Forbidden fruit .....juice?

Having caught the homebrew fever, it's only natural that I'd try making a hard cider, even if it's only because of my fondness for cider from Wick's.

Wick's Apple House is a staple of my childhood and summers at the lake. Just a few miles from Round Lake, we headed over for doughnuts after church in the summer or for fresh, 100% apple 'squeezin's.'

This fall, I picked up five gallons of cider and brought it home to experiment with in my 'big-kids chemistry set.' A.K.A: Homebrew Equipment.

I don't plan to go into my recipe, largely because I haven't bottled/conditioned/tasted the final product yet, and because I want to keep it to myself for awhile.

After just two weeks, the alcohol content measured 11.8% by volume! Here it is all cloudy and brown, on the left, when the experiment was just getting started:

About eight weeks after initially pitching the yeast, the cider has already begun to clear out nicely:

Naturally, I collected another sample and saved it for tasting. Sean, Jami, and I were all pleasantly surprised (especially Sean) with this taste:
.

...and for those of you who are curoius, the ABV is just under 12%. Most of the fermentation did take place in those first two weeks.