Adventures in Cider Brewing from a newbie ... a tale of mistakes and steep learning

[Seanav]

So last week i got about 80 kg of Dabinet and other "Cider apples"as mentioned on a previous thread. So here's what happened which may be of assistance to other novice cider brewers.
Sunday morning , filled with enthusiasm (and ignorance) I set up my (new) equipment to start juicing the apples .
Things started to go wrong immediately .
Firstly the pulpmaster bucket thing proved utter ineffectual for chopping the apples before pressing ....maybe it was me but I doubt it
So grabbed the domestic Juicer (expecting to burn the motor out)
Fine, it juices apples but the juice is full of "pulp" .Then pressed the juicer pulp for a lovely clear brown apple juice.This all took far longer than expected and was a bit messy , so a long clean up and the juice was beyond cloudy , it had a head on it Guinness would envy.
Next problem was the acidity reading was 4.5 and I had no Mallc acid powder (D'oh!) So quickly ordered some online (we don't have brewing supplies in Dublin anywhere but online!)
Added some sulphite and some Pectalese .....but not nearly enough and put juice in the fridge .
100g of Mallic acid arrived by Tuesday and after adding teaspoons and seeing the acidity barely move i chucked the lot in, regretting noy buying 200 g ....24 hours later acidity was 3.4 then added recommended sulphite for that reading and left for 24 hours (convinced the apple juice had probably gone off, or would go off )
Wednesday I pitched the yeast - Mangrove Jacks cider yeast and plugged the heating unit and inkbird setting the fridge to 20 degrees
By Saturday nothing had happened ....not a sign of fermentation ...so I asked SWMBO to taste the apple juice to see if it had gone off or it was worth ordering more yeast for a repitch (which wouldn't arrive until Tuesday as it's a bank Holday here)

She thought that the apple juice was fine but tasted very pectin heavy ...so added (lots) more Pectalese and gave it a good stir

Lo and behold about 2 pm today ,almost a week after the apples were juiced there is moderate activity in the fermentation bucket bubbler

God knows what it will taste like , but my takeaways from a week where a bucket of apple juice took up far more of my time and attention than is healthy for a grown man, are these

Scratting and juicing apples is laborious with the right equipment and a downright pain in the ass without
Have chalk , Pectalese and Mallic to hand ..as well as some back up yeast
Be unbelievably patient
Don't give up , its more forgiving than you think if you follow the basics (I hope)
Enjoy it ..even the failures

 

[Shirley Bassett]

Buy yourself a garden shredder. It will shred around 100kg of apples in an hour.

I made the inlet at the top larger than the small slit.

They are easy to disassemble to wash the moving parts in hot soapy water, then rinse in cold to get the soap off, then reassemble and mist the moving parts and plastic internals with a Starsan solution, using a spray bottle that you would mist plant leaves with.

Do this whilst not connected to mains electric, then once fully assembled switch on the shredder for a few minutes, and the parts will spin / turn, and the excess starsan will drain out of the bottom of the outlet. Then put a Starsan sprayed receptor under the outlet, and then put your apples through. The bigger ones will need halving, or quartering so that you don’t over load the motor.

When you’ve done scratting, then disassemble the shredder, wash the moving parts in soapy water, rinse, dry and then store in cooking oil to prevent any corrosion.

Put the lid back on the shredder, and let it run for a few minutes, to dry off the motor.

onced you,ve pressed the scrat, I add 1 campden tablet, dissolved in a small amount of hot water, per 5 litres of juice. Others will tell you not too. I then give it 36 hours and then sprinkle on my yeast.

I make alot each year, so I buy 100g of bigger jugs cider yeast, and put 2 heaped tespoons in 20 to 25 litres.

I’ve never bothered adjusting pH wilth Malic or chalk.

Now a days I don’t even bother with a start and end hydrometer reading. It is typically 1050 to 1065, down to 1000 to 1002 at the end. I put my buckets in the cupboard that has my underfloor heating manifold. It’s warm, but I don’t know the actual temperature.

Cider making isn’t as finnicky as making beer. It’s a lot more forgiving.

You get better results from a mixed apple content, rather than using a single variety, but if beggars cannot be choosers, then use what you can get hold of.

good luck

 

[An Ankoù]

I've used a pulp master. They're not very good. 80kg of apples is a decent amount and you need something bigger. You'd have been better crushing them in a tub with a heavy baulk of wood.
What's all thus acidity stuff? Why did you think you had to add malic acid? You didn't. You've already got cider apples and the juice would have made good cider without any acid additions and certainly without sulphite additions. Many cider makers hope for a reductions in acidity via a malolactic fermentation, not the opposite.
If you're going to make cider you need a halfdecent scratter and a press otherwise you're just wasting your time and your apples.
Edit.
Good post above. @Shirley Bassett knows what he's doing.

 

[Twogunrocky]

Great job of delegation.... that's what I took from that

 

[Seanav]

Buy yourself a garden shredder. It will shred around 100kg of apples in an hour.

I made the inlet at the top larger than the small slit.

They are easy to disassemble to wash the moving parts in hot soapy water, then rinse in cold to get the soap off, then reassemble and mist the moving parts and plastic internals with a Starsan solution, using a spray bottle that you would mist plant leaves with.

Do this whilst not connected to mains electric, then once fully assembled switch on the shredder for a few minutes, and the parts will spin / turn, and the excess starsan will drain out of the bottom of the outlet. Then put a Starsan sprayed receptor under the outlet, and then put your apples through. The bigger ones will need halving, or quartering so that you don’t over load the motor.

When you’ve done scratting, then disassemble the shredder, wash the moving parts in soapy water, rinse, dry and then store in cooking oil to prevent any corrosion.

Put the lid back on the shredder, and let it run for a few minutes, to dry off the motor.

onced you,ve pressed the scrat, I add 1 campden tablet, dissolved in a small amount of hot water, per 5 litres of juice. Others will tell you not too. I then give it 36 hours and then sprinkle on my yeast.

I make alot each year, so I buy 100g of bigger jugs cider yeast, and put 2 heaped tespoons in 20 to 25 litres.

I’ve never bothered adjusting pH wilth Malic or chalk.

Now a days I don’t even bother with a start and end hydrometer reading. It is typically 1050 to 1065, down to 1000 to 1002 at the end. I put my buckets in the cupboard that has my underfloor heating manifold. It’s warm, but I don’t know the actual temperature.

Cider making isn’t as finnicky as making beer. It’s a lot more forgiving.

You get better results from a mixed apple content, rather than using a single variety, but if beggars cannot be choosers, then use what you can get hold of.

good luck

Thanks ....thats a really good idea ....next year!!!

 

[Seanav]

I've used a pulp master. They're not very good. 80kg of apples is a decent amount and you need something bigger. You'd have been better crushing them in a tub with a heavy baulk of wood.
What's all thus acidity stuff? Why did you think you had to add malic acid? You didn't. You've already got cider apples and the juice would have made good cider without any acid additions and certainly without sulphite additions. Many cider makers hope for a reductions in acidity via a malolactic fermentation, not the opposite.
If you're going to make cider you need a halfdecent scratter and a press otherwise you're just wasting your time and your apples.
Edit.
Good post above. @Shirley Bassett knows what he's doing.

You add Malic acid to get some acidity ...4.5 is almost. neutral and would lead to a very bland cider so you need to increase the acidity , and (allegedly) the yeast can struggle at such levels ...so says Andrew Lea anyway and he seems to know what hes talking about

 

[An Ankoù]

You add Malic acid to get some acidity ...4.5 is almost. neutral and would lead to a very bland cider so you need to increase the acidity , and (allegedly) the yeast can struggle at such levels ...so says Andrew Lea anyway and he seems to know what hes talking about

I must read this Andrew Lea of whom you speak.
7 is neutral, by the way, but its not a linear scale and 3.4 is about ten times as acidic as 4.5 and is the sort of acidity you'd expect of vinegar. My point being that "cider apples" have been selected and improved over the years because they make good cider and they do this because the acidity and tannin levels of the juice are suitable for cider making without adjustment. Blending, perhaps, but I don't see Wurzel Gummage faffing about with a fistful of litmus papers. I'm surprised the pH of your juice was too high.

 

[benludo]

I've used a pulp master. They're not very good. 80kg of apples is a decent amount and you need something bigger. You'd have been better crushing them in a tub with a heavy baulk of wood.
What's all thus acidity stuff? Why did you think you had to add malic acid? You didn't. You've already got cider apples and the juice would have made good cider without any acid additions and certainly without sulphite additions. Many cider makers hope for a reductions in acidity via a malolactic fermentation, not the opposite.
If you're going to make cider you need a halfdecent scratter and a press otherwise you're just wasting your time and your apples.
Edit.
Good post above. @Shirley Bassett knows what he's doing.

Posted this before, we have a Vigo and it laughs at 80kg infact last weekend we mashed and pressed in the region of 500kg making enough juice for a 50 gallon barrel ( first time experiment of brewing in the wood) plus about 5 gallons of Perry. Will try to attach videos of last years action.

 

[An Ankoù]

Posted this before, we have a Vigo and it laughs at 80kg infact last weekend we mashed and pressed in the region of 500kg making enough juice for a 50 gallon barrel ( first time experiment of brewing in the wood) plus about 5 gallons of Perry. Will try to attach videos of last years action.

I've been wanting to upgrade for some time but can't make up my mind what to get. I've been on the Vigo site and a few others. Will try to get organised better for next year. I've already got a rack and cloth press that I made myself. High time I had a good look and overhauled it.

 

[benludo]

I've been wanting to upgrade for some time but can't make up my mind what to get. I've been on the Vigo site and a few others. Will try to get organised better for next year. I've already got a rack and cloth press that I made myself. High time I had a good look and overhauled it.

That Vigo is astounding and because this year the apple crop has been good we have pressed in the region of 500+ litres which equates to about 1250 kg of apples. Brewing outside in one 210 litres water butt and 110 litres water butt- bought new and only used for brewing. Last year we stood outside until end of February early March and then bottled with priming sugar and achieved a dry well carbonated light cider. See what this year brings.

 

[An Ankoù]

That Vigo is astounding and because this year the apple crop has been good we have pressed in the region of 500+ litres which equates to about 1250 kg of apples. Brewing outside in one 210 litres water butt and 110 litres water butt- bought new and only used for brewing. Last year we stood outside until end of February early March and then bottled with priming sugar and achieved a dry well carbonated light cider. See what this year brings.

Lucky you. My apple harvest was rubbish and the trees in the locality that I normally rob fruit from also failed to produce anything worth nicking. If it hadn't been for my neighbour having a glorious crop of something unnamed and unnamable, I wouldn't have had any cider this year. y trees that did produce were sharps and the mixture is great. Only 30 litres, though. Hardly a good breakfast.
I think the press in your picture is actually a Speidel 2.2 kW running out at around £850 in today's money?