How to Make Cider at Home: UK Beginner's Guide

September and October are the months when British hedgerows sag under apples, and they are also the months when home brewers start thinking about cider. Good news: cider is the easiest fermentation project you can start. There is no boiling or sticky mash tun to babysit. You mix, you pitch yeast, you wait, and you end up with a dry, sparkling drink that costs a fraction of what supermarket cider does.

You have two routes into it. An all-in-one cider kit gives you concentrated apple juice, yeast, and the sachets you need to stabilise and sweeten at the end. The supermarket juice route skips the kit and uses pressed apple juice from the shelf. This guide covers the kit method first, then the juice shortcut, timings, bottling, and the mistakes that ruin a batch.

What You Need to Make Cider at Home

The equipment list is short, and most of it is cheap. A 40-pint kit is the sweet spot for a first batch because it fits a standard fermenter, and it makes the effort worthwhile.

The Cider Kit

A 40-pint kit contains concentrated apple juice, a yeast sachet, and usually a fining agent, a stabiliser, and an artificial sweetener. The last three matter more than beginners think: finings clear the cider, the stabiliser stops the yeast restarting, and the sweetener lets you balance a bone-dry finish. The On The Rocks Apple Cider Kit is the one we recommend most for a first batch because it is forgiving and produces a clean, crisp result. If you want a more traditional English pint, the John Bull Country Cider has been the default choice for decades.

A Fermenter and the Small Stuff

You need a food-grade bucket with a lid and an airlock. A Young's 25L Fermentation Bucket holds a 23-litre batch with comfortable headspace for the foamy first days, and its tap makes racking and bottling far easier. You also want a long plastic spoon, a funnel, and a sanitiser. If you have not chosen a bucket yet, our best homebrew fermenters guide compares the options that actually survive repeated use.

A hydrometer is optional but worth every penny. It costs a few pounds, and it tells you when fermentation has genuinely finished instead of when the airlock looks quiet. Our best hydrometers for homebrewing guide explains how to read one without overcomplicating things.

Step by Step: Your First 40 Pints

Step 1: Sanitise Everything

This is the step people skip, and it is the step that separates cider from vinegar. Wash the bucket, lid, airlock, spoon, and anything else that will touch the liquid, then run them through your sanitiser following the dilution on the bottle. Rinse only if the sanitiser label says to, and do not touch the inside of the bucket once it is clean.

Step 2: Mix the Cider

Pour the concentrate into the fermenter, add the yeast, and top up with cold water to the 23-litre mark. Stir hard for a couple of minutes, because cider yeast needs oxygen at the start to build a healthy colony. If you are using a hydrometer, take a reading now and write it down; it tells you the potential strength and gives you a baseline for later.

Step 3: Fit the Lid and Airlock

Fill the airlock halfway with water or sanitiser, seat it in the lid, and put the fermenter somewhere steady at 18 to 22C. You are not looking for warmth; a kitchen corner or spare room is perfect.

Step 4: Leave It Alone for One to Two Weeks

Within 24 hours the airlock should start bubbling steadily as the yeast turns apple sugars into alcohol and carbon dioxide, and it will slow dramatically after a week or so. Resist lifting the lid; every peek lets oxygen in and risks vinegar off-flavours.

Step 5: Check It Has Finished

When bubbling stops, wait two more days and take a hydrometer reading. If it is the same on two consecutive days, fermentation is done and the cider is ready to move on. Without a hydrometer, wait until the surface is still and the cider has started to clear.

How Long Does Cider Take to Ferment?

The primary fermentation runs one to two weeks depending on temperature and yeast, and the cider is technically drinkable after that, but it will taste young, yeasty, and sharp. Another two to four weeks of conditioning clears it, mellows the acidity, and lets the carbonation develop properly, so plan for four to six weeks total.

Bottling and Carbonating Your Cider

You have two practical options, and the first one is easier for a beginner. A pressure barrel lets you rack the cider straight from the fermenter, add a small amount of priming sugar, and serve it on tap once it has conditioned. There is no bottle washing, no risk of measuring priming sugar wrong per bottle, and no glass to explode if you get it slightly off.

Bottles are the better choice if you want to share the batch or age it. Our how to bottle and carbonate homebrew guide walks through cleaning, priming, capping, and conditioning times in detail. The short version: add priming sugar to the cider, bottle, cap, and leave the bottles at room temperature for one to two weeks before chilling.

The No-Kit Route: Apple Juice and Yeast

You do not need a kit to make respectable cider. A 20-litre batch of supermarket apple juice, a packet of cider or white wine yeast, and a clean fermenter produce a dry, sharp drink that many people prefer to kit cider. The catch is the label. You need juice with no preservatives, because sulphites such as E220 and E223, and sorbates such as E211, are added to stop fermentation and they will stop yours dead. Cloudy pressed juice gives a fuller body than clear juice, and juice not from concentrate ferments cleaner, but the preservative check matters most.

Ferment it exactly as you would a kit batch, and expect a drier, more austere result than kit cider because you are not adding any sugar back. If that sounds too basic, kits like the Mangrove Jack's dry hopped apple cider kit add aromatic hops for a modern, commercial-style finish.

Common Problems and How to Avoid Them

It Tastes Like Vinegar

That is acetobacter, an airborne bacteria that turns alcohol into acetic acid once oxygen gets in. It usually means the airlock ran dry, the lid was opened too often, or the equipment was not properly sanitised. There is no fixing an infected batch; pour it away and sanitise everything before you start again. Our homebrew mistakes to avoid guide covers the full list of these failure points.

Fermentation Stops Early

A ferment that stalls halfway is almost always too cold. Cider yeast goes dormant below about 14C, and a garage in October will kill it. Move the fermenter somewhere warmer, give it a gentle swirl to rouse the yeast, and it usually restarts within a day.

The Cider Stays Cloudy

Cloudiness is not a fault, just a question of patience. Give it more time, move it somewhere cold for a few days to drop the yeast out, or use the finings sachet that came with the kit. Most cloudy cider clears on its own within a few weeks.

Bottle Bombs

If you bottle before fermentation has finished, the remaining sugar keeps fermenting and pressure builds until the glass gives way. This is the one genuinely dangerous mistake in home cider making. Take the hydrometer readings, wait for two stable days, and if you are at all unsure, use a pressure barrel instead of bottles for your first batch.

Frequently Asked Questions About Making Cider at Home

Final Verdict

Autumn is the right time to start. A 40-pint kit, a clean bucket, and a cool corner of the house are all you need, and four to six weeks later you have a drink you made yourself for a fraction of the shop price. Start with the On The Rocks Apple Cider Kit and a Young's fermentation bucket, take the hydrometer seriously, and treat sanitation as the whole game. Compare kits in our best cider making kits UK roundup before you buy, then get the first batch on.

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Sarah Mitchell

Sarah Mitchell writes about crafting, DIY and home projects for MakerUK.

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Last reviewed: September 9, 2026 · Evidence-based content · Contains affiliate links