Freester's 2018 Cider Thread

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So the last press is now fermenting properly. The 'au naturel' is going slowly, the one with added yeast is bubbling quite regularly. The 'au naturel' from my first press is still bubbling but very slowly now. I'll think about racking this off soon.

I racked the Perry today. 21L of the stronger with 2L of the weaker into a carboy, that will be around 6.5%. The rest of the weaker into DJs. 18L at around 5%. And a final 2 litres straight into a 2L bottle with 4 tsp of sugar and a pinch of yeast!

IMG-20181111-152057821-1.jpg
 
Spent a couple of hours in the 'Cider Shack' yesterday... Bottled 23l of Perry. This is the 6.5% stuff. There was a little left so I had a taste. Really good it's got a bit of body and bite.



All into 34x660ml bottles. 1tsp of sugar to carbonate. My goodness that's hard work. Soak the bottles wash the inside peel the labels sanitise rinse add sugar Syphon into bottles then cap...



In other news the campden + yeast now racked off from my first press showing a little film yeast. Added campdens to the DJs will look to bottle this weekend

IMG-20181116-151721488.jpg


Cider from my 2nd press all bubbling away nicely now.

I'll think about racking off the two au naturels from my first press soon...
 
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Another afternoon sorting out the cider.

The two carboys fermented in the 'traditional' method from the first press weren't doing a lot so I took a reading (down to 1.002 - so 5.8 and 6.4%).

IMG-20181123-151254464.jpg


Then I racked them into clean carboys. I topped up the 5.8 up to 23l with some of the 6.4%. I topped up what was left of the 6.4% with some apple juice from this batch that was frozen and thawed today. Then I finally topped up to 23l with a litre of cider from the same batch that I had added yeast to.

IMG-20181123-175217977.jpg


Looks a bit cloudier than it really is. Obviously not crystal clear like any I added pectolase and yeast to but you can see through it in a glass!

Bottled 24l from the first press - the batch that I added campdens / yeast / pectolase etc. I've completely run out of glass bottles so it was Tescos sparkling water bottles, emptied, 4 tsp of sugar and a pinch of yeast. I also had 4 DJs worth of my 5% perry to bottle. Again Tescos bottles with sugar and a pinch of yeast.


IMG-20181123-175104212.jpg


Now in the house to carbonate...

The 'traditional' from my last press is still bubbling away. Slowly but steadily. I don't think I'll plan to touch any of that now until after Christmas. I don't think I'll bother bottling any that I racked off today until the New Year. Most I will bottle still. But I *may* experiment and see what some 'sparkling' traditional comes out like.
 
Time to try the Perry tonight as this week I am delivering some to the guy who gave me the pears.

IMG-20181208-204153097.jpg


It's fizzy, smells of pears, clear (apart from the sediment at the bottom), medium dry with a bit of bite. Very pleased with it especially as it's so good so quick.

In other news the recent milder weather has given my 'au naturel' from my last press a bit of a kick. The one that's in a carboy has clouded up and is bubbling every couple of seconds. The FV I added yeast to at the last press looks pretty much done. I'll check the FG with a view to racking off next weekend.
 
Racked off 25 litres from my last press. This had Campdens, Yeast + Pectolase added. Very pale yellow colour but tastes OK. Quite young with a bit of bite. I'll let it settle for a week then bottle.

Fermented down to 1.003 so I think that's around 7.1%.

The traditional from my last press is still bubbling away slowly.
 
good work freester, and happy new year. you are going to have to drink more, or give more away as your surplus will otherwise keep increasing.....

re the pale colour, one of my later batches is quite a bit paler than the rest. The only thing i can attribute that to is that I used a different variety of apples. Tastes pretty good though - you are right - as soon as it is cleared cider from apples tastes really quite nice.

I didnt notice much of an improvement in spring last year, but that may be the even temperature of my cellar. I might move a few bottles into the garage when things warm up and see if that makes a difference.
 
Not much to update. I've only sampled some of the perry from my 2018 presses so far, which is very nice!

The rest has been sat settling. The traditional I made on my second press has been sat bubbling away all winter.

So I need to get the conveyer belt moving. Cider from the first press, now racked off needs bottling so I have some space to rack off the 2nd press into.

It would be nice to put a lot in glass bottles but sooooo time consuming. I've got about 50 litres to bottle I'll probably do 50% in plastic sparkling water bottles and 50% in glass 660ml bottles. Time to crack on this afternoon!
 
23 litres down. 30+ 660ml bottles washed, sanitised, rinsed, priming sugar added, pinch of yeast, then filled up and capped. Phew. This was the yeast added to my second press batch. Somewhere around 7.2% I had about a pint of it - what was left that wasn't going to fill a bottle. I am seriously pleased. A lot of bite, appley, not too tart. So good I opened a bottle I had just capped as I wanted more. But damn. My head this morning... asad.

IMG-20190329-183431674-HDR.jpg


Round 2 today. Off to the supermarket to buy 12 bottles of cheap sparkling water. I can then bottle some of the traditional from my 1st press. This will give me enough space to rack off all my traditional from the second press in the autumn.
 
All done for now. Around 40l bottled. 70l either racked off and/or topped up.

One of the three FVs had recently started bubbling again. I just assumed it was the CO2 above warming up. But no. As soon as I had a taste as I primed the syphon I realised it was sweet. Rookie error should have measured the gravity before I started syphoning. Anyway at that point I did - somewhere around 1.014 so nowhere near fermented to dry. The other 2 vessels were down to 1.002. By then the racking had started so just added it to some of the other from the same batch and hope it keeps bubbling away. Otherwise I just won't have to bottle it, serve it from the carboys and it will be nice, medium cider. No idea why this one didn't finish. The cap growing on top looks a bit like what you want when you attempt to keeve maybe the yeast ran out of nutrients.

Trad that hadn't finished fermenting:

IMG-20190330-124254374-HDR.jpg


Racked off and topped up:
IMG-20190330-162006434-HDR.jpg


Bottled:
IMG-20190330-161951825-HDR.jpg


IMG-20190330-161959187-HDR.jpg
 
Well the sun is shining. It has been barbecue weather and I have had my first serious tasting of the 2018 produce. Mainly of cider from the first batch but really happy with it. It tastes as good as some of the 'craft' cider you can buy locally. A real appley taste and smell. Less sharp than previous years. Really pleased and the best I have made in my short cider making career. The moral of this story - it's all about the apples and the first batch was definitely cider apple varieties.

The batch that I had mentioned in the previous post that had stuck was mixed with some other batches and is now fermenting away again. I think it gained a second wind as it warmed back up. Bubbles in the airlock and you can actually see very small bubbles rising to the surface in the carboy.

Unfortunately the orchard I got the cider apples from looks like it might be a bi-annual. Very little blossom on the trees this year. BUT I found another orchard to investigate this autumn...

IMG-20190421-105428942-HDR.jpg
 
well done Freester - your success is deserved. I enjoyed a bottle of au naturel this weekend also - just so smooth......

I snapped a pic of my apples trees that day too - and so the cycle begins again....
20190421_162612 by MattH3764, on Flickr

I must try and find some proper cider apples this year, and see how much things improve.....
 
I spent Saturday afternoon bottling nearly 50l from this batch. All of it traditional. From 2 of the presses very different in taste. The one from the cider apples just tastes like a dry apple juice. Very dangerous at 6.5% it just doesn't taste alcoholic at all.

The other batch is a lot sharper, some bite and definitely alcholic at 7.5%!

The vast majority put into 660ml bottles most with some sugar and a pinch of yeast to carbonate.

Cider should be drunk chilled, outside with a barbecue :)

IMG-20190727-190924163.jpg
 
Time to put the Autumn 2018 Cider thread to bed. I bottled the last 23l from this batch today. Possibly the best cider I have made so far in my short cider making career, I racked off my 2019 today and it doesn't have the same potential at this point. Still I've got all this to work my way through first...

IMG-20200517-165119427.jpg
 

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