Apple cider from fresh apple

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joel0395

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Hello, is it worth attempting to make a cider from fresh apples? If so how do i go about doing it? Thanks
 
Yes, absolutely.

Extract the juice from the apples and add yeast. Bottle or keg when fermentation is complete.
 
Yep. You want a blend of apples. Granny Smith are good to add to the mix as they provide a little acidity. I use 80% eating apples and 20% granny smith. Just juice and add yeast.

You are a few months early though. Apple season is Feb-mar so anything you get now will have been in cold store for a year and won't have much flavour left. Fresh juice cider is a very seasonal thing.

Cheers
dave
 
punkin said:
Yes, absolutely.

Extract the juice from the apples and add yeast. Bottle or keg when fermentation is complete.
OT: This is one of the best replies I have seen.

As for making it, check out the UKciderwiki. It helped me a lot. For yeast I used the Wyeast Cider and Chablis strains, did two separate ferments.

Edit: I used almost 100% granny smith, as they were collected from the ground in a commercial orchard, and were free. We were limited with what we could get due to some of the orchard having been sprayed, so the windfalls were no good to use in those areas.
 
You can do some much with cider
Straight cider,sparkling cider
even distilled cider or vinegar
oh some many projects so little time
I'll post a recipe once i dig it out of the computer
as for yeasts there are plenty of choice out there
Go forth and make cider
my friend
 
I have a screw press juicer that does a good hob but is very slow. Takes a full day to do 40kg.

I'm trying to get a proper press together for next harvest.

Cheers
dave
 
Did 90l in a breville juice fountain last year. Took 3 hours with lunch and beer in between.
 
I built a press using local hard wood, was a bit small, only did 6kg/hr. Used cheeses rather than a basket.
 
I'm looking at making a press that uses 10-12 cheeses of around 5kg each. The plan is to press 400l next year as a test batch...

Probably get it welded up out of steel rather than using wood...

Cheers
dave
 
There is a new book on cider out, " the new cider maker's handbook" by Claude Jolicoeur. It has a lot of good information on different ways to juice apples, though a lot of the stuff about fermenting is for cool northern climates.
 
Takes me and the missus about two and a half hours to chop inspect and juice about 70 kg with a juicer from memory.

The trouble with a press is that it's only doing the juicing, you then need some kind of scratter as well to chop the apples. Using real data the yield seems to be close enough to the same despite some claims on the internet.
 
Me and few mates will be looking at making Cider from Apples next year in harvest - my mate manages a number of orchards, so sourcing fruit wont be an issue. We plan to make a proper hydraulic press (plenty of plans on the interweb).

My question to those that have gone before me, once we have collected all the juice we require and have it blended (different varieties) to taste, are there any steps taken prior to pitching yeast to avoid any issues from wild bacteria/yeasts that may have been on the skins etc? Do people recommend camden tablets? Also, what sort of gravities are you pitching into? I assume that if the gravity is too high from the juice obtained, you water down with sterile water? Or bump up if required with some sort of sugar?

One last thing, do people pasterize to stop fermentation to keep some residual sugar/sweetness (i.e bottle at desired FG and pasterize to stop further fermentation), or back sweeten with an unfermentable sugar when FG is reached?

Cheers
Mark!
 
Just another thought I had that is quite important really - make sure that you get your apples from an orchard and not a supermarket. The freshness of the apples is vital to a quality finished product.
I have a friend who runs an orchard and I can usually get them the week they were picked. If you can't get to the orchard, make sure you really trust your green grocer. Good green grocers will source you a large quantity if given some notice.
 
punkin said:
Takes me and the missus about two and a half hours to chop inspect and juice about 70 kg with a juicer from memory.

The trouble with a press is that it's only doing the juicing, you then need some kind of scratter as well to chop the apples. Using real data the yield seems to be close enough to the same despite some claims on the internet.
Yep. A scratter is included in the plan as well.
 
I probably would have gone the press and scratter way if i had room to store them for 51 weeks a year.

I don't and cop a lot of pressure about the spillover from my sheds already. The juicer just goes in the laundry cupboard till march each year.
 
Yeah.... One of the reasons I'm going for a cheese style press rather than a basket type (apart from apparently better yield) is that I can design it to break down into pieces that I can store under the house. A basket would be too big to do that.

If my 400l test batch goes well, the year after I'll be trying to do 1-2000l.

Cheers
Dave
 
Sounds excellent. That sort of thing would be great as a community asset. I'd love to live in apple country and have friends and neighbours for a BBQ and apple pressing weekend.
 

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