Making cider at home

[George.com]

Any of yous tried making cider before?

This weekend just gone I got about making up some cider. 3 days of work yielded 22 litres. An interesting experience but one I am going to have to stream line if I do it next time around.

The apples were free, scavenged from a few trees round the neighbourhood.

Cleaning them was no problem, dunking in a big tub.

Cutting them up and cutting out the odd bad bit or bug was laborious. I did have some help at one stage which speeded things up a bit.

Shredding the apple pieces in a kitchen whizz was also time consuming. Its gets easier the longer you go on. But. If done every year I reckon I will have to make some sort of apple scratterer.

Then came the pressing. Roftl (not).

I had made up a frame from old off cut pine 4 x 2 to hold a car scissor jack (850 kg limit) and an old chilly bin with a hole cut in the end.

Worked ok to start with however the hole was too small to let all thenjuice out and it filled up the chilly bin past a certain compression point.

From there I borrowed a (small) grape press. Worked to a point but did not extract as much juice as I hoped.

So, I drilled holes in a 10 litre plastic bucket and went back to the scissor jack press. Got more juice than the hand press. Still not enough holes though. Near the bottom of compression the frame cracked.

Drilled more holes in the bucket and strengthened the frame.

Next press was the best yet.

After a bit more stress the frame came apart at one end. A few screws put it back together.

A couple of final presses and 22 litres were deposited in 5 carboys.

2 are relying on natural yeasts for fermentation. One I will add a little bit of extra yeast in to. One I have sulphited and will add yeats in. The final carboy is only 1/2 full. I will have to cut in some more apple juice, sulphite and then add yeast.

Interesting exercise. Note to self for next time (if there is a next time).

Build an apple scratterer. Build a sturdier frame Use a bottle jack with maybe 1 ton plus capacity Find a really good basket to hold the pulped apple juice. Hope the finished cider is worth all the effort.

Worth trying from start to finish at least once though.

rob

[Gopher]

In message , George.com writes

Good Luck Rob. Am visiting NZ next Nov/Dec .... will look for your competition to Benger's Gold Wild stuff :-))

[George.com]

if the cider is rubbish, look out for a couple of kegs with your name on it. roftl.

two things I forgot to add about the process - bastard flies and a sore back.

rob

[Billy]

Try to keep the SO2 under 20 ppm at inoculation. Wine yeast are more resistant to SO2 than wild yeast. The alternative is to hit the juice with a large inoculation to swamp out wild yeast (note: wild yeast aren't always bad but can be surprising).

1 lb potassium metabisulfite / 1 gallon of water = 5% solution SO2. ppm x gallons x .063 = ml of 5% solution This formula isn't exact because sugars and aldehydes suck up SO2.

If you want to keep some sweetness in the cider, the easiest thing is to put the bottled cider in a refrigerator (40F - 4C) or sterile filter.

[George.com]

the wild yeast brew has been sitting for 2 days now and the fermentation has really (and I mean really) slowed down to the point of being almost non active. Maybe either not enough yeast or not enough sugars. I will look at pitching a little bit of yeast in to the stuff tomorrow maybe. See what that does.

rob

[Billy]

Do you have a hydrometer to test for dissolved solids, i. e. sugar? If the density is below -0.5, fermentation may be over. Apple juice doesn't have that much sugar to begin with. How do you start your inoculation? Use yeast to juice ratio of 1 kg /

1000 gal. Add hot water to juice and bring to 37C, add yeast, wait until yeast foams or 20 minutes (which ever comes first), and add to juice. A fermentation lock is helpful in keeping insects out and indicating rapidity of fermentation.

[George.com]

thanks for the info billy. my approach was more "close enough might be good enough" and "she'll be right, maybe".

A couple of days fermentation is pretty short though isn't it? I mean, some immediate activity and then slowing down to almost nothing.

rob

[Charlie]

Much to sort thru, but some info and ideas to get yer head thinking about fermentation.........

(covers the range from prisonjack to Hi Q cider.... ;-)

I've two batches going now, but from concentrate, not from fresh pressed, wrong season (found some flash pastuerized cider today at the local market, three gallons would cost me over thirty dollars U$).

Next year is a different story. I like your idea of using a scissor jack or bottle jack....thanks for the ideas and experiences.

I pulled a sample from my first batch yesterday. It had been fermenting 8 days and is down to one burp every thirty-five secs. I'll send it to secondary fermention next week. It was dry and didn't have much apple taste (I don't have a very refined palate when it comes to "wines"). It had more of a chablis/white zin taste to my unrefined palate. I am considering addition of more juice to the secondary fermentation to sweeten it.

All in all, this has been fun and a good education. That is what I am enjoying....that DYI thingie.

I used champagne yeast and no sulfites.

Charlie

[Billy]

Depends on fermentation temperatures. 95F (35C) and it can finish overnight (apple juice is about 13% sugar vs. grape juice at 26% and up.) Still, you need a hydrometer to tell you where you are or put it in a refrigerator, 40F - 32F (4C - OC) (and start drinking it now :O)

[Billy]

Cider is like wine in that different sweetnesses do different jobs. Dry cider is good with a meal that would take a white wine. Sweet cider will go with desserts and sipping wit' your homies, and cidre bouche (sparkling) is for special occassions. Like when you are out with your sweety.

[George.com]

> (covers the range from prisonjack to Hi Q cider.... ;-)

got the idea here

His frame looks no stronger than mine & his jack is a 4 ton (mine is 850 kg). Maybe he used stronger pine timber. He wasn't try to press as much, as far, as I was. His press cost 40 euros, mine was about 1/3 the cost so maybe cheap = shit. Roftl.

I want my cider to taste like the natural brewed stuff I have enjoyed occasionlly form small brewers. I don't want it to taste like the bollocks commercial stuff I have tasted occasionly. DIY, great eh. 3 days of hard work to make some nice tasting cider, only to have the bastard thing stop fermenting. Not roftl.

rob

[George.com]

I checked the gravity this afternoon &b this evening. The 2 wild/cultured yeast batches were about 1.40 and the wild yeast about the same. That should be enough sugar to continue the fermentation for a wee while. The wild yeast batch has started bubbling away today quite quickly. I will monitor its progress over the next few days. One jug of wild/cultured yeast has started fermenting again after I pitched in some extra yeast, the other jug has not gotten started yet. The jug of sulphited & cultured yeast has not started fermenting yet but I only yeasted last night. Given the gravity, the problem may have been with the yeast.

I should have checked the gravity on the sunday but only buying a hydrometer on Monday kind of made that difficult. On well. Maybe the 'close enough' rule of thumb is a little bit arbitary eh.

rob

[enigma]

"George.com" wrote in news:gmu59d$iqk$ [e-mail]:

what are your fermenting temperatures?

i hope you bought more than *one* hydrometer. they break very easily & usually exactly when you really *need* one. we have at least 4, 2 in the brewery & 2 in the saphouse (although there may only be one in the saphouse because we broke one again recently...) i'd better do an inventory. sap's runnin'! :) lee

[Billy]

It could be that you added too much SO2 but a two day delay is no biggie. If it doesn't start in another couple of days, try splashing (aeration) it into a bucket and then back into an un-gassed fermentation vessel. Then wait another couple of days before you panic. Other wise, add small amounts to fermenting batches over a few days.

[Billy]

Oh, the hydrometer, it should go to at least -1.5.

[George.com]

temperature is roughly room temperature. We have been having shitey muggy weather of around 27-30 but with high humidity. That may be something to do with the yeast being lazy. Who knows. The muggy weather is due to blow away tomorrow onward & become sunny again. Will see if that makes a difference. I the interim I have added some more yeast tonight. If nothing again I will give it a good stir in a day or 2, maybe invert the bottle a few times. Gravity is reading around 140 for all 4 bottles so no lack of sugar. The hydrometer is not duff as it read 1000 in a bottle of tap water.

rob

[Charlie]

Ok. Dry is easy. We just bottled the first batch and the sampling was very good. Lovey, who is no great tippler, pronounced it quite good and will have no problem enjoying.

For a sweet, when/how do you backsweeten without restarting fermention?

And......how do you do sparkling, or rather when? Do you bottle after primary? Do you add more juice or sugar to your primary fermented and bottle to continue fermentation/carbonation in bottle?

You get the jist of my questions, neh?

BTW, our first foray into fermenting cabbage (kraut), has turned out great. Homedone kraut, which I had never had, is effing wonderful and amazingly simple! An entirely different product than the storebought stuff!

Charlie

[Charlie]

Check this, Rob.

Charlie

[George.com]

yes, thanks Charlie, I had a shufti through that. I have been reading the threads for the past couple weeks after you pointed it out. The cider has boomed this last week following a spell of cooler weather. Amazing the difference humidity made to stalling the fermentation. The airlocks are just starting to slow down. I am planning on laying down another batch this weekend. I have streamlined the process a little and made some improvements to the pressing process so that should go better.

This thread had me pissing myself laughing

worth the read. A guys attempt to clean up a home brew spill on some new carpet whilst his wife is away. Some highlights but some bloody funny humour in the thread.

"It sounds to me like a good steam cleaning is in order." "Oh, He's gonna get steam cleaned all right!" "Dude...Are you alive? Did you wife kill you?" "If we don't hear something soon, I guess I'll drive down to Maryland in the spring and look over the brewing equipment at the yard sale she is having!" "Long story short, he had NO IDEA what I was talking about. He wasn't the guy I talked to on the phone. Apparently the dude on the phone wasn't the owner of this fine carpet cleaning establishment, but the dude in my house... yep, he was. To answer the questions, no friends, he did not think it was cool for me to pay him a discounted price for homebrew, and he did not appreciate what his employee had agreed to at all." "Crap. So I ask him how much he wants for this job, and he wants $100. Double crap. Well, I decided that I didn't want to pay that much, and he was none too happy about having to drag his equipment out of my basement after that." "Well I got the first view of your post on that fateful night, and I admit, I snorked a bit at your misfortune... So the following day, as I was bottling multiple batches.Karma came in and gave me a little o this:"

[Charlie]

OMG.......thanks for the headsup. Younger son and I laughed our asses off reading this thread. Great humor, some really funny guys and I totally understand their sentiments ;-)

Thanks for making an otherwise dull day full of laughter.