The Hard Cider Essential Starter Kit is an economical way to start making hard cider at home.
This kit provides all of the basic fermentation and testing equipment required to make your first hard cider. Use the siphonless fermenting bucket for easy fermentation and bottling without any need to transfer your cider.
Making hard cider at home is as easy as 4 simple steps:
Mix your juice and yeast
Ferment for 10-14 days
Bottle and carbonate
Crack open a chilled hard cider and savor the moment
In addition to this equipment kit you’ll need bottles and a cider recipe kit. Choose one of our hard cider recipe kits. The kits include all the ingredients you need to make 6 gallons of cider (about 64 12 oz. Beer Bottles).
The essential equipment kit is a good place to start if you dont have any fermentation equipment. Everything seals correctly. The bottle capper and caps are nice even though there are fewer cap bottles around. The bottle filler is very good spring sealed.
N
Nathaniel K.
Great cider, great kit, great instructions
Everything went well on my very first try. The only thing that was confusing was the Northern Brewer instructions and the Mangrove Jack instructions were different. By that I mean some of the timing was listed differently (1 week brewing time MJ, 2 weeks listed MNBr). I used the MJ instructions because they made the cider ingredients, it turned out great. Everything that MN Brewer supplied was great, very helpful.
T
Tom S.
First Time Cider Brewer
I purchased the Hard Cider kit and the shipping was very fast and the product meets my expectations. My first batch is fermenting right now, looking forward to tasting the results soon!
C
Catherine
Great for beginners
This was my first time brewing cider, so I wanted to keep it as easy as possible! I pressed my own apples for juice, so I didn't get a recipe kit. I also bought a big jug of starsan for easy sanitizing, but the cider kit comes with a couple packets of sanitizer to get started. The kit has just about all the equipment you'll need, so you don't have to go overboard researching before trying your first batch. It cleans easily, and I like the ease of a plastic fermenting vessel compared to big glass carboys. I'd recommend it to anyone dipping their toes into homebrew cider for sure.
J
Jason G.
Good flavor after a few weeks
This was extremely simple to brew, and fermented fully quicker than expected, however, it had an unpleasant smell for the first week or so (kind of like a perm smell). The odor went away after being force carbonated for about a week and it is very good now. I'm not sure why it developed the smell.
The essential equipment kit is a good place to start if you dont have any fermentation equipment. Everything seals correctly. The bottle capper and caps are nice even though there are fewer cap bottles around. The bottle filler is very good spring sealed.
N
Nathaniel K.
Great cider, great kit, great instructions
Everything went well on my very first try. The only thing that was confusing was the Northern Brewer instructions and the Mangrove Jack instructions were different. By that I mean some of the timing was listed differently (1 week brewing time MJ, 2 weeks listed MNBr). I used the MJ instructions because they made the cider ingredients, it turned out great. Everything that MN Brewer supplied was great, very helpful.
T
Tom S.
First Time Cider Brewer
I purchased the Hard Cider kit and the shipping was very fast and the product meets my expectations. My first batch is fermenting right now, looking forward to tasting the results soon!
C
Catherine
Great for beginners
This was my first time brewing cider, so I wanted to keep it as easy as possible! I pressed my own apples for juice, so I didn't get a recipe kit. I also bought a big jug of starsan for easy sanitizing, but the cider kit comes with a couple packets of sanitizer to get started. The kit has just about all the equipment you'll need, so you don't have to go overboard researching before trying your first batch. It cleans easily, and I like the ease of a plastic fermenting vessel compared to big glass carboys. I'd recommend it to anyone dipping their toes into homebrew cider for sure.
J
Jason G.
Good flavor after a few weeks
This was extremely simple to brew, and fermented fully quicker than expected, however, it had an unpleasant smell for the first week or so (kind of like a perm smell). The odor went away after being force carbonated for about a week and it is very good now. I'm not sure why it developed the smell.
