, read on to learn (from my husband Brian) how to rack and bottle your hard apple cider.  We left off with your batch of freshly pressed cider happily sealed in a vessel. It may be slightly cloudy from the tiny particles of apple that made it through the strainer, a good sign of freshly pressed juice. Now, naturally occurring wild yeasts eat the apple cider sugars, reproduce, and eat more, and in the process excrete alcohol and carbon dioxide gas. The alcohol we want to keep, but the gas needs to escape, otherwise your vessel will explode … [Read more...]