How to make hard cider

Necessary materials:

• Apple juice without preservatives (bottled or reconstituted frozen) -- 3 gallons
• Wine yeast (I like Lalvin ICV-D47 or Lalvin 71B-1122).  Both of these are used for light, fruity white wines, and the latter is known for partially metabolizing malic acid, which is prominent in apple juice (the name malic comes from the Latin malus, or apple).  Both are also tolerant of malolactic fermentation (more on that later).  I've found wine yeast locally at Century Farm Winery, or it can be ordered online.
• 3 gallon water jug (Walmart)
• Stopper with hole to put air lock on water jug (I use a size 8.5 stopper for a 1.5 inch inner diameter hole)
• Air lock (I like the kind that comes apart for cleaning) 

Not strictly necessary but helpful:

• Food grade 5-gallon bucket (Lowes) -- lid is optional because you can just cover it with plastic wrap or aluminum foil.
• Racking cane
• Bottle filler
• Tubing to fit racking cane and bottling wand
• Hydrometer to track consumption of sugar
• Potassium sorbate (needed if you want the finished product to be at all sweet in the bottle)
• Carbonation equipment (soda stream or CO2 tank)

I order yeast and supplies from Midwest Supplies or Amazon.

Procedure:

Clean everything well with hot, soapy water and rinse well.

Warm about a cup of juice in the microwave to 40-43 deg C (104 - 109 deg F).  You can overheat and add cool juice to bring the temperature down.  Add package of yeast.  This hydrates the yeast.  This step is probably not necessary, as a single packet of yeast is enough to innoculate 25 gallons of juice so you don't need ideal rehydration conditions, but I like to do it because most of my yeast is expired, and I want to make sure it's still good.  If after a few minutes, there are bubbles forming, the yeast is good.  

Add the yeast/juice mixture to the rest of the bottle of juice in the 5 gallon bucket.  Alternatively, you could do this in the 3 gallon water jug and just loosely cover the opening.  At this point, you want the yeast to have some oxygen, so you don't want to seal it off totally.  If you have a hydrometer, float it in the mixture.  At this point you can read the alcohol potential, which for apple juice is roughly 6%.  You can add sugar if you want more alcohol, but the more alcohol stress you put on the yeast, the more they produce funky off flavors, so I recommend just going with straight apple juice. 

Wait until you can hear fizzing (overnight when it's warm) and add the rest of the juice.  For fastest fermentation, add just one half-gallon bottle at a time, and wait for the fizzing.  This keeps the yeast in the linear growth phase. Traditionally, cider is made in the fall when it's cool, and some people like to try to replicate that slow fermentation, but because I'm not using any sulfites in this recipe, I want a strong, dominant yeast culture.  That way there is no time for random bacteria to grow, and the CO2 acidifies the juice, which inhibits bacterial growth. If you're doing this in the winter, it's a good idea to put a heating pad on low under the fermentation container.

Once the hydrometer nears 1.000 (roughly about 1.010) transfer it to the 3 gallon jug with the stopper and the airlock. For 3 gallons, it's handy to use the tubing with the racking cane and bottle filler, but you can also just pour it using a funnel, or scoop it out with a clean container. The airlock prevents oxygen from getting to the cider.  Oxygen would allow the growth of acetobacteria, which would convert the alcohol to vinegar.  If you want apple cider vinegar, that's great, but if you want hard cider, not so much. If you started in the jug, just put the stopper and airlock on now.  You can keep the hydrometer floating in the jug. Don't try to move the jug with the airlock on, because the bottom will sag a bit and create suction, putting your airlock water into your cider.  If you have to move it, take the stopper out, move it, and put the stopper back in.

Once the fermentation is complete, you should have a reading of 1.000 on the hydrometer, and no more bubbles.  Dead yeast will settle over the next day or two.  If this were wine, you'd transfer it to a second jug and let all the yeast settle to be perfectly clear, but a bit of cloudiness in cider is acceptable.  I sometimes let the lees settle in the refrigerator, taking the airlock off for the transfer and then putting it back.  But I don't think that this is really necessary. Apple cider seems to clear much faster than wine, for some reason.

If you want to do a malolactic fermentation, you need a bacterial culture.  These are a lot more expensive than yeast but available in packets like yeast.  Bacteria like to eat dead yeast (bacterial growth broth has yeast extract in it) so you want to start the bacteria in a mixture of juice and lees.  The bacteria do not need oxygen, so use the airlock. I have had malolactic fermentation happen spontaneously (presumably wild bacteria) after putting my jug in the fridge, but you can't count on it. 

Once the cider is clear enough to suit you, transfer it off of the lees using the racking cane, tubing, and bottle filler.  It looks like this: 

The racking cane is held off the lees by a clothespin.  I start the siphon by mouth (a practice that requires overcoming all microbiological training) with my hand wrapped around the end of the tube, so at least my mouth isn't directly touching the tube.  The bottle filler at the bottom end of the tube has a spring tip so that when you press it down, you get flow, and when you lift it up, the flow stops.  If you don't have the 5 gallon bucket or the second jug, you can use any food-grade container. 

At this point, add the potassium sorbate as directed on the package, and sweeten to taste with simple syrup (2 volumes sugar to 1 volume water, heated to dissolve).  

If you want carbonation, you can use a soda stream machine, or I just use a small CO2 tank (doesn't everyone have a CO2 tank in their kitchen?)

As seen in the picture, I use old Perrier bottles and number 7 corks (you'd need a corker for the corks).  If it's not carbonated, the caps that came with the Perrier bottles are fine.  If it's carbonated, the caps tend to leak pretty quickly and lose their fizz.  You could also repurpose soda bottles. 

The finished product needs to be stored in the refrigerator, because the alcohol needs to be over 10% in order to be shelf stable, and this is nowhere near.  It does last a long time in the fridge, though.