2022 Cider production

AHarper

AHarper

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I have just gathered - picked - plucked a crop of apples for this year's cider brew.
They are mostly Bramley cookers but I plan to get some ready pressed Egramont Russet apples to help balance out the sharpness that the cookers will provide.
upload_2022-10-13_20-21-55.png


I am booked into a nearby farm shop that, for a price, will reduce your apples and pears into lovely juice ready for fermenting. All you need to provide is the large plastic bottles to take the juice home, They keep the pressed apple pulp and feed it to the pigs on site so it is win - win, though you do have to pay $5 per gallon for them (actually one young lad) to do the pressing for you,

upload_2022-10-13_20-17-24.png


The farm shop barn hold 300+ ciders from around the country - the National Collection - and 100+ of them are draught barrels that you can fill your own bottles from.
upload_2022-10-13_20-18-22.png


I am currently drinking some from the 13th barrel along on the middle shelf - Countryman Scrumpy 6..5% rather nice.

This will be my first cider batch for 5 years so I hope to get 12 gallons or so out of the crop. You may notice one of the bins holds a nice lot of pears that will be done separately - probably only a gallons worth.

I was going to call the batch JUSTIN CIDER but the wife thought that may be a bit to racy for the old folks at the Bowling Club Christmas dinner so instead, since it was the very kind Helen that donated the fruit I shall call it HELLEN'S CIDER. More acceptable I think. A new label is required I think. The small batch may be called MATHEW'S PERRY (one for the Friends Fans perhaps?)

I will try and document the progress of the cider brew.

Next week will be a double beer brew for my Christmas tipple - Santa;s Grog and an IPA, probably Yankee Pankee.
Cheers!!!
 
AHarper said:
I have just gathered - picked - plucked a crop of apples for this year's cider brew.
They are mostly Bramley cookers but I plan to get some ready pressed Egramont Russet apples to help balance out the sharpness that the cookers will provide.
View attachment 22668

I am booked into a nearby farm shop that, for a price, will reduce your apples and pears into lovely juice ready for fermenting. All you need to provide is the large plastic bottles to take the juice home, They keep the pressed apple pulp and feed it to the pigs on site so it is win - win, though you do have to pay $5 per gallon for them (actually one young lad) to do the pressing for you,

View attachment 22666

The farm shop barn hold 300+ ciders from around the country - the National Collection - and 100+ of them are draught barrels that you can fill your own bottles from.
View attachment 22667

I am currently drinking some from the 13th barrel along on the middle shelf - Countryman Scrumpy 6..5% rather nice.

This will be my first cider batch for 5 years so I hope to get 12 gallons or so out of the crop. You may notice one of the bins holds a nice lot of pears that will be done separately - probably only a gallons worth.

I was going to call the batch JUSTIN CIDER but the wife thought that may be a bit to racy for the old folks at the Bowling Club Christmas dinner so instead, since it was the very kind Helen that donated the fruit I shall call it HELLEN'S CIDER. More acceptable I think. A new label is required I think. The small batch may be called MATHEW'S PERRY (one for the Friends Fans perhaps?)

I will try and document the progress of the cider brew.

Next week will be a double beer brew for my Christmas tipple - Santa;s Grog and an IPA, probably Yankee Pankee.
Cheers!!!
Click to expand...
Wow that a fair amount of apples.
Names probably better than dikkins cider ;).
Looks like a beautiful old building that cider shop with them big chunky beams wow.

Looking forward to how you get on.
 
Lol...cider puns..you guys!

Alan...are you going to back sweeten it or anything to keep it from getting super dry?
 
That's a great shop!

Gotta go on my UK to do list (not that I have any trip planned, but anyway)
 
Ward Chillington said:
Lol...cider puns..you guys!

Alan...are you going to back sweeten it or anything to keep it from getting super dry?
Click to expand...
It depends on what the FG is... if it is too high and I add more sugar... I could sell them to Ukraine for blowing up more bridges....
I shall see... but I like it dry anyway.
 
I held on to a bottle for a few years as it seemed to get better as it aged. It eventually got windy and really really dry.

@Steve SPF ... I never knew cider was such a popular drink in the Cayman Islands! I didn't think apples grew in the tropics!
 
Ward Chillington said:
I held on to a bottle for a few years as it seemed to get better as it aged. It eventually got windy and really really dry.

@Steve SPF ... I never knew cider was such a popular drink in the Cayman Islands! I didn't think apples grew in the tropics!
Click to expand...

I'm sure you're right, plenty in England though. Very English are apples :)

I went on a course at the national cider and perry centre in Hereford a couple of years ago, fascinating place. They have the national collection there so apple and pear trees pretty much as far as the eye can see. A proper cider culture in the area as well and I do get a little bit excited when I see a cider culture anywhere.

I have to admit though that all of my cider is produced from commercially available juice, I really couldn't be fluffed with all that pulping and scientific measuring and back sweetening. Give me 60 litres of bought in juice and some ale yeast every time :)
 
A not very clear picture of the resultant pressed juice done this morning.

All 50lt of it with a BRIX of 12 and according to the calculator here = SG of 1.0484 giving 6.4%.

Two fermentation kegs in the one fridge but that is a job for the weekend after adding camden tabs to kill any bacteria and leaving it long enough for it to clear before I add the yeast - don't want to kill it do I?

15kg of apples gave about 12lt of juice.

The single part filled bottle is a mix of pear and apple juice that will go in a demijohn separately.

upload_2022-10-20_21-36-11.png
 
AHarper said:
A not very clear picture of the resultant pressed juice done this morning.

All 50lt of it with a BRIX of 12 and according to the calculator here = SG of 1.0484 giving 6.4%.

Two fermentation kegs in the one fridge but that is a job for the weekend after adding camden tabs to kill any bacteria and leaving it long enough for it to clear before I add the yeast - don't want to kill it do I?

15kg of apples gave about 12lt of juice.

The single part filled bottle is a mix of pear and apple juice that will go in a demijohn separately.

View attachment 22750
Click to expand...
Wow tremendous Effort Allan!
Looking forwards to your final product with this one.

I hear you gotta use quite a bit of Metabisulphate to kill the yeast so one campden won't hurt them none.
 
Trialben said:
Wow tremendous Effort Allan!
Looking forwards to your final product with this one.

I hear you gotta use quite a bit of Metabisulphate to kill the yeast so one campden won't hurt them none.
Click to expand...

We've had that before and I remember disagreeing with Yooper over that (should have known better really). I had been told that Sodium MBS would kill any yeast active and believed it, turns out that it isn't true and an overdose of MBS will oxidise the product.

The odd campden tab won't hurt I guess, but too much and it's a dumper. The only reliable way I've found of killing active yeast is pasteurising (tried that - pretty funny in hindsight but a bit scary when they started going off pop). I just accept that my cider is going to carry on fermenting now unless I can keep it below 2 degrees - which I can't.

Some commercial ciders behave in the same way too, I have a bag in box fruit cider on right now that's blowing.
 
Steve SPF said:
We've had that before and I remember disagreeing with Yooper over that (should have known better really). I had been told that Sodium MBS would kill any yeast active and believed it, turns out that it isn't true and an overdose of MBS will oxidise the product.

The odd campden tab won't hurt I guess, but too much and it's a dumper. The only reliable way I've found of killing active yeast is pasteurising (tried that - pretty funny in hindsight but a bit scary when they started going off pop). I just accept that my cider is going to carry on fermenting now unless I can keep it below 2 degrees - which I can't.

Some commercial ciders behave in the same way too, I have a bag in box fruit cider on right now that's blowing.
Click to expand...
Yeah it's definitely something ive not messed with yet in my brewing (back sweetening) I know .4g and .4g of SMB and Ascorbic Acid at packaging in a ginger beer when adding 100g of cane sugar for keg priming worked.
That keg was at 30psi the next day:eek: so the yeast was plenty lively.
 
I'm not back sweetening either (cider from packs of apple juice), 'cause I like it dry. And if someone wants sweeter cider, they can mix sugar in the glass, or add some apple juice :p

Now in my lingo, cider is fermented apple juice, before fermentation it's just called "apple juice" :D
 
Trialben said:
Happy fermentations!
Hey you add any nutrients or fermenting as is?
Click to expand...

Straight as it is... nothing added but Fermentis Safcider Yeast - AB1.

I had Camden tablets in for a day prior to putting in the fermenters set at 20C. I will check in the morning to see how it is going. Not using the Tilts so back to manual SG readings after a couple of weeks.
 
AHarper said:
Straight as it is... nothing added but Fermentis Safcider Yeast - AB1.

I had Camden tablets in for a day prior to putting in the fermenters set at 20C. I will check in the morning to see how it is going. Not using the Tilts so back to manual SG readings after a couple of weeks.
Click to expand...
We just used that yeast in our latest primitive cider. Interested to see how it conditions, as the sample was clear and good to smell and taste. We like fizz, so bottle priming with a bit of maple sugar. We’ll see in a week.
 
Herm brews said:
We just used that yeast in our latest primitive cider. Interested to see how it conditions, as the sample was clear and good to smell and taste. We like fizz, so bottle priming with a bit of maple sugar. We’ll see in a week.
Click to expand...
What was your FG?
 
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