Selfsufficientish.com

I really want to do some brewing but I have zero equipment.

I have been reading about all the lovely equipment you can buy but I can't really justify the cost so I though I would see if I can make some simple cider this weekend using only the equipment I have about the house.
I saw a video on simple cider on the ecopunk blog http://www.ecopunk.org.uk/p/cider-making.html and it got me thinking I could use a big water bottle (spring water bottle about the size of a demijohn) as a demijohn. A balloon as a airlock some cheap apple juice and for the yeast, we do have some small apple trees in the garden. Could I use the skins of the apples to provide the yeast. Or can I use bread yeast.

What do you think. Could it work?

mamos

Absolutely.

Liquidise the apples, add the juice, bread yeast, put it in a clean bucket, cover with a Tea Towel, keep warm for a week. Jug it off into the water bottle leaving as much gunk behind, apply air lock, wait another month and syphon off again into clean bottle, wait another month and either drink or stick in empty lemonade type bottles.

Thanks boboff
Do I need to use yeast at all if I am using the apples from the garden. Isn't there yeast on the skin of the apples or isn't there enough?

I might do both

Experiment a bit you know

I'm excited now

mamos

By all means a bit of bread yeast will work, I'd be inclined to add a bit of sugar too...

best of luck

Ben

I think bread yeast in cider just gets it going a bit quicker, if not adding any then just leave it in the bucket a bit longer, until you get the foam on top and then its stops "snap crackle and popping"

Sugar. I never thought of sugar.
I have 4 liters of apple juice. How much sugar should I add.
I'm not a fan of sweet cider. I like strong, dry, still cider.
Cheers
Mamos

I am guessing here, but in 4 ltrs I would guess 1kilo would add 4% alcohol, your juice should come out at 4 anyway, so another kilo would double it, anymore and the yeast won't be effective as the extra alcohol will stop the ferment and make it sweet.

Again there are lots of people on here who are really clever and will tell you something different, I am not stating my opinion as fact, just giving you a few tips, which may or may not work out.

It's as near as damn it 11% alcohol for 1 kilo of sugar IN one gallon (4.545 litres) - i.e. there's one gallon of liquid and sugar together, not one gallon of liquid plus the sugar. Boboff obviously likes aviation fuel

All of the recipes for turbo cider I've seen (supermarket apple juice fermented as is) claim 5% to 5.5% with no added sugar. Adding one pound of sugar to a gallon of that would just about double the alcoholic strength to 10% or slightly over. Adding a kilo would be on the adventurous side. So, what's a strong cider? I would have thought about 7.5%. For your four litres of juice, adding 6 or 7 ounces of sugar should do the trick for you. On the other hand, if boboff's 4% figure is a more accurate one, then adding, say, 9 or 10 ounces of sugar should get you where you want to be.

Mike

Right
I have poured one litre of the apple juice into DJ with 7 ounces of sugar and a teaspoon of bread yeast.

Given it a good shake and put in a warm place for an hour to see if fermentation starts.

if it is OK in an hour or so i will add the other 3 litres and leave it for a week or so or until fermentation stops

mamos

MKG wrote:It's as near as damn it 11% alcohol for 1 kilo of sugar IN one gallon (4.545 litres) - i.e. there's one gallon of liquid and sugar together, not one gallon of liquid plus the sugar. Boboff obviously likes aviation fuel

All of the recipes for turbo cider I've seen (supermarket apple juice fermented as is) claim 5% to 5.5% with no added sugar. Adding one pound of sugar to a gallon of that would just about double the alcoholic strength to 10% or slightly over. Adding a kilo would be on the adventurous side. So, what's a strong cider? I would have thought about 7.5%. For your four litres of juice, adding 6 or 7 ounces of sugar should do the trick for you. On the other hand, if boboff's 4% figure is a more accurate one, then adding, say, 9 or 10 ounces of sugar should get you where you want to be.

Mike

Ah, yeah 1lb I meant! Dam this metrication new 40 year old thing! Would still have been to much even at a lb, sorry

Well we got there in the end!

Well, a load of bubbles are forming on the top so i have added the rest of the juice and put a balloon over the mouth of the DJ.

As the balloon starts to expand i will put a in prick in it to allow the Co2 to escape

Fingers crossed

mamos

As a Cornishman you don't need any instruction to make cider.......get the apples,and the necessary receptacles,close your eyes,be very calm,and let the force be your guide............

Well the cider is going great guns and has filled the DJ with foam

Just got to try and forget about it for a week before bottling

Good point Jerry

I was talking to a lady yesterday who's friend has an orchard that they do nothing with

Need to build a press

mamos

I ask in asda for some fresh yeast. This might not apply to some but for those near to a bakers shop maybe you could ask there.

I feel I have to point out how controlled, polite and cultivated the people on this site obviously are.

There hasn't been a single comment about the sentence which made me roar with laughter. Or maybe it's my coarse sense of humour.



Mike