Cider day...

[Vince G]

....is tomorrow. Been down the allotment this evening and stripped my 2 cider apple trees (Dabinet and Herefordshire Redstreak - aka Bill and Ben according to Mrs G). Quite excited as I planted the trees 8 years ago and this is the first year there has been enough to be making my own cider soley from my own fruit. In prior years I have bulked it out with apples from my pal's cookers and eaters.


There's 35kg of apples here which with a bit of luck should yield at least 15ish litres of juice.

Need to scrub up my equipment in the morning, then the fun begins...

[Snoop Puss]

Morning, Vince. Lovely looking apples there. Hope you'll post that in the Vine Show. But I have a question (I've never made cider): what is the metal contraption in the equipment photo? Is it some kind of crusher?

[Nicos]

That looks good Vince!
A couple of years ago we took a huuuuge amount of apples to press for apple juice to a communal press. It surprised me how many bruised apples others were putting through. Adds to the flavour apparently
The juice was then pasturised but we held back about 4 demijohns worth to turn into cidre. The best cider we’ve ever tasted!

Hope you have the same success with yours!
That metal ‘crusher’ and press has me fascinated too…do tell us about your set up please?
How many litres of juice from how many kg of fruit too please?

[greenishfing]

Do you need a quality controller/taster? I'll volunteer.

[Vince G]

Morning, Vince. Lovely looking apples there. Hope you'll post that in the Vine Show. But I have a question (I've never made cider): what is the metal contraption in the equipment photo? Is it some kind of crusher?

Correct Snoop, the apples go in the chute, there are rotating blades at the bottom and minced up apples come out of the narrow slit further down. Cost me nearly £200 but if you think about it, even rubbish like strongbow can be a fiver a pint these days, and as I'm hoping to get 15-20 litres out of the fruit, it will pay for itself in one season.

[Snoop Puss]

Brilliant, VG. How long before you can drink the fruits of your labours?


You inspired to try your own like this, Nicos?

[Nicos]

It’d make for a brill joint Xmas pressie wouldn’t it?

[Snoop Puss]

^Yes. And of course you'd have to buy it in advance to make the most of this year's harvest so you could drink some of it, at least, on Xmas Day.

[Vince G]

Brilliant, VG. How long before you can drink the fruits of your labours?


You inspired to try your own like this, Nicos?

So it will be for early summer drinking. It should start fermenting in 2 or 3 days, no yeast needed it goes off on its own. It's currently in the unheated utility room, which is just warm enough for it to begin fermenting. Once it's finished it goes in the coldish garage over winter, then in spring when it warms up again it might do a quick second fermentation. This doesn't always happen but it's nice when it does as it seems to take any harsh edges out of it.

I've done a measurement and its original gravity is 1.046. In the past cider I've made has fermented out to 1.0, sometimes a tad lower. If it goes to 1.0 the ABV works out to 6.04%. I've tried adding brewing sugar in the past to increase the strength but it ruined it a bit to be honest, so I'm not going to fiddle with it.

[Vince G]

Do you need a quality controller/taster? I'll volunteer.

LOL, you'll have to fight Mrs G for that job, and if you've seen her nails....

[Vince G]

Some final pics from the fun today!

Here's what the mincer does to the apples:


Pressing....


And the final juice. About 12½ litres. Not far off my guess of 15L from 35 kg. Hopefully a bit more next year and I can get close to filling my 25L fermentation bin.

[greenishfing]

LOL, you'll have to fight Mrs G for that job, and if you've seen her nails....

But have uou seen mine?


But I'd never come between husband and wife 🙂.

[Vince G]

But have uou seen mine?


But I'd never come between husband and wife 🙂.

Haha, you'd give her a run for her money LOL

[Vince G]

So by way of an update, the juice started bubbling after about 48 hours.The airlock was going like the clappers and the sealed lid bulged up a lot, so much so that I decided to put a house brick on it. It bubbled fast for about 3 days and has now slowed right down.

I've measured the gravity at 1.002 so it needs to ferment for a bit longer. So I've given it a stir and we'll see how it goes. Had a sneaky taste and the overwhelming flavour is the Dabinet, so quite bittersweet. It could actually do with being slightly sharper, so I'm tempted to stick a litre of pure apple juice in it. Might also encourage a bit more fermentation with the extra sugar.

Not going to fiddle with it for a week or so though.


Just as an edit: there is a funny eggy smell off it at present. So I googled it and came across mentions of this on several home brewing websites and learned it is referred to as "the rhino farts" which rather amused me. Some wild yeasts produce a fair amount of sulphur during the early phases of fermentation apparently, but the smell goes away in about a week. On one thread, people were blaming dogs, wives, husbands etc, had a bit of a chuckle.

[Snoop Puss]

Sounds like it's doing what it should.

The notion of 'rhino farts' gives an idea of niffiness.