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If I make a batch of VWP steriliser, can I keep any unused solution and use it some weeks later? Or does it lose its effectiveness quickly - do I need to make up a new batch each time?

I currently have a 20 litre press and a manual scratter - but I'm thinking of upgrading to an electric scratter to cope with a huge number of apples this year. Any advice, please, about what sort to buy? Also, would an electric press be a good idea as well? Would it be more efficient than a...

Well I'm about to bottle 4 DJs and intend to experiment. Most bottles (500 ml glass with crown corks) will have the standard 10 grams of sugar per litre and as much fresh yeast in total as I would have put in the DJ for the main fermentation. However a few bottles will have no extra yeast and a...

Ah, yes. Sounds delicious! I suspect that your carbonation problems result from the yeast struggling against a high alcohol content. What sort of yeast do you use? What is sold as "cider yeast" has a lower alcohol tolerance than "sparkling wine" yeast. I also have carbonation problems -...

Interested that you got an OG of 1070 with crabapples. Presumably you had some sweeter apples too in your recipe or you added sugar? I've never seen anything above 1050.

I've never had a problem with headroom. One demijohn was only half full (because I'd run out of apples) but the cider still came out the same as the other full demijohns I had. Mind you, I was fermenting at a fairly high temperature (21 deg C) so that carbon dioxide was coming out fast enough to...

This is my third year of making cider from apples in my orchard. So I should know what I'm doing by now, but right from the start, I've had trouble with building up a good "sparkle" in the bottles. I do not use Camden tablets at any stage but I do add Pectolase immediately after pressing. It is...

Thanks for that. So, yes, for the next batch, I'll pick the Bramleys a few weeks in advance. The books say you can reduce acidity with potassium carbonate. With a pH of 2.8, is it worth doing that?

Well I now have 23 litres of fermenting juice bubbling away nicely. I did include about 30% of the ripest looking Bramleys into the mix as you suggested. The pH, according to my indicator strip is about 2.8 which is very acid. Would you (or anyone else reading this) think that that's a problem...

When I first planted my orchard, I wasn't thinking about cider - so unfortunately, I have no genuine cider apples - just about twenty different varieties of eaters plus a very old large Bramley tree which still produces hundreds of apples every year. I have a large surplus of apples this year...

Thanks to everyone who replied. I'm not planning to brew any TC - I have a large surplus of apples this season from my orchard in Southern Scotland.

Lots of discussions in this forum talk about "TC". What does it mean, please?

Yes, seems like you aimed to just put in the amount recommended - but, as you suggest, maybe you just added a bit too much. Guess you could just add a whole load more juice and dilute the camden sufficiently that it won't kill off the new yeast.

Yes, I think I might try just adding a pinch of yeast to the bottles just to see if it works. It seems to be just one of my demijohns that didn't condition. I did keep a note of which bottles were from which demijohn, and a bottle from a different demijohn opened last night was definitely...

I'm very new to cider brewing - recently bottled my first ever batch from 3 demijohns - but I have decided that I am not going to add Camdens to the brew at all. Many experienced ciderists say they don't and have never had a problem. If I get problems with bacteria, I might change my mind about...

Thanks very much everyone for your replies. Maybe them getting too cold is the reason. I initially left them in my apple store, which is just an outside shed with a little heater controlled by a frost stat to prevent the apples freezing. But it's been pretty cold in there. I brought some bottles...

My first ever attempt to make cider from my own apples went fine through to the end of fermentation in demijohns - down to a gravity of about zero. I racked it once. It was still cloudy but I decided to bottle it anyway hoping that it would clear in the bottle - and not minding about a bit of...

Good question! I have just one medlar tree (and about 25 MM106 apple trees). It was bought from a nursery - so I think it's probably cultivated. The medlar I have in front of me right now is about 40mm diameter - some are larger. In a few weeks' time I plan to do a 25 litre brew of mixed mid...

I'm going to try and see just how much (or little) juice can be extracted from unbletted Medlars, because that will be maximum tannin I think. If I really can't extract juice at all, I'll blett them and then add them add them cut up to the scratted apples before pressing. Might just do both and...

I'm wanting to add some tannin to my cider brew and am wondering whether medlars are a good way to do it. There was a previous discussion of this on the forum - but rather inconclusive. If you are going to eat Medlars raw or make them into jelly, you have to blett them first - that is let them...