Brewing - Making hard cider

[RoboCodeine7610]

Hi, a couple months ago swim watched a video in youtube called "Eat the weeds (and other things too):how to make hard cider"
So swim attempted to make some by putting 1 1/2 liters of apple juice (no preservatives or colorants added) in a 2 liter plastic 7up bottle.
he sterilized the bottle beforehand with diluted bleach, rinsed it, added the apple juice, added a little extra sugar and finally added the yeast ( baker's yeast) before covering the opening of the bottle with a balloon and making a little hole with a needle on the balloon.Left to ferment for 5 days only to have some digusting, undrinkable vinager (not sure if it turned into vinager, but it definately didn't turn into hard cider).Swim did this 3 times with the same result...
What is Swim doing wrong?Is it because the bottle was plastic? Please Help!

[Stephenwolf]

a hole in the balloon lets air in...
the air contaminates...
what one could do instead is use the bottle cap,drill a hole into the cap, put a rubber hose/tube or even a bendy straw or something through the hole into the cap... make it airtight using maybe hotglue around the hose connecting to the cap... the other end of the hose can be placed into a cup/plate/bowl of water so that the air from inside can escape but air from outside can't get in...

Stephenwolf added 4 Minutes and 19 Seconds later...

a simple google search of "Hard Cider" will find detailed instructions on proper at home production

Stephenwolf added 6 Minutes and 46 Seconds later...

not to say too much but it isn't the wiki pedia page or the one thats NOT immediatly after thhe wikipedia page...

[RoboCodeine7610]

Thanx a lot but swim still has a couple of questions:
first, Swim has seen a lot of hard cider recepies (and other alcoholic drinks) that are made with a baloon and even with soma plastic wrap over the top with a pin hole in it.Swim is not doubting your answer, but he would like to make sure that this is the cause of his failure...
and second, Does using a plastic pop bottle have anything to do with it?
after getting a definite answer swim will try to make another batch and post some pictures later
And does swim have to use the swim thing here? I mean making your own cider is legal right?

[Stephenwolf]

Legality depends on country, its easier to just use swim than risk getting banned or something....
i'm not sure if the popbottle would be a problem...I'd check out some more sites and stuff on it...

[RoboCodeine7610]

Thanks so much for the info, sorry for all the questions but swim is new to this...
Is it ok to use baker's yeast?
If so, aproximately what alcohol tolerance does it have?
swim Appreciates your help

[Stephenwolf]

Bakers Yeast should be perfectly fine, shouldn't be any different than most yeasts, in fact some things say the natural yeasts of the fruit should be fine, up to 12% but sometimes causes a sorta "Rising Bread" smell...and brewers yeast'll add a beery taste to it... and brewers yeast produces more carbondioxide gas.