Complete Cider beginner... looking for advice.

[Baldilocks]

Hi everyone.
I am new to this forum, and also to homebrewing. I've never made anything alcoholic, apart from some plums that went off in the fruit bowl once. Me and a friend have decided to have a go at making cider and have got hold of a quantity of apples. we have equal quantites of bramley and what we think are discovery but could be some random cider apple according to someone else, and a smattering of crabs. We have constructed a press and pretty much seem to understand the pulping and pressing process. We do need a hand however with the recipe for the juice with the apples we have to hand. What proportions of varieties and the like. The fermentation I am researching but would also appreciate any advice the forum has to give.
In short, please stop me going wrong before I do it.

Thanks in advance :thumb:

 

[Baldilocks]

OK, so I have re-read my first post and realised it is a bit vague, so I have tried to distill it down to some specific questions.

1. Will the taste of the pressed juice have much bearing on the flavour of the resulting cider ? ie will I be able to adjust the sweetness/sharpness of the juice by tasting alone ?

2. Does this recipe sound alright ? 10 lbs acidic apples (bramleys), 5 lbs crab apples, 5 lb sweet apples (Discovery). I found it ont'internet.

3. Fermentation. I have found lots of contradictory advice. Add yeast, don't add yeast, add sulphite, just ferment with juice alone etc. Is there a simple way for a beginner to get reliable results ? I am planning on fermenting the juice in a large loosely covered tub for a few days, then syphoning into 5L plastic bottles with airlocks for the rest of the time.

Thanks for any help anyone can give me.

EDIT: not even sure if this is in the right board. Is it ?

 

[muddy90]

Hi, I'm new to this too but have found out the following...
Get it in an airlock asap, it will ruin very quickly.
I was lucky enough to have enough juice to do 2 batches, 1 with chems & 1 completely natural, they're both fermenting nicely, so personal preference I guess??
You'll only need to add yeast if you go the campdem tab route.
Taste, sweetness.... that will have no relation to final taste as the sugar will hopefully all be alcohol, adding sudar will just make it stronger.
Taste, acid... will tend to be more acidic after the sugar has gone but you can get round this.
Good luck. :

 

[Archtronics]

Simple easy way- press juice into a fermentation vat
Add Campden tablet to kill off wild yeastys
Add cultured yeast (from a packet)
Leave in the warm (20oc) for 7 Days
Bottle add half a teaspoon of sugar to prime
Leave in the warm for 7 days
Move to cold for 1-3 months
:drink:

Muddy is right about the apple tastes if you prefer a sweeter cider you can add splenda to taste as this won't ferment. You can also add a little more tannin but if you have cider apples this shouldn't be needed

Mark

 

[Baldilocks]

Cheers for the advice guys.
I haven't been able to get and campden tablets but am pressing today. Can i add them if it gets a bit funky then re yeast later on ?

 

[graysalchemy]

You best adding the campden straight after pressing so as no wild yeast get a hold on the sweet apple juice. You want your cultured yeast to dominate and use the sugars to ferment the alcohol. You don't want a whole bunch of nasties using the sugar and doing there own thing.

You probably want some pectolase about 1 tsp per gallon unless you want cloudy cider. Finally when you bottle you should prime at about a rate of 7g of sugar per Litre (sorry for switching between imp and metric)

Hope that helps

:thumb:

 

[Baldilocks]

Ha ha, so that was a pretty hit and miss first day of pressing.
Our method of pulping turned out to be not very effective. We had a metal plate on a 10mm threaded rod in a drill trying to emulate a pulpmaster type thing. The bramleys laughed at us. more hand choppping first I think for next time.
Our press also broke due to a technical error in construction.
We did however manage to get a gallon of fresh apple juice which tasted pretty good, a little tart and acidic due to the bramleys I'm assuming, but quite drinkable.
We couldnt get any chems either so this first "test" batch is sat in a 5L bottle under an airlock. I'm gonna leave it and see what happens.
It tested out at 1.040 so we added some sugar sryup and mixed. This resulted in a reading of 1.055-1.060, I'm hoping this will be ok.
What is encouraging is the amount of juice I gleaned from my apples. I have bagged apples left for probably about 20 gallons and the promise of more !