Apple Juice/Cider

[ericmark]

To left been around 1 week to right 1 day there seems to be local circulation with bits going around all the time like the first washing machine as a kid can't help watching it. However the air lock not that active 30 seconds between bubbles.

I have a Juicer which with a centrifuge type action grates and separates juice from pulp and with a glut of apples turning into juice seems way to go.

However unless stored in the fridge the juice tends to ferment and the resulting pressure has in the past washed my ceiling in apple juice some thing I would like to avoid in the future.

However look up Cider Making and one is expected to press apples not juice them and with limited fridge room the juice will need to be left to ferment.

As the juice settles it separates into three distant levels. Bits that float, bits that sink and liquid in centre. When not left to ferment I would siphon out middle bit and dump the rest. However I have noticed when left to ferment the middle bit grows and the crust and sediment seem to decrease in size.

I remember buying scrumpy and finding it did not keep for over a week once in plastic gallon containers so I do not know how I can keep the apple juice/cider should I leave in demijohn until ready to drink or can I bottle and if I can bottle when can I bottle?

Next will be the pears and run out of air locks so would be nice to bottle rather than buy more air locks.

Any advice on how to handle this stuff and also should I add anything at the moment just added a little beer yeast to get started and that's it.

 

[footprints]

Proper cider does not use yeast it relies on the natural yeast on the skins, but I did add a general wine yeast to my last batch as a play safe option
A white wine yeast is usually recommended.

Our apple crop has been poor for a couple of years but I hope to make some this year.

Last batch I made was 1 gal. I used a juicer to get about ¾ gal added Young’s yeast on 29/11/10, let it ferment till it slowed down a bit then topped up to the gal with fresh juice on 5/12/01, racked 9/12/10 and 14/1/11, (added ½ lb sugar in water to top up to the neck) 1 campden tablet 20/1/11 and bottled 28/1/11. Drank it by the end of Feb!!

Good site here.

http://www.brewuk.co.uk/forums/

 

[ericmark]

Mothers tree has been a bumper year my tree very sparse. Most made with mothers apples but it was the question as to if using a juicer was OK and you have answered that thanks.

 

[FDJ]

I have made some good cider using 1.5l apple juice cartons from Lidl.
It ends up aboput 6% ABV with no added sugar.
Frank

 

[ericmark]

Here in North Wales I can see the point in converting apple juice to cider, but in Devon? Are there not enough farms where you can buy cider at less cost than the juice even from Lidi?

I will admit cider from Devon farms did not seem to keep. However now I have made my own I think it was just going dryer with time, and all it needed was either a pill to stop fermenting or added sweetener.

 

[m11zu]

haven´t done cider yet, but my wine from homeyard aplles came out pretty good. Now planning on cidre. Just thinking of right bottles and corks, so they won´t come off , when cidre envolves.

 

[peterorl]

I really enjoyed drinking cider yesterday at my friends party and I've decided to try to make some.
Wish me luck and wait for results !

 

[EightyTwo]

Good luck!

I've been making cider for a few years now. I currently have five 15 litre mayonaise buckets which need racking off. I built my own scratter and press and get our mates round to 'do the business' once we've picked the apples.

I didn't use yeast the first time and ended up with a couple of buckets of filth Nowadays I prep the sediment from one of last year's bottles and use this to 'seed' the buckets.

I use 2 litre PET bottles - lemonade, Coke, etc. If you don't drink the stuff (or know anyone who does), I found that Aldi sparkling mineral water was cheaper than buying new bottles!! I had the wife pour it down the sink before filling with cider and about a teaspoon of dissolved sugar solution to give it a bit of fizz. Easter is a bit early to start drinking but it's great for the summer bbq!

Btw, tried doing the pears - it's not very nice but it keeps you regular!!

 

[mimilovell]

can you please put up a step by step instructions of how to do this? Or a video would be great. Thanks

 

[EightyTwo]

can you please put up a step by step instructions of how to do this? Or a video would be great. Thanks

Coo - that's quite a tall order!! A video will have to wait until September/October. The blossom isn't even on the apple trees yet...

There are books available and quite a few videos on YouTube - just search on "scratter" or "making cider". You need to make a scratter to chew up the apples and a press to squash the pulp. Pick the apples, scrat them (some people wash them first but we don't bother ), press them and put the juice in clean, lidded buckets with a fermentation lock. Rack it off (siphon it into clean buckets) when the bubbling is slow. I add half a bag of sugur dissolved in water at this stage. Let it ferment some more and then siphon it into PET bottles. I add about a teaspoon full of sugar (dissolved in water) to each bottle just to add a bit of fizz. Then stick it in the shed until, at least, Easter. It's good for The Summer Barbeque and you can mull it for Hallowe'en or Guy Falkes night. I didn't make any in 2012 (frost got the blossom) but I'm still drinking 2011 vintage and it's fab so it seems to keep !

My scratter uses a Screwfix bench pillar drill to power it. The drill head can be tipped over so that it points horizontally. The drum's shaft is a long stainless steel kitchen drawer handle and this fits straight into the drill's chuck. I made a stand to hold the drill and a a bit of kitchen worktop at the correct heights and the scratter sits on top of a bucket. The long shaft allows the scratter to be raised far enough to get buckets out/in - I guess a picture would be a good idea!

The press has gone through several iterations but it is basically made from an old s/s draining board and half-bowl in a frame of 4"x4" iroco and four 4"x2" pine uprights. The pressing force comes from a 5 ton bottle jack. I used various techniques to press the pulp - some are fast and some are efficient. I'm going to try a new method this year - I'm going back to the traditional 'cake' system. I'll let you know how it turns out!

 

[EightyTwo]

I finally got round to bottling the five buckets last weekend. I put 10 litres into two of those metal "mini-kegs" that you can get beer in. I've never used them before so it will be interesting to see what happens. I think that I'll need to let the pressure out from time to time... The rest went into thirty 2 litre PET bottles. I've stuck it all in the shed and gone on holiday for a couple of weeks. I'll check on it when I get back, after Easter.

 

[Mason3]

I just have to say how jealous I am that you do this. The pictures of the jars look good enough to drink! I wish I could find glass jars like that. The only ones I've found have been second-hand and always have chips on the necks.

 

[EightyTwo]

We call them demijohns (or demi-johns) and they can be bought from several high street chains for about USD 10 each. Do you call them carboys?

They hold an imperial gallon (eight 20floz pints, about 4.5 liters) and are generally used for brewing wine. Cider (or "hard cider" to you) and beer are usually brewed in larger plastic containers - 5 gallons / 40 pints (20 oz, again!). These are also readily available in the UK.

Demijohns are quite heavy so I don't think that you could afford the shipping costs!!

These are the best value I found on ebay.com - a set of four with a single handle, from Tennassee (where else?!). http://www.ebay.com/itm/1-Gal-Clear...162?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item232df06362

 

[EightyTwo]

Just picked the apples off a couple of trees, scratted and pressed them. I now have seven 15 litre buckets of cider on the go! Our best tree is old and dying so there's not much of a crop on it. But a mate of mine went on holiday this morning so we picked his cookers before he went. It will be interesting to see how these go as they are seem to be more acidic than the dessert apples we usually use.

This year I used the "traditional" method on the press, with muslin squares in a wooden frame. It was not the fastest method we have ever used but it was really efficient with the pomace coming out really dry. Each press produced at least 7 litres of juice. Next time, I'll try and make up enough separators to be able to start constructing the next "cheese" whilst the previous one is in the press. Scratting is twice as fast as pressing so this should help to speed up the process.

I'm thinking of adding red currents and/or blackberries to a couple of batches. There seems to be a big trend for adding soft fruits to ciders these days (and making the cider really sweet) - I might just give it a go... I'll probably use an artificial sweetner as I like to keep the cider "live" to give it a bit of sparkle and I'd have to kill it if I was going to use sugar.

Anybody else making cider this week?

btw The mini-kegs seem to be working and the 2013 vintage is tasting pretty good. I also finished drinking the 2011 batch in the early summer - proof that homemade cider will keep in plastic PET bottles for three years!

 

[ericmark]

Well looking at wind falls after Bertha and wondering if worth using but normally September before I pick apples.

I did try last week cider made in January and it was good however added loads of sugar as really dry.

I don't press my cider but use a juicer and as a result there is a lot of solids in the mix. It took a long time for the solids to drop to bottom before I could bottle so September into demijohn was January into bottles.

I am told 5 litre water bottles are as good as demijohns but think one use only as it took a lot to clean demijohns don't think plastic would take that cleaning?

My idea was once my wife had used all the apples she wanted to make fillings for apple tart then what remained was made into cider. It was super dry and without some thing to sweeten it was undrinkable.