cider

[thomasgreen]

I have started making my first cider press and i am very excited!! My oh and i have got our completion date for our first house (1st August!!!) so the out-house will soon become a miniture brewery once we set up all the kit for the cider beer and wine

Does anybody have any particular recipes for home brewing they think would tickle our taste buds??

[Thomzo]

I'm hoping to have a go at cider for the first time later this year. So any tips or hints would be greatly appreciated here as well.

Cheers

Zoe

[thomasgreen]

i've been using a book called "Real Cider Making on a Small Scale" by Pooley and Lomax,it's worth a read. It has plans in for a cider press which i have used-also tells you where to get the parts. It's worth a read, i got it from the Eden Project on a nice February camping trip in cornwall

[the.fee.fairy]

There's the famous Self Sufficientich Ciderish recipe (apparently, its not quite cider, but its nearly there):


* 3.6 kilos (8lb) Apples, any apples will do.(try and find some unused apple trees)
* 9 ltrs (2 gallons) water
* 28grams (1oz) root ginger
* Juice of four lemons
* some empty resealable bottles
* 3.6 Kilos (8lbs) Sugar

Step 1

Cut up the unpeeled apples roughly with a non metallic knife. Cover with two gallons of boiling water preferably in a brewers bucket. Incidentally you must not use any metal in this recipe.
Step 2

Leave the mixture for two weeks, returning to crush the apples well, now and again. By now and again I guess you could get away with doing it 4 times as long as the mixture is well liquified. Be careful that mould does not form at this stage.
Step 3

Stick the kettle on. Strain the liquid and add the bruised root ginger, lemon juice and sugar. Give it a good stir to ensure that the sugar has dissolved.

Add quarter of a pint of boiling water and leave the whole thing to stand again for just over a fortnight removing the scum off the top as it rises.
Step 4

You will need two people for this next bit. Strain into resealable bottles and screw on the tops lightly for 2 days, just to the point where they would need another half turn to fully close them.
Step 5

Ok so you have waited almost five weeks, now tighten the stoppers and keep in a cool, dark and most importantly, dry place for two months.



As written by Andy (or Dave).

[MKG]

Has anyone actually tried this? I've looked at it time and time again, and there are various bits in it which really puzzle me (like how is it supposed to ferment when people keep trying to kill the naturally-occurring yeast?).

[McGoohan]

I'm probably being dense here, but why not use a metal knife? Do the apples react badly to it?

[Thumsum]

Right, no one has tried? Well next door just gifted me with a few off the tree. I'll buy a brewers tub tomorow. Oh, i don't think a non-metalic knife is needed, just a non-metalic container. Either way, i do have a nice ceramic knife ;-)

[Cheezy]

Sorry not noticed this one before.

Knifes: apples are acidic and they react with iron, so use stainless steel or aluminium at a push, though don't store the juice for a period of time in aluminium or you could end up with altzima's!

Right a few tips. Firstly one persons cider is another's "wine", and "real" cider is something completly different.(nothing but pressed apple juice, not even yeast)
It is as hard and as easy as you want to make it.

Proper pressed juice cider, depending on your equipment can take a long time. It took two of us a whole weekend to make 40 pints. You have to factor in a rough ratio of only (at best) 50% juice conversion. So if you want to fill a home brew fermentor (40pts) your going to need around 100Kg of apples! Thats a lot of chopping /scratching/pressing.
Also search for cider, stonehead a few years ago did a good piece.

Here's a bit of my advice from last year I've copied and pasted:

1. Try to get a mix of apples if you can't get real cider apples. (Kingston Black being the most famous)You need a balance of bitter (tannin), sweet and sour (acidity) a "vintage" cider apple will have been bred to have a good balance of all three. If you can't them try mixing crab apples for tannin, dessert apples for sweetness and cookers for sourness. Try to avoid Bramley's which tend to break down on milling creating a mush which is high in pectin and can cause cloudiness.
Edit: it's also worth storing the apples for a few months, as its a whole lot easier to crush slightly soft apples compared to rock hard ones. Also this'll give you time to collect enough for a batch, and they may sweeten up a bit as well.
And don't be too hasty with collecting the apples, take them too soon and they wont have as much sugar content as if you'd left them.Traditionally you would wait for around half the apples to have fallen before you collect the windfall and the ones still on the tree.
2. pH (acidity ) is important as it is used to preserve the cider , adds flavour and helps reduce the activity of spoiling bacteria's and wild yeasts.
You can buy quite cheap indicator strips which you dip into the cider to give you an indication of the pH.
pH should be between 3.2 to 3.8
3.2 to 3.3 is acidic but should not need campden tablets
3.4 to 3.5 is balance but should need some campden tablets
3.6 to 3.8 Is Ok but will need more campden tablets to kill off bacterial
anything above 4 is likely to be spoiled by bacteria, you should reduce pH with Malic acid, as the amount of campden tablets is likely to be too high.
That said it's up to you, "farm house" ciders quite often are made as is...but they can be a bit rough. (due to wild yeasts and some bacterial spoilage)
(see http://www.cider.org. for how many campden tablets to add per gal. for different pH's)
3. Original gravity (OG) is important.
below 1045 you should add extra sugar as the level of alcohol is likely to be too low to aid storage. You can add sugar solution. Again if your not planning to store the cider for long.....
4. To use yeast or not
Well true cider does not, BUT your not in control of the process,and your whole effort and time could be turned to vinegar. For novices I would say it's best to use pectinase to prevent cloudiness, to kill off wild yeast with campden tablets (see the link above it's amazing info on how many to add) and to use a good homebrew yeast . Last year I used Gervin no. 5 a champagine yeast.
When you add the campden tablets it's important to leave the juice over night to allow the level of sulphur dioxide to reduce, so that it doesn't effect your bought packet of yeast.
5. Traditional cider undergoes a second aging process which gives a rounder flavour. If you brew in a shed/garage at the traditional time of around November because the lower temps it will mean a slower rate of fermentation. Fermentation stops usually during Jan to Feb and starts again to finishing SG around March. This aging also converts malic acid to Lactic acid which gives a better rounder flavour.....BUT if you haven't used Campden tablets or got the right pH, this extension in fermentation can give the bacteria the opportunity it needs to spoil your cider (and you'll have a load of cider vinegar ). So it's completely up to you.

My cider was ready around end of March. I bottled it up with a teaspoon of sugar (it was brewed to full dryness ; SG 995 so I was not at risk of exploding bottles)
It has greatly improved the flavour, but because I could not get desert apples and used too many cookers it smells appley but is VERY dry with little appley rich taste. It's also lethal, I can drink strong cider but this stuff turns my ears red and I loose my legs after the second bottle!. Sounds great but it's too strong, I like to quaff.

[becks77]

Hi,
I have actually just started some of the "ish" cider as was given some windfalls .....will let you know how it turns out should be ready for Halloween.
Becks

[Thumsum]

Ahhhh! My cider has mold growing on top, what am i to do!?!?!(please)

[becks77]

Skim it off the top along with a decent depth of the fruit to discourage any more growth?
Just guessing

[Cheezy]

Ahhhh! My cider has mold growing on top, what am i to do!?!?!(please)

Too many questions and answers to go through.

Go to this site it's the best:

http://www.cider.org.uk


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