Hi Franko,
I will be using your tried and true cider recipe with the Wyeast 4766 cider yeast next week (hopefully) but do I have to use the bought juice you recommend in your recipe? I have lots of granny smith and pink lady apples that I thought I could juice and use instead (luckily have an orchard). What would be the best process - juice and strain? I have read some comments about pressing but as a complete novice have no idea what this means! I am going to purchase whatever 'hardware' I need from a local shop called butts and brews (I think they have everything for home brewing so they may be able to advise?).
Fresh apples in a cider are great - particularly if you use a blend of sweet, bitter and acidic. You're well on the way with a blend of grannies and ladies.
An apple press will just make life a lot easier as you need a lot of apples to make the required amount of juice but they are very pricey. I use a small domestic juicer for mine - it's a lot of work but so is mashing and both are fun and rewarding.
You have a number of options depending on your palate and your willingness to take a punt.
Juice the apples. No real need to strain depending on whether your juicer will let through bits (seeds, skin etc).
There are wild yeasts and microbes in apples so you can sterilise the juice in a number of ways:
1. Pasteurise - heat briefly to 70 deg celsius (I think that's how it's done). Don't overheat or you will cook the apples
OR
2. use sodium or potassium metabisulphite (sometimes available as Campden tablets)
OR
3. leave it
I haven't tried pasteurisation - apparently it can effect shelf life. Brewer Pete posted a link to some experiments on various yeasts and pateurised vs unpasteurised somewhere on the forum.
I have tried potassium met and found it made the resulting brew give off an unsettling sulphur odour. This will dissipate with ageing but I'm not a fan.
Personally I just take the punt - once a yeast is pitched the alcohol formation should provide a sterile environment (so making a starter is advisable).
Allow the juice to clarify for about 24-48 hours in the fermenter. This means that a crust will form on top and impurities will be trapped therein.
Rack the liquid underneath the crust to a different vessel (second fermenter). This aids a nice clear cider later down the track.
Add the yeast and some yeast nutrient.
Ferment slowly somewhere between 12 and 14 degrees over 2 -4 weeks. Rack to secondary if that's something you normally do. Arguments are for and against.
Cold condition/lager at 2 degrees for a further week or two. This gives a nice clean, crisp, refreshing cider which is drinkable within a short while. Ageing cider beyond a month (and up to a year) gives the flavours a chance to develop supposedly although I've never been patient enough to go beyond a month. Next time perhaps.
You can use sugars to up the alc content but be aware that this may result in a drier cider. If you have access to loads of apples, I wouldn't bother.
You can also use lactose to sweeten or if you keg you can stop fermentation early depending on how sweet or dry you like it. I've used lactose with success.
NB: I've only used white wine yeast which will ferment at the above temps. I've not used the cider wyeast so check with the manufacturer that it will work at those temps. Breton ciders (wild fermentation relying on natural yeast in the apples) ferment slow in cool conditions and it's worked when I've tried it.
There are other, better cider makers on here than me that may offer different advice but that's how I've done it. Next I may try a lager yeast then give the wyeast a go. Following that I aim to take a punt with wild/apple yeasts.
Last but not least - cider can sometimes give off weird smells during ferment so don't be put off if you get apple farts during primary. Don't throw it out by any means (do keep it away from the house though).
PS: here's a step by step pdf I found:
http://www.fcs.uga.edu/pubs/PDF/FDNS-E-91.pdf
