Brewer's Best Cider House Select Apple Cider Kit

Sitting here on day 100 after the start of fermentation and after weeks of bottle conditioning and I can say I like it. It's better than using apple juice from the store but not as good as seasonal fresh pressed cider from the orchard. Can confirm the fermentation process gives off an eggy smell and the first taste before bottling left me wondering, but I stuck it out and have a refreshing, decent cider. Patience is your friend on this one so plan to consume between day 90-180. Packaging is less than desirable as others have mentioned so be ready to go when you open it. I think it would make an excellent base to mix in some other fruits. Bottom line I would buy it again, but take your time and know the early stages are not the mature drink.

Everything was included in the kit except the 2 pounds of sugar. Instructions were easy to follow and is so easy to make. I made the 6 gallons and added a fresh sliced pear in the top during fermentation. Added a little bit of pear flavor. I only used half of the sweetener kit and seems to be close to the angry. brand.

Everyone loves the cider I made from this. But I am not so sure it is because of this kit or because of my quick thinking to save a disastrous packaging issue. Be forewarned that the directions on the outside of the bag are like terrible cliff's notes compared to what is in the bag. So I decide to open the exterior bag to survey the ck tents of the bag. I use a pair of scissors and open it right below where it is sealed. To my horror they sealed the extract bag with the exterior bag seal. So I have now opened the main ingredient and am completely unprepared to start a brew day. I quickly get all of my equipment sanitized and ready. And start the batch. Then discover that you need to add corn sugar to the wort on brew day. (of course I don't have any) so I substituted about 2 cups of table sugar. And added the other flavors I wanted. Vanilla, cinnamon, cloves and maybe something else. It miraculously turned out great in the end. But I was pretty annoyed about it. All my friends that drink it. Big burly mountain men included love it. So in conclusion. It is a great kit but be careful opening it.

I used my full grain beer making equipment and I was stricter in sanitizing than the instructions demanded – I boiled six gallons of water with the dextrose and then used an immersion chiller to cool it. The thought of adding “clean water” (not sterile) as the instructions suggested horrified me. I naturally sanitized the fermentation bucket, the yeast package etc. as I do with beer. I pitched the yeast at 25C and fermented at 22C controlled temperature from 1.043 to 1.003 in five days and to 1.000 in eight days. During fermentation, it gave off rotten eggs smell and taste and I thought it went bad but in the end, it was a decent cider. I used half the sweetener for I do not like much very sweet ciders like Angry Orchard. It does not have a “sweetener” aftertaste as I feared. I forced carbonate it, for I have the equipment. I am buying again and maybe ferment at lower temperature so as to try to have less rotten eggs smell, as suggested in some forums. And yes, the packaging is stupid as reported elsewhere, I am glad I read the reviews before opening it. I got the instructions from the web so I only opened the package when I was about to make it.

This kit is straightforward to make Hard Cider. I prefer my ciders to be on the dry side. So, I don't add any sweatners provided in the kit and use a Saison yeast to give a very dry taste. I dry-hop using Citra after fermentation.

I made this for the lake for the summer and it was a hit! I will say I am more of a beer drinker and really enjoyed this cider. Super simple to make as well. If you are looking for an easy brew day and making something for any non beer drinking friends I would highly recommend this product.

For context before I begin this review, I've been making beer and cider for years; I tend to have an idea of what I'm doing. I saw this concentrate on sale, and decided that since it came out cheaper per gallon than using fresh pressed juice I'd give it a shot. It arrived quickly and without issue, and the packaging was nice (other than the yeast and whatnot was mixed in with the sticky concentrate; whatever, not a big deal). The instructions were clear and everything worked fine. Decided to not use the included dry yeast, as I have my own house cider yeasts, and built a starter as I always do. I chilled the cider to pitch temp, pitched the yeast and placed it in my fermentation fridge; the temperature was controlled to stay right in the specified temperature range for the yeast. It's been over a week, there has been zero fermentation. Made another starter with another high-powered yeast, and nothing again. Then I looked at the packaging and noticed that this has a preservative in it that is used to halt yeast from fermentation of any additional sugars. We use that same compound for this exact purpose in cider and beer making at the end of fermentation to halt it if we're adding any additional sugars. Now, I can't say with 100% certainty that this is what's causing my fermentation to not go, but there's certainly something going on with it. I pitched the exact same yeast into another batch right alongside it (not this kit), and that fermentation is going along very smoothly and is almost wrapped up already. I'm not sure how others have gotten this to actually work, but I won't be buying these kits again, and urge anyone that might be looking at them to do some research on them before purchasing. I'm currently in the process of trying to get a refund so that I can put that money towards actual juice without preservatives in it.