Jonnyv
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Some of you may recognize me from another homebrew forum, and while generally an AG brewer, each year my brother and I make cider from his three apple trees.
Ok so it's only the second year we've done it, but we've learnt a lot in a year and hoping this year's cider will be better than the last. And I thought you'd like to see some pics...
It's worth pointing out that we're not using cider apples - in fact our 'blend' is three different apple trees, two eating apples and one cooking apple tree - so the taste isn't overly appley but we had some good comments on last years' 100 litre output.
So, the process is very simple:
1. Pick the apples (hopefully off the floor, otherwise with a large stick to 'persuade' them from the tree - you don't want underripe apples however). Rinse in water to remove dirt/grass/beetles etc.
2. Chop the apples into quarters or more
3. Pulp the apples
4. Press the apple pulp
5. Ferment
6. Blend then bottle or keg
Last year we got blisters using kitchen knives to chop the apples so this year I thought up a genius plan to use a potato 'chipper' device to lessen the work load and speed the process up. We pressed the same amount this year in one session with two people as it took four people last year.
Step One - Pick the apples
Windfall apples will be nicely ripened but need to be gathered before rot sets in. My brother picked three containers worth of windfall apples in the last week or two:
Step Two - Chop the apples
Using our newly discovered chipper device we set about chopping the first batch of apples.
£13 chipper from Robert Dyas:
Apple goes in:
Apple chips come out:
Step Three - Pulp the apples
Using a 'Pulpmaster' bucket contraption we pulped the apples. This is a very simple bucket with a lid, the lid has a hole which fits a metal piece of dowel, on the end there is a blade. A drill connects to the end of the dowel, the chopped apples are put in the bucket and whizzed, stirred, whizzed some more then stirred a few more times to get a good juicy pulp.
Looks like vomit but smells like apples!:
Step Four - Press the pulp
The apples are now sufficiently broken down to allow pressing. We used my parents 30+ year old wooden press. It's hard work as it doesn't press a great deal at once but it does the job. One press will yield about half a gallon.
My brother at the press:
The remains that come out of the press are great for the compost heap (again, looks like vomit!):
Looks murky and quite disgusting but it'll clear once fermented:
We ended up with 6 gallons in the FV and a further three demijohns (not shown) after 4 hours work:
Step Five - Ferment
We added one campden table per gallon to kill off any wild yeast and bacteria lurking on the dirty apples.
After two days we added some dried cider yeast and leave to ferment for a couple of weeks. This year we're going to ensure it doesn't ferment too dry by stopping fermentation with further campden tablets.
Regarding sanitation, we sanitise everything with iodophor at the beginning of the session but when you consider where the apples have been, what they've been in contact with etc it's any wonder we don't end up with apple vinegar, but the process works!
Step Six - Blend then Bottle/Keg
This year we're going to blend each 'batch' to create a more uniform cider for the season - last year we didn't and some batches were better than others. I'll be priming and bottling my 'share' to get a nice fizzy cider, whereas my brother prefers it still so he'll be using bag-in-a-box type dispensing.
And that's it - it's a simple process and if you have enough apples you can press enough juice to have enough stock for the entire year.
Hope you've enjoyed the post :)
Ok so it's only the second year we've done it, but we've learnt a lot in a year and hoping this year's cider will be better than the last. And I thought you'd like to see some pics...
It's worth pointing out that we're not using cider apples - in fact our 'blend' is three different apple trees, two eating apples and one cooking apple tree - so the taste isn't overly appley but we had some good comments on last years' 100 litre output.
So, the process is very simple:
1. Pick the apples (hopefully off the floor, otherwise with a large stick to 'persuade' them from the tree - you don't want underripe apples however). Rinse in water to remove dirt/grass/beetles etc.
2. Chop the apples into quarters or more
3. Pulp the apples
4. Press the apple pulp
5. Ferment
6. Blend then bottle or keg
Last year we got blisters using kitchen knives to chop the apples so this year I thought up a genius plan to use a potato 'chipper' device to lessen the work load and speed the process up. We pressed the same amount this year in one session with two people as it took four people last year.
Step One - Pick the apples
Windfall apples will be nicely ripened but need to be gathered before rot sets in. My brother picked three containers worth of windfall apples in the last week or two:
Step Two - Chop the apples
Using our newly discovered chipper device we set about chopping the first batch of apples.
£13 chipper from Robert Dyas:
Apple goes in:
Apple chips come out:
Step Three - Pulp the apples
Using a 'Pulpmaster' bucket contraption we pulped the apples. This is a very simple bucket with a lid, the lid has a hole which fits a metal piece of dowel, on the end there is a blade. A drill connects to the end of the dowel, the chopped apples are put in the bucket and whizzed, stirred, whizzed some more then stirred a few more times to get a good juicy pulp.
Looks like vomit but smells like apples!:
Step Four - Press the pulp
The apples are now sufficiently broken down to allow pressing. We used my parents 30+ year old wooden press. It's hard work as it doesn't press a great deal at once but it does the job. One press will yield about half a gallon.
My brother at the press:
The remains that come out of the press are great for the compost heap (again, looks like vomit!):
Looks murky and quite disgusting but it'll clear once fermented:
We ended up with 6 gallons in the FV and a further three demijohns (not shown) after 4 hours work:
Step Five - Ferment
We added one campden table per gallon to kill off any wild yeast and bacteria lurking on the dirty apples.
After two days we added some dried cider yeast and leave to ferment for a couple of weeks. This year we're going to ensure it doesn't ferment too dry by stopping fermentation with further campden tablets.
Regarding sanitation, we sanitise everything with iodophor at the beginning of the session but when you consider where the apples have been, what they've been in contact with etc it's any wonder we don't end up with apple vinegar, but the process works!
Step Six - Blend then Bottle/Keg
This year we're going to blend each 'batch' to create a more uniform cider for the season - last year we didn't and some batches were better than others. I'll be priming and bottling my 'share' to get a nice fizzy cider, whereas my brother prefers it still so he'll be using bag-in-a-box type dispensing.
And that's it - it's a simple process and if you have enough apples you can press enough juice to have enough stock for the entire year.
Hope you've enjoyed the post :)
