Opinions on Cider

Testacalda

I'm going to have a crack at making some cider this season. Youtube and the tintertot in general seems to have so many variations of how to ferment cider that I don't actually know what way I should go about it.

Firstly, I have loads of apples available to me, both eating and cooking. I have a good set up for extracting the juice and it seems quite efficient. We are averaging 2 litres of clean juice for every 3kg of apples, which I was very surprised with.

What to do with the juice though to make cider from it?

Put it straight into a fermenter with an air lock and let the naturally occurring wild yeast and the natural sugars do their thing. I like this simple and natural approach but will it work

Is it necessary to add additional yeast and/or sugar? Would I need to kill the natural yeast first?

I'm not too worried about having it carbonated, as I can sort that at the bottling stage, but I like it flat and cloudy anyway.

So... How do you do it?

Carawaystick

I'd get a cider yeast and add that first time out, to your main batch, and maybe leave 2-3l ferment by itself in another bottle.
Then you'll know what the natural yeast in your area is like.

No need for adding sugar

ian_m

Cider is pretty straight forward compared to brewing beer and wine, I find. You just add yeast really. There is usually plenty of fermentable sugar in apple juice already. Keep it simple, pick a type yeast and let it ferment. Wine yeast will ferment dry and beer or cider yeast will be slightly sweeter. If you want to add sugar you can just add table sugar. If you want to sweeten you can add an artificial sweetener at the bottling stage. Some cider yeasts come with sweetener. I prefer mine dry. As I said keep it simple and change one thing at a time.

Testacalda

Thanbks for the advice,

Would you need to kill off the natural first before adding my own yeast.

I have some Camden tablets if I need to, or does it make any difference

mordeith

Testacalda wrote: »

Thanbks for the advice,

Would you need to kill off the natural first before adding my own yeast.

I have some Camden tablets if I need to, or does it make any difference

I'm starting a batch soon. First time so I'm going to going to add the camden tablet and add my own yeast to make sure

ferg44

This is something Ive been wanting to try for a long time ..
I usually just make do with the kit ciders ,( have my 2nd Finland cider bottled last weekend ) but I have a huge amount of cooking apples going to waste every year in the home orchard , normally under the lawnmower..!
My problem is learning the best way to crush and extract out the juice ..
How do you do it efficiently ?

Testacalda

I but the apples through a new clean garden shredder to make pulp. then Wrap the pulp in muslin sheets about 2 inches thick. Put boards between the layers of pulp and press them in a hydraulic press.

matt007

As Testacalda,
A car bottle jack and a 4x4 frame works well.

hooplah

I've just juiced about 20 litres and have added some camden. On Tuesday I'm going to add some white wine yeast I picked up.

Just a couple of questions:

1. about how long until the fermentation is finished? Different places online say anything from a week to months - I presume the longer timelines are for fermentation with wild yeast?

2. Once it's fermented and bottled how long till it's generally ok to drink? Weeks or months?

My OG is 1050, is that high enough to get 6%?

hooplah

I hope it's ok to ask questions on this thread. I have one more.

I am using apples from my own tree. They're eating apples, not super sweet but not cookers. A lot of people seem to use artificial sweetners in their cider.

I'd probably prefer not to. But at the same time I don't want something that's undrinkable. Can anyone give me a tip on how to judge what I might need? One fermentation has finished is it possible to tell?

stecleary

hooplah wrote: »

My OG is 1050, is that high enough to get 6%?

1050 finishing at 1000 will give you about 6.5%

stecleary

hooplah wrote: »

I hope it's ok to ask questions on this thread. I have one more.

I am using apples from my own tree. They're eating apples, not super sweet but not cookers. A lot of people seem to use artificial sweetners in their cider.

I'd probably prefer not to. But at the same time I don't want something that's undrinkable. Can anyone give me a tip on how to judge what I might need? One fermentation has finished is it possible to tell?

taste it and see what its like, if too dry add a sweetener before bottling it