cider time

[the big lebowski]

hi all i popped down the vp yesterday and had a wander around the orchard at the bottom ,the apples look ready and some of the others are keeping their eye on them too ,ive only made cider once before and it wasnt that nice (i used the wrong type of apples i think,they tasted too sweet ) does anyone know what type of apples i should be looking for ? tbh i was going to go down there with a trug and pick about 10 apples from each tree and just mix all the juice together does that sound like a good place to start ? any thoughts welcome cheers

[nickdub]

Obviously in the old days farms grew special cider apples which have a very high tanning content - I tried biting in to one once and it was a bit like eating a sloe. I doubt therefor you can use ordinary apples to make this type of cider. You can of course get apple juice from any apples and turn it in to some sort of cider, or for that matter keep it as juice. A friend of mine used to boil the juice down and turn it into syrup.

[4Shoes]

VP?

I made cider from Apple Juice from Tesco last year. Thought it tasted bit rough. Not very sweet etc etc. And it will be dry. You need to kill the yeast & sweeten or use artificial sweetener to sweeten once fermented.

Was at Wigtown food festival and got half dozen bottles - 1 of each they made. To be honest - after tasting some of their cider - Tesco Apple Juice Cider was not too bad. Think message is that some cider we buy is manufactured to the buyer market and not what cider should taste like....

So for cider - best get cider apples … ok I must assume you don't know one tree from another (no insult intended) if you are wondering around and they have no labels.... At this time of year, I would think it is going to be Desert Apples that are ripe - say Red Delicious. Think it is September time in Scotland for Main Crop - Cropping through to Early October. Remember 90 Degree turn and if it is still on tree not ripe.


BTW - If you have a dehydrator - Peel, slice and sprinkle with cinnamon for a breakfast sprinkle.
if you have space - Juice and then freeze.

[burnie]

My apples made poor cider and to be honest last years apple wine wasn't much better, I have Delicious, Howgate Wonder and James Grieve. If I could find some crab apples to add, I might try again, but crabs seem to be non existent in NE Scotland. You can make single variety cider, but you do need the right ones, what you could do is make alcho pops, my Dad did this in the 1970's, pity he didn't patent the idea. Make your cider and then add soft fruit of your choice, Blackberries are an obvious one to add. If I remember rightly it was 3 pounds of apples and a pound of soft fruit and add extra sugar and yeast as the apples natural yeast was not enough to get a decent ferment.

[the big lebowski]

hi ,thanks for the comments ,no i dont know the name/type of each of the trees but they are all (or seem to be) differents all the apples look different some look like normal eating apples ,some cooking apples ,some the smaller tarter crab apples ,all diff types ,ill give it a try and see how i get on thx

ps vp = veggie patch

[Jungle Jane]

It says here tanning has a bitter flavour,have a taste test
What are the Best Apples used for Cider Making? - Vigo Presses Ltd

[bikermike]

Do you have the opportunity to come back and get more later?

Would you not be better making a test pot from a smaller number of varieties and then you can get an idea of what you like.

Also, might be worth looking further afield for recipes. West Country cider tends to a strong drink that keeps well. In France they make a much lighter fizzier thing that you make and drink in a few weeks.

then you just need to practice singing...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lzGkB6YO9Yc

[Stan79]

As said above, i have been disappointed with previous goes at cider production and then tasted some at a beer, wine and spirits fayre in London and realised that what i made was really pretty good compared to small scale cider producers making more of a scrumpy type cider!!! Leaving it for a year definitely helps with the flavour...

Being meticulous about sterilising everything is essential.
Using champagne yeast has had decent results in the past.
A bit of sugar in the bottle to start a second fermentation adds a bit of fizz and you don't need much sugar to get the bottles exploding!
An artificial sweetener can make it sweeter without the second fermentation and therefore no fizz and less sediment in the bottle but i think you can tell it's artficially sweet.

As for the original posters questions about apples.... crab apples are supposed to add the right sort of punch to the flavour so.... pick the apples your'e cinsidering and add crab apples to the mix.

Google Wittenham Hill Cider pages... that's the resource i have used in the past!