Making Cider

[damar2000]

I gave my apple tree a shake last week and retrieved about 20kg of apples. I decided to make cider!

I only have a plastic hand cranked juicer which was very effective at getting the juice out but hard work, slow and it doesn't like it could take much more. I managed to get about 18 litres though and topped up with some cranberry and blackberry juice from the supermarket just to make it taste a bit different.

I made a yeast starter with a few tablespoons of brown sugar, water and a bit of the apple juice. Once it had all disolved and cooled down I added some cider yeast and let it start bubbling - about 20 minutes. I added this to the apple juice in a large plastic bucket.
Primary fermentation should take a few days - its going bezerk at the moment!
Next stage will be to pour it into 2 x 1 gallon glass demijohns and add an airlock - this is secondary fermentation which should take about 3 months until it stops making gas.
Final stage is to bottle it with a little bit of sugar to make it fizzy. Before doing so I will test with a hydrometer to make sure there isn't too much sugar left in the brew, otherwise it could continue to ferment in the bottles and they could explode.
Bottles are best stored for about 3-6 months apparently to get the best flavour.
Specific gravity should give a strength of somewhere between 7 and 9% - STRONG!

Pretty simple really but hard work and I've no idea how it will turn out as its my first attempt.
Next year I shall either invest in an electric juicer or maybe make some sort of press.

[Bladerunner]

Cider is much nicer than lager. Good luck with it. I might have a dabble myself.

Carlsberg don't do nice tasting lager but if they did it would probably taste like Woodpecker Cider.

Be lucky (and pissed)