2013 cider

[Vince G]

Well, got my apples pressed on Wednesday for this year's cider and got a massive 58 litres of juice. Cost me £25 at a nearby fruit farm. They told me it's been a great year for apples, thy're apparently a lot juicier than last year.

So I've chucked in 1½ kg of brewing sugar to up the OG to 1053, meaning that, all being well I should get about 7% ABV or thereabouts. 2 tsp of precipitated chalk added (the apples were mostly bramleys so need a bit of acid reduction) plus a teaspoon of wine tannin for a bit of mouthfeel....and that's it. No yeast, the airlock is just starting to bubble away. Looking forward to next summer, especially at under 50p a pint.

Anyone else cider-making?

[Alison]

We are but ours are all foraged so free . We don't add sugar or anything else although sometimes adjust later and always get a good drink. Should be ready for Christmas

[Vince G]

Yeh I used to forage for apples, but I got most of mine from laybys on main roads and began to wonder what toxins might be in them from exhaust fumes etc. So now I get them off a mate who has 6 trees in his back garden (which he refers to as his orchard - is 6 trees an orchard ?!). Whatever isn't good enough to sell for eating purposes, he gives to me in return for a few bottles of the finished product. Some are no bigger than a walnut, but clearly they are very juicy this year. Still drinking 2011 which turned out as a still drink - delicious!

[shirlthegirl43]

If you want 'fizzy' cider you need to prime the bottles when bottling, I think it is about 1/4 tsp sugar per pint bottle (can't remember for sure). That's what I do to get a head on my home-brew beer

[Farmer_Gyles]

that's a LOT of juice!

i found some good (wild) apple and pear trees to forage from so bought an apple press .... i've had about 19 litres from that, plus about 12 litres of pear juice ....

if i'd been better prepared, i could have had 5 or 6 times as many apples and pears, and of course, juice .... i'll definitely be prepared next year!

i've made cider and perry this year .... only a couple of gallons of each .... it's all looking good .... making lots of apple wine and pear wine .....

[Alison]

Good luck with the perry, it's not easy to make with normal pears and can be a bit tasteless. Never tried pear wine (not sure why now I think about it) but am giving apple wine a try this year as well as the cider

[Stan79]

2 gallons on the go with more apples stored ready to press. Not sure how it's going to turn out as this is my first attempt.

Just siphoned it off from the fermentation Demi johns into clean ones for storage.

[Vince G]

Well, just over a month later and the airlock bubbles have virtually stopped - I get a bubble every couple of minutes or so. So now's the time to get it off the inch of "mud" that has dropped to the bottom. Using my third (empty) fermentation bucket, I'll rack off into that, clear out the mud from the bottom of the first bucket and rack the second one off into that clean bucket.

Then it's off to the garage for the winter. Garage is not too cold as it's surrounded on 2 sides by house.

How's everybody else doing?

[badguy]

I've got a demijohn on the go in the garage - my first attempt. A mixture of bramleys and random dessert apples. Looks a bit cloudy, but will see how it goes.

Have a lot of apple juice bottled up too, that I'm not making into cider.