Recipes/techniques for making quality cider from scratch

[ciderman]

Hi to all on the Forum,

Anyone care to share Recipes/techniques for making quality cider from scratch. I have some equipment, can purchase other pieces if required.

Any advice/Info much appreciated. :thumb: :thumb:

Many thanks in advance,

Ciderman

 

[graysalchemy]

Are you wanting to make cider from apples or from Juice? As I said on your other thread unless you have access to cider apples then it is just as easy to use supermarket apple juice and make a TC.

This is really simple take 1 gallon of apple juice, 1tsp of pectolase, 1tsp of grape tannin, 1 tsp of malic acid put in a sterilised demijohn and add some yeast preferably a cider yeast and leave at 18-20c under an airlock.

This should bubble away quite happily for a few weeks. Once the bubbling has stopped and you have a final gravity of around 1.000 you can then siphon it off into another clean DJ and leave it under airlock.

Now comes the hardest and most important bit. You need to leave it well alone for a good 3 months, the flavour will develope because if you drink it now you will be drinking insipid tramp juice. Leave it six months and any self respecting cider snob may be a little bit confused as it will taste good in fact very good.

Now you could go to the effort of pressing your own apples but unless they are cider apples you will be short on the malic acid and tannin so you will have to add some. How much I don't know as it will depend on the apples as cookers are quite sharp but not as sharp as cider apples. Carton apple juice is just dessert apples so if you use deserts then the above dosage will do. It is malic acid and Tannin which gives cider its sharpness and bite. If you want a real scrumpy taste you will also need to use a cider yeast. I cultured one up from a bottle of Westons Old Rosie which I got from asda. There is quite a bit on here about culturing yeast from bottles (mainly for ale but the pricipal is the same).

Give the TC a go cheaper than buying a kit :grin: :grin:

 

[ciderman]

Thanks for the info graysalchemy,

I am going to give it a go. I've decided I want to try something different, so what the heck, it'll be an experience. :hmm:

Many thanks, I'm sure I'll have more questions. There is a community cider/juice apple orchard near where I live, I'll try some of those.

Talk again soon, :thumb: :thumb:

Ciderman

 

[alphacento]

Doing the whole process yourself is very satisfying and a great experience. I processed 40 kg of apples alone and it did take me about half a day (my equipment was quite small scale) and it was a lot of hard work.

To save some time you might consider to take your apples to the mill and get them pressed there (the community cider/juice apple orchard might offer that service).

When you go to the orchard to pick/buy your apples ask if they have only one type of apples or if they have more. You can produce very good cider with only one type of apples but there are only a few types that can be used succesfully as stand anlone (Kingston Black Apple is one of them but can only be found in Somerset). If they have more variates than I will reccomend to use different types to create the perfect balance.

 

[orlando]

I made 10 gallons last Autumn from a mixture of apples on a farm (bloody hard work compared to TC but very satisfying). I used this book as my guide and as you can buy it for less than £1.50 + postage it's a bargain and all you will need. http://www.amazon.co.uk/Real-Cider-Maki ... 110&sr=8-1

 

[aneray]

I am sure I have the same book somewhere but another recommendation is the one below.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Cider-Making- ... 27c008fb48

Even though its aimed at the American/Canadian market, it is still a great read and covers most subjects that you need to know.

 

[yellafella]

Question: After the 3 months under airlock for maturation, if you were to bulk prime the mixture and then transfer to PET bottles would the yeasties kick back into life and pressurise the bottles or has too much time past and they will have died? Would it be better to rack into bottles and prime and leave them alone for the three months to mature?

 

[orlando]

The latter. 3 months on the yeast is a worry as you are in the prone to autolysis territory. If they have been stored in a cool environment it maybe the risk/ is lessened. I would certainly rack off and prime bringing them into the warm for a couple of weeks before cold conditioning again, though entering a warm period might prove difficult there.

 

[graysalchemy]

Mines been on the yeast for 6 months and it tastes fantastic :thumb: . Its not ideal but it seems fine to me.

 

[alanywiseman.]

Is 7:111am not too early to a drink :hmm:

:lol: :lol:

 

[graysalchemy]

No not at all, its all in the name of science. :lol: :lol:

 

[RokDok]

Hi ,

I don't profess to being an expert.
Six of us ( plus swimbos ) clubbed together and bought a vigo press and scratter three years ago.
We pressed about 120 gallons last year.
We simply press the juice- keeping the juice from individual trees separate so that we have individual tree cider, and put it in a 30 litre fermenting buckets with an airlock.
Nothing is sterilised, we add nothing at all, the wild yeast does the job.
It's left undisturbed in various sheds over winter and we bottle sometime between Feb- April.
The cider is crystal clear.
The thing is, we use whatever apples we can get our hands on I don't think any of them are cider apples, most are desert of one kind or another, quite a lot is Bramley,the results are fantastic.
After a month or two, when the weather warms up without any priming at all the cider usually has a gentle sparkle.
We don't bother sterilising the bottles either a quick rinse is all they get.
Maybe it would taste even better if we added commercial yeast malate etc.
However it suits us to keep it totally simple, and it's great to have the vairiety.
Clearly there is more than one way to skin a rabbit/cat.

RD

 

[graysalchemy]

That is how traditionally it would have been done and probably is done on some cider farms. However you are leaving things to a lot of chance, you have no control over what yeast will ferment or weather something else will colonise before the yeast and especially since you are not sterilising anything, I don't think any one should advocate that. I think you have been lucky but your luck may run out one day sooner or latter.

Tannin and Malic acid may not be as necessary if you are using a combination of apples. As long as it tastes good that is all that matters. Ageing is probably playing an important part in that.

:thumb:

 

[RokDok]

Thanks Grays, I think we have been lucky.

We had one FV that didn't work and smelt and tasted like vinegar this year, all the rest have so far been fine.
I guess it's the price to pay for our minimalist approach.

Still have 3 FVs to bottle, a bit late but I'm afraid that the dark side has been mesmerising me recently.

Cheers

RD

 

[graysalchemy]

If it turned to vinegar then it must have fermented ok you just got an infection from a peskie fruit flies most likely. I have lost 2 x 60l batches of beer over the last 2 years and 1 to another infection and I did sterilise meticulously but leaving beer in a fermenter for more than a few weeks is not a good thing.

:thumb: :thumb:

I must say I do admire your approach though.

 

[baz burger]

grays can you still prime and bottle this or do you drink like a flat scrumpy?