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got offered a load of windfall apples.. so went and picked them up yesterday, then today we hired a crusher and press from the local homebrew shop - 10 quid a day. for the quanitity we are doing, not really worth it, but worth it to find out how we like the equipment and everthing

himself had the day off work and it was lovely sunny and we crushed and pressed the apples.. which are sweet dessert type, and got about 1.5 gallons, - didn;t do the camden tablet thing.. cos i dont, but did add some cider yeast in the hope that it will overwhelm anything undesirable.. sg was 1040... but I dunno what this means really as i never read the SG.. himself likes gagetty things... did not add any sugar cos it seemed sweet to me and anyway its not really cider if you do.... and we now have a demijohn of very dark brown stuff already bubbling away in the kitchen
goodness knows if it will work.. as never tried to make cider before

we drank what did not fit into the demijohn and it was lovely... so really hope we are not wasting a gallon making cider that will be terrible!


seasoned cider makers feel free to tell me what i did wrong now its all too late....

I seem to remember that the old traditional Kentish cider was literally pressed apple juice, bunged into barrels, rolled into the nettles, and forgotten for a year or so......
It was fiendishly strong - some swore by a handful or two of barley thrown into the mix as well!
ps, and yes, the thing about chucking a rat in is quite true! If it gets too acidic, it can be neutralised by adding some meat (or a dead rat)!

YUK! I will never drink cider again I think when I return to the UK. HELP, there is a RAT in the cider.......
*pictures a rat, happily swimming around in the vat*

berti

All adds to the flavour Bertie!!

true story - nearby there's a small plant that brews a range of country wines and ciders - one day, all the staff were in the pub at lunchtime, having been given the rest of the day off.............it transpires that someone had gone walkabout from the local mental hospital, had scaled the ladder on the side of a cider vat, lifted the lid, been overcome by the fumes, and had fallen into it, and drowned. They hadn't discovered it until someone climbed into the vat to break up the lumpy sludge when it was drained, and discovered a rib-cage...........the cider had been bottled, sold, and drunk!

MY GOODNESS
and did they get compliments for the LOVELY cider???

berti

well, their mead had the reputation of being the best knicker-elastic solvent known to man - threee small glasses, and they were anybody's!

Do you mean the company that used to operate not too far from us in East Sussex? Close to that difficult road junction? I'm being careful not to name any names!

you could say just gently down the road from me!

Indeed? In my youth I seem to remember their dry cider was the drink of choice to blot out angst. Delicious, too. Are they making it somewhere else now?

And I thought Black Rat cider was all about honey!

Ok, advice needed. This is my first try at cider.
Just racked it for the first time 2 weeks after i threw the yeast in. Tasted it as i racked. Seems a bit sour.

Now is this just me being a bit over eager, and it needs to mature? Or am i needing to do something?

cider is usually a bit sour... or do you mean vinegar sour?

Not vinegar sour. More like lemon juice

guess it depends a lot of the type of apple you use? mine tasted fairly sharp too - when I racked it .. its still bubbling slowly so dunno how it will turn out finally.