It's Apple Season

[Muscovy_333]

Just scored 70kg of pink lady apples fresh off the tree (Canberra late harvest) which will go in the ferment on the weekend. Given these are table apples, do I need to do additions malic tannic etc or should it come out fine without them? Looking for a moderately sweet dry cider.

Homebrew ciders will always ferment out dry unless you intervene in some way.

I have made a few attempts, my best result being 'wild apples' from a few self sewn trees at my folks house, picked tart and a small addition malic acid to taste pre-ferment.

IMHO, i would definitely add acid to table apples for a better result.

When you figure out how to consistently retain sweetness please let me know.

 

[Airgead]

Just scored 70kg of pink lady apples fresh off the tree (Canberra late harvest) which will go in the ferment on the weekend. Given these are table apples, do I need to do additions malic tannic etc or should it come out fine without them? Looking for a moderately sweet dry cider. Also, it doesn't look like anyone is using camden tablets to head off the wild yeasts on the fruit. I plan on breville juicing them, so figure they won't be on the skins but don't want to add extra sulphur if it isn't needed.

Straight pink Ladies may well come out too bland. I have had pink lady cider before and it was like fizzy water. You may well need to add some acid.

I'm using a mix of pink lady (for bulk), breaburn and granny smith. I have 50kg of them in the fridge ready to juice up this weekend. I'll throw in some crab apples as well. The grannies add a little acid and improve things no end.

Cheers
Dave

 

[manticle]

A touch of malic and tannic (around 5g of each from memory in 24 L) gave a nice complexity in two ciders that I've not had before. First lot added post ferment, 2nd pre-ferment.

Preference for the pre-ferment.

No need for sulphites with either fresh apples nor store bought juice in my experience - just get a nice healthy yeast starter going first.

 

[Fents]

went to the kellybrook cider festival on the weekend and took a cube to get some juice for my yearly KB Cider. at $4 a litre its not cheap but the juice is superb so should make a great cider.

 

[evildrakey]

There's a couple of great vids on youtube (of all places).

The one I'm going to give a go went like this...

Stage 1: Feed apples through one of those small cheap electric chipping machines into a big tub.
Stage 2: Separate liquid from solids.
Stage 3: Put apple chunks into a decent wooden crank-handle wine press.
Stage 4: Go Hard, collect the juice.

The way they fermented after the pressing was, frankly criminal, but the pressing process looked quite efficient...

they've blocked youtube at work but I can link it tonight...

 

[manticle]

Why criminal?

Was it a natural ferment (ie yeast present on the apple skins used to ferment)?

 

[Greg.L]

You should check the pH or TA before adding acid. Dessert apples can be more acidic than you think. I don't much like malic acid in cider, but if you can make it sweet it would balance. No point adding acid if the pH is under 3.4, which is perfectly possible given the cool summer this year.

 

[evildrakey]

Not so much that Manti... I'd have to look at the video again. I just remember watching it and going... yeah thats cool, yep... yep... the being faintly disgusted about something towards the end... I'll send the link in about 3 hours when I get home from work...

 

[Newbee(r)]

Great responses thanks. The granny smiths are coming off the trees this week helpfully, so will do 20kg GS to 70kg pinks across two batches, and check ph before a small malic and tannic additions.

Re sweetness, I could monitor gravity closely and crash chill the yeast hard before it hits FG, rack and filter to maintain sweetness and just enough residual yeast should remain to carb over time, but think a 150-200g lactose addition to balance afterwards would be lower risk. 90kg of apples should give me two batches of 18 litres all going well, so might do a side by side and post the results.

Thanks again

J

 

[Muscovy_333]

You should check the pH or TA before adding acid. Dessert apples can be more acidic than you think. I don't much like malic acid in cider, but if you can make it sweet it would balance. No point adding acid if the pH is under 3.4, which is perfectly possible given the cool summer this year.

Yep, valid point for sure.
Less risk of stressing the yeast as well.

 

[evildrakey]

http://youtu.be/TmNWHR4dldc

 

[Newbee(r)]

Just finalising the cider brew for the weekend. I have the Vintner SN9 dry yeast or S-04, ringwood, scottish, irish and german ale yeast on hand. Need to get the starter going tomorrow. I bought the SN9 as a cider yeast, but after some googling it seems like SN9 is a bit of a freight train yeast. Any suggestions?

 

[troopa]

London Ale
Just kegged an Aldi Apple Blackcurrent with a nice twist from the yeast

 

[Newbee(r)]

The following link is a cracker. The brewer basically tests a wide range of yeasts and timings of additions for ciders. Really informative.


http://forum.northernbrewer.com/viewtopic....f=9&t=64821

 

[Newbee(r)]

Around 50kg of apples, each one scrubbed, quartered cored and juiced. 38% pink ladies, 9% granny smith, 3% pears. cup of strong tea for tannin (4 soaked for 20 min teabags) in a large mug, a teaspoon of malic acid, yeast nutrient and 100g lactose. Went with US-05 at the end of the day. 26L juice in the fermenter with no scum. A truckload of work, but the lovely rose ruby juice looks and tastes amazing. Next brew day will be breeze in comparison!!

 

[punkin]

Will be bottling my cider very shortly over the next few days. May well keg one keg full too if i run out of bottles.

I had a taste from the hydro tube again yesterday. It's down to just a mick under 1.000 and tastes beautiful, crisp and tart. There is a real apple taste shining through already where it's normally quite 'winey' until it's had a couple or 6 months conditioning.

It's gotta be a combination of the Cru-05 yeast and the lactic acid blend i bought from the winery supplies.


I'm one very happy little punkinhead right now

 

[Airgead]

Pished 50kg of apples through the juicer last weekend giving me 2 full kegs of juice. Mix of around 25% pink lady, 50% braeburn 25% granny smith. OG was a shade under 1.050.

Fermenting with the CRU-05 this year instead of my usual WY4766 so we'll see what happens.

Cheers
Dave

Edit - I got all my apples for free this year. I pick up the seconds and windfalls so they guy just gave them to me. Saves him paying to get rid of them. I'm trying to do a deal for next year to pick up a ton or so, get licensed and sell the resulting thousand or so bottles through the orchard. Turns his waste product into something that should fetch a good few $/bottle. We'll see.

 

[punkin]

That's an excellent idea. i've visited Suttons before and their cider starts at $13 a bottle.

So worth it too, it's great stuff.

I'll be really interested to hear your views on the difference the yeast makes.

 

[Airgead]

That's an excellent idea. i've visited Suttons before and their cider starts at $13 a bottle.

So worth it too, it's great stuff.

I'll be really interested to hear your views on the difference the yeast makes.

I'll need to build myself a decent press first though. Actually, I'm going to do that anyway. Having spent 2 days juicing apples through my little screw press juicer I'm well over it. A nice basket press with enough spece for 50kg of apples. One press and my regular batch is done. Less pulp mixed in too.

Should even handle a ton or so over a weekend. 20 presses/ton...

Going to base it on a 5t bottle jack I have lying around. That should do the job nicely.

Cheers
Dave

 

[troopa]

Personally for a tonne or more off apples and commercial on selling i would be looking at a sturdy C channel steel press with stainless perforated basket reinforced with stainless flat bar somewhere around the 500mm diameter by 500-700mm high or more and with the steel frame you could then be able to go with something like 20-30tonne without too many issues. This should be able to fit somewhere about 20-30kg of scratted apple in it
Thats still 40 presses for a tonne and at 10 mins each plus scrattering and handling time its doable with a few mates/flaggoons of scrumpy

There was a wine press i saw up at Tyralls winery in the hunter valley that had a basket of 1.2m and was 1.5m high with a 100tonne hydraulic jack ... i want that

Ive just changed companies and now maintain and repair scroll and bowl style seperation units (screw press) this style of system gets used to press/squeeze moisture out of anything and im trying to come up with some sort of home brew style of thing but i dont really see it getting off the ground

http://www.plantmachinerysales.com.au/buy/...&R=11042964

although you can get one for $5500 lol

And a really cool video