Recent content by freester

Oh and not even thought about making cider this year - but planning on making some!!

Bookmarked!

Well after not making any cider in 2021 due to a poor harvest I revisited my 2020 batch. One of the trads - about 28L had been sat in the brewing bucket for a year+half. Time to move things along!!! I bottled 28 odd litres today, this freed up space to rack off the year and half old trad. It...

Sorry to hear about the slight taste I'm not sure how to answer. I have one FV of 'trad' that fermented and has been sat in plastic brewing bucket primary for a year and a half now. As I didn't make any cider last year I haven't felt the urge to keep the conveyer belt going. Seeing this post...

Just been in touch with my usual orchard. No apples. I have a feeling I won't be pressing this year 😥

Yup it's a day of hard graft. I haven't even thought of doing a press this year yet... Must drop my orchard people a line see what their crop was like...

A lot of apple trees blossomed this year before a late frost harmed the blossom. Also some apple trees are bi-annual, good crop one year not so good the next. Biennial Bearing can be difficult to fix.

As long as the fruit isn't too brown I'd go for it. Does the juice taste OK? I got some filter bags from an Ebay user called 'bj-filters' go look them up and see if they have anything big enough? Never too ambitious. I did around 300 litres in my second year. To be honest you don't have to...

Well yesterday was my first proper drink of the 2020 press. And what a day. I put a marinaded pork shoulder on the barbecue low and slow for 4 hours made pulled pork served with coleslaw and a chilled cider from the 2nd press, this batch was one of the ones made with camdens / yeast / pectolase...

Well I started racking off the trad that I pressed in 2020 today. I racked off approximate 60 litres. Amazing how different it is from last year. Crystal clear without any additives. Compared to my 2019 press that was all quite cloudy even the stuff I added pectolase and yeast to. 2 pints spare...

Took a little longer to bottle another Carboy but I did it today. Another 22l into 2l sparkling mineral water bottles. All carbonated with 2 tsp sugar and a pinch of yeast. All of the trad is still sat in their primary FVs so I can start to rack some of this off now. And think about drinking...

So I bottled the first of my 2020 presses today. I just wanted to get the conveyer belt moving. I bottled 22l from a carboy into 2L sparkling mineral water bottles. Nice and easy. 17p a bottle from Lidl just pour the water away then fill up with cider. No need to sanitise. I'm going to do...

Well my Autumn 2019 Cider thread ends today. I bottled the last Carboy. 23L into 660ml bottles. The majority I added sugar and yeast to carbonate but bottled a few still...

Sounds like you've got the conveyer belt sorted. I was looking at mine this morning. I've got 2 carboys left of 2019 - well one carboy bottled, the other to be bottled. And all of the 2020 either in primary or secondary.

I think I would agree. I am now lucky enough that I've got volumes of cider in stock that the earliest I will drink cider is ~9 months after press. The following summer (so year + 1/2) seems to be best, it doesn't improve appreciably after that...