Homebrewed Cider Questions

tvercetti

No shortage of apples, so planning on brewing my own hard cider, unfortunately thats about all I have currently. I intend following these instructions

The pulping and pressing should be straight forward enough, might invest in a few muslin bags or use an old net curtain. Its here where the questions begin.

1. Fermenting Bucket, will any food grade bucket do the job?

2. Campden Tablets, Yeast Nutrient, Pectolase, Hydrometer, Yeast and Siphon Tube, there all pretty cheap and can be bought as part of sets. What else should be added to that list or what could be left out or replaced?

3. In the next step in the guide, he transfers the cider to demijohns, what would be a cheap/free alternative and how would I airlock these alternatives,

4. I have 1 demijohn, is there a simple way to airlock it with the bubbler airlocker?

5. What bottles are suitable for bottling? will wine bottles do the job?

The plan is to spend as little as possible and make different blends between cooking and eating apples.

darrcow

i bought the large plastic water carriers from woodies i think they were about €12 each for the air lock use a kids balloon and stretch it over the opening. i have heard but never tried if you pour all the apple juice into a bucket then let it settle and the pour a layer of vegetable oil over the top this should air lock it but still allow any bubbles out

balon

Any food grade bucket will work as long as it is sterilised beforehand and all you really need is yeast to turn the apple juice into cider. You only need a hydrometer if you want to know the alcohol content. An auto siphon and bottling wand would be useful for bottling. Any brown or green bottle will be OK. You'll need caps and a capper unless you're using a grolsch type swing top. If you use wine bottles, you'll have to cork them

You can get a bung for the demijohn with a hole for the airlock. These are very cheap. You could also just use another bucket the same as your primary instead of demijohns

Don't use a baloon as this will just eventually fill with CO2 and blow off. It would not do the same thing as a cheap airlock. I wouldn't use vegetable oil either :eek:

evolving_doors

Ya that website link is pretty handy...

For priming (Adding fizz) I used splenda/table sugar/brew sugar/pressed apple juice.. I found that the best taste was from the pressed apple juice... just put aside some after pressing and freeze it ...then defrost to room temp and chuck in about 5ml for every 500ml bottle before adding the fermented apple juice..

Oh yeah don't rely on old net curtains as i found these tended to split and i was never really sure if they were 100% clean.. tescos do 4 muslin towels for cheep (usually round the baby section) they're good to go when you open the packet..

Also chill your cider before drinking as it can relax the fizz a bit.. I found a leftover bottle in the back of a press and was so excited I open straight away.. needless to say it covered the walls and ceiling of the kitchen.. I was left with a thimble full of cider but by golly did it taste nice...

check out "Real Cider Making on a Small Scale" by pooley and lomax,, first few chapters are a bit hippy but there's good science there too..

As a matter of interest how are you going to pulp and press?.. I built a scratter which didn't work properly so had to end up chopping apples into eighths and using a hand blender (burnt out the motor just at the end)..

Start early in the day....

Also I used campden tab in one Dj and none in the other and it didnt make a bit of difference.. (maybe i was just lucky that the apples I bought didn't have much of a wild yeast!)

Also what blend of apples are you using?

Good luck anyway, I dont even drink cider that much, but I reckon Ill defo do it again!!

loyatemu

I used a large fence post to pulp my apples, might invest in a pulpmaster this year. Used muslin bags from a homebrew shop to hold the pulp.

I managed to scrounge a good few demijohns off various people so did first and second ferment in them.

for bottling I used empty Lidl 500Ml sparkling water bottles, but the cider didn't turn out very fizzy and I suspect the bottles may have been partly to blame - will go with glass this year.

GY A1

i've made a few batches of turbo cider that didnt taste really appely, is this malic acid good to add,
where can it be got or how much is needed