First Time Making Cider

[Rich85]

Hey everyone,

Just had my first go at making a cider from home grown apples and pears.

I picked the fruit yesterday, put it through a juicer and then strained the liquid through a piece of cloth to get rid of the bits and some of the cloudiness.

I have ended up with a gallon of very nice tasting cloudy apple juice and a gallon of pear juice that is slightly weak tasting for what I was expecting, a kind of dark greeny brown colour and very cloudy. I have added sugar to bring the starting gravity to around 1.060, pectolase, yeast nutrient and Youngs general purpose yeast tonight.

I have been having a look on here and found a few things I might have done wrong.

Firstly I juiced the pears straight after picking them. I have since read that you are supposed to leave them for a couple of weeks to go soft before doing anything with them. Will this make a difference? I have got loads of pears left over so it isn't a massive problem if I have to start again.

Secondly I have read about people adding campden tablets to kill any wild yeast strains. If I do this won't it kill off the yeast I have put in? I can only assume that you would add the campden tablets a day or so before adding the yeast in which time it would kill off the wild yeast and then become inert ready for the proper yeast. If that is the case, should I add a campden tablet to each demijohn then add more yeast tomorrow?

Cheers

 

[Marrsy86]

Good Luck with the brews mate!

I think people might only leave the Pears a few weeks to let them go softer and make it easier to get the juice out ? I could be wrong though.

The campden tablets are usually added at the start around a day before your main yeast to kill the wild yeasts off but back in the day the wild yeasts are all people used to have so im sure your brews will be fine, the youngs strain might be stong enough to negate the wild yeast and kind of take over the fermentation process.

I would pick some more pears now, leave your brews a week or so to see what happens and if the pear one does go wrong you have your pears to put in the DJ, if it works you have your pears ready to make your second batch! :thumb:

Cheers

Marrsy

 

[Rich85]

Cheers for the help, they seem to be bubbling along nicely now. All my DJ's are in use making WOW at the minute but that should be ready to bottle in about a fortnight. By then the pears I've got should be ready to juice so I'll be able to compare the difference when they are finally ready.

 

[Rich85]

I've just noticed that the cider I started off on Tuesday has stopped bubbling and has dropped sediment. I have taken a hydrometer reading and the pear cider has dropped from 1.060 OG to 1.008 and the apple cider has dropped from 1.065 OG to 1.002.

I'm assuming I need to rack them now to get rid of the sediment, should I add campden tablets and finings etc? 5 days seems a bit early to be thinking of doing anything with them I reckon but I thought I'd better ask!

Cheers

 

[Marrsy86]

Check the reading over a few days to make sure it stays the same mate incase its just being sneaky.

Marrsy

 

[Rich85]

Will do, cheers again for the help.

 

[Archtronics]

Are you racking off straight to bottles or for a secondary fermentation?

Personally I like medium dry cider so I rack off to a secondary fermenter add a little tannin and a small amount of sugar then leave it for a few weeks in the cold to ferment slowly then add campden, and a little more sugar/splenda then bottle. Not really a turbo cider then but I find it suits my taste better and is only slightly fizzy.

Mark

 

[Rich85]

I was planning to rack into another demijohn to let it clear a bit more it then maybe rack again if it throws down a load of sediment.
I'll do as you suggest, I've got plenty of patience (and Wurzels to keep me going in the mean time lol) so I don't mind waiting a bit for it to be properly ready. Cheers for the advice!