If you have access to a lot of free apples, you can easily make cider from them. Any apples will do, but they should be as ripe as possible. This instructable shows you a simple method that does not require any special equipment.
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Signing UpStep 1: Collecting your apples
The first thing is to get some apples. You will need quite a lot of large containers, because you need to collect about 4 to 5 times the volume of apples compared to the volume of juice you want to make into cider. The container shown here is a 5 gallon (22 litre) fermentation bin.
A sheet or blanket is also handy. Put your sheet under the tree, climb up the tree and shake it. Lots fall off. The advantage of this method is that generally the ripest apples tend to fall off, and seriously under-ripe apples stay on. When you put them into the bucket, pick the apples up by hand, so you don't get all the twigs, leaves, earwigs etc.
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camden_tablet
Hope that helps!
Even if there was a serious risk from these chemicals (which there probably isn't) they are locked up inside the seed casings and little gets out anyway.
I think you are right to raise it, but I don't believe it is a serious problem. Alcohol will poison you ages before anything else can in cider!
I can't say what's right for others, but I have eaten apple seeds all my life and will continue to do so.
Great Instructable.
Just a quick question – I have pressed 10 litres of apple juice and added 1 campden tablet to the lot (which was my educated guess that just 1 tablet will do) and when 24 hours will pass I am due to reintroduce the yeast. I have a sachet of cider yeast which is 5g.... and it says it is not enough for up to 23 gallons or something like that.... however, nor recipe or instruction on the sachet, or any website actually states how much yeast do I need to mix per litre, or per gallon of juice? Do I just chuck in the whole 5g sachet into my 10 litre bucket??? And also, as I pressed my apples with the home juicer, at the moment there’s about an inch of thick foam floating on top... do I just sprinkle the yeast on top of foam and then mix it all up after 10-15 minutes??? Your advice would be highly appreciated! Thanks
if you have any juice that has been agitated, you will get foam. It can be fermentation causing it, but it may just be the froth of mixing it up. I think I have read the same advice on 1 tab per gallon, so I suspect that is a sound approach.
You can add pectin destroying ennzymes as well (before the yeast), to break down the jelly-like pectin, which traps particles causing cloudiness. Again, not essential, but increases chances of clear brew.
a few things. You should get the yeast started separately with half a pint of juice in a clean covered jug in a warm place until frothing. Make sure it is going before you add to the main juice. I am not sure if you meant to say the sachet says it IS enough for up to 23 gallons, but 5g should be enough for 10 litres (5 gallons or so).
In terms of how to mix, you should beat the yeast in and in doing so you beat some air (oxygen) into the juice. Although this sounds a bad idea, the oxygen allows the yeast to reproduce in the early stage of fermentation. This means plenty of yeast to metabolise the sugar. It will use up the air (and this prevents the cider oxidisng) at the beginning, then fermentation will slow as the yeast breaks down the sugar into alcohol and CO2. As soon as it is added, cover closely to prevent flies getting in (This is important - use an air lock if you have one. If not, just keep the lid on at all times. It shouldn't be tightly sealed (or the gas pressure will build up. It is to keep put germs on the flies or in the air and to stop more oxygen getting in.
Rosemarybeetle - apologies for writing to you but have just found this "Instructables" website in search of some "cider advice" and reading all the comments it appear that you seem to be a well-informed cider-maker ?!
Hopefully, if my assumption is correct, could I therefore pose a question to you in regards to my first cider-making attempts please!
Briefly, for years have noticed a fair number of apple trees growing around where I live, roadside, and as I particular enjoy a cider or two, in fact anything that's alcoholic, thought it about time I put these apples to some use !!
So, last week, with neice and nephew in toe scrumped the afore-mentioned apples (no idea make/model - some green, some red, some ripe, some not so ripe). And, as per a YouTube thingy I found..."how to make your own cider", washed, chopped and mushed the apples (using a hand blender no less - took a while and the darn thing got a little hot, but thankfully the Boss was at work so got away with it ! Anyway, squeezed out the pulp through muslin cloths and ended up with over a gallon of juice in my bucket (rinsed clean with a campden tablet). Made up half glass of "yeast starter" as per instructions (dissolving spoon full of sugar in warm water and adding spoonful wine yeast) After an hour added yeast mixture to bucket, mixed and covered with clingo then placed in airing cupboard. Within an hour or so it looked like the primary fermentation bit had started as was frothing slightly. Anyway, next day checked it - nowt ! Liquid looked still and as if nothing was happening. Therefore, thinking I may start up the fermentation process again, added three teaspoons of sugar.
Checked it again this morning - still lifeless!
Now, here comes the question....any idea what I should do now ?! Do I need to syphon it off to the demi-john, even though it's not bubbling away or is there something else I should do to try and restart the fermentation ? Or do you think I've blown it cos my apples weren't all ripe ?
Anway, if you can help in anyway, be greatly appreciated after all the efforts so far !!
yours, beginning to wish I bought some cider from the local,
Dom
My cousin's first batch of Mead did the same thing and he tried re-pitching (adding more yeast), adding yeast nutrient, changing the temperature. When he finally finished the batch and printed labels, it was "Probably Toxic Mead." I heard it was pretty good, but wasn't privy to any of this batch. His "Baby Slobber Red" wine came out very nice, though.
My own first batch of mead and cider are both going right now at about 2 1/2 weeks. Mine foamed very little, but I daily check it with a backlight and can see very tiny bubbles making it to the surface, so I know it's still doing something, even though there's not enough CO2 coming off it to make the airlock bubble anymore.
Good luck, and happy brewing.
I am not quite sure what is happening here in your juice, but it sounds like you have done everything properly. In particular you have sterilised the juice and bucket, which should mean you can still get this to work. You should have plenty of time to restart this before the juice has time to spoil.
The issue is with the yeast not getting going. It may be a faulty batch, but it sounds like it did start, but then has either failed or slowed right down. This probably either the shock of the sugar or the traces of sulphur dioxide in the juice from the sterilisation tablets may have retarded or even killed the yeast. If that was the cause, this is not too bad, as the juice will definitely have been sterilised.
There are two things you can do. Either add new yeast or hope the yeast is fermenting and take a chance. It may have slowed down as adding to the juice can be a shock to it.
I think you are saying you added the yeast directly to the juice. This does usually work with apple juice for cider making BUT can sometimes fail.
Sugar acts as a preservative in high concentrations (which is why jam doesn't go off). Given that you suggest the fermentation started I suspect your yeast is struggling. Adding more sugar won't help restart it if that is the cause.
I recommend you just assume the yeast has failed and just add more.
Note - any effect of the sulphur dioxide should have faded away over a few hours, so the juice will be OK to use without killing any new yeast.
SOLUTION
Enough theory/diagnostics, the remedy that has the best chance of saving your precious juice is to just add a new batch of yeast
BUT, MAKE A STARTER CULTURE FIRST TO BE EXTRA SAFE
To do this:
Quarter-fill a clean tall pint glass with some of the juice and add boiling water to make it up to about half a cup. Let it cool for 10-15 minutes, then add a fresh batch of yeast. Cover it (to keep out fruit flies) and leave in a warm place. After half an hour you should see it frothing. Leave for at least 4 hours to really get going. Make sure it is really frothing or fizzing.
Once the culture is going for it, it will be strong enough to take the shock of being added to the main juice. When you add it, beat some air in. This is used initially by the yeast to reproduce. It will use up the air (which then prevents oxidisation!).
One other thing to note is that you must keep the main bucket of juice covered in the meantime to avoid spoilage. Cling film is good as it keeps out fruit flies. They are the highest risk of contamination, but airborne germs can get in too otherwise.
I have had this happen occasionally with wine before and it can be saved. You have just been unlucky I think.
PS, if you can't quickly get more wine yeast, you can use bread yeast. It is usually hardier than wine yeast, although is rougher. For scrumpy, that is OK. Better to have produced something at all I would suggest
Don't give up!
no. The reaction is (simply put)
sugar + water -> alcohol + carbon dioxide.
The yeast will always make some alcohol if you get a fizz. It's true with breadmaking too, but hardly any alcohol is produced and it gets evaporated off by the cooking.
To be honest, if you use raw pressed apple juice, it is quite high in sugar, so is not usually watery.
If you wish, you can add glycerol, which is naturally produced by fermentation in small amounts and is essentially a thickener. It is very viscous in it's undiluted state. You can buy glycerol from home brew suppliers (and sometimes chemists/drug stores)
good luck and have fun trying
If you use yeast fermentation to produce CO2, then you always get alcohol. One thing you should NOT do is add yeast and bottle it immediately, to get a very low alcohol fizz. That is very dangerous as there is enough sugar in the juice to easily produce more than enough CO2 to easily explode a bottle.
You can however use a soda stream to make the juice fizzy. There are also beer kegs that allow you to inject CO2 to produce draft fizzy.
Whichever you do, the sterilisation is important. Apples have wild yeasts on them and may ferment even if you don't add a proper brewing yeast.
I hope that helps
In principle, you could bottle it at the point at which you sterilised it. I have not tried this, but I would expect that to work fine.
If you don't fancy using sulphites, you could boil it instead, but this will change the taste. Typically the subtle fragrances are lost by boiling.
Alternatively, you could freeze it, instead of bottling. You can do this using tapered plastic cups so you end up with big cup-sized juice-ice cubes! Once frozen they can be removed from cups and put in a bag and kept in the freezer until you want one. Defrost in batches or by the cup (a microwave is good for this)
I hope that helps
Yes, it is probably more efficient to use a juicer, but it may be a bit time consuming and be careful not to burn out your juicers if you are doing lots of juicing for a long time.
I believe traditionally there were all sorts of handcranked mechanical mills, but I only had wood,
thanks Eragon33.
Yes, I agree that getting methanol poisoning by drinking homebrew cider is completely preposterous, given the ratio of ethanol to methanol. You'd be long dead of standard ethanol poisoning before methanol did anything.
My recommended basic safeguard (and catch-all disclaimer!) is not to get completely drunk!
PS - Your distillation comments makes sense to me, although I don't go near distilling. It's illegal here anyway.
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The cider is "bottle conditioned" to get the sparkle. In other words it has a trace of live yeast which is fed a contolled small amount of sugar which it makes CO2 with to presurise the bottle.
I have suggested from experience that 2 weeks is the minimum you should allow, just to make sure the fine sediment of yeast and odd other particles is settled, and you can pour off the clear cider.
If you don't it can be a bit ropey. Now leaving it longer will mean not only will the yeast actually die (and therefore shouldn't give anyone a stomach upset if they drink too much live yeast), but also there are subtle chemical reactions which occur that can make the wine taste better.
Against that is the fact that as well as good chemical reactions, there can be unhelpful ones, so if you left it years, it will in effect go off.
I think leaving to spring is probably overkill, and also requires some impressive restraint, but probably would mean it was at peak condition, and has become a folk saying as it is based on a reliable reason.
So in short a week in the warm (to get the fizz, followed by a month or so in the cold (to settle it) is probably about right.
The remainder of the Apple Champagne usually lasts through the summer, and is quite refreshing. (It would probably last longer if we didn't drink it all!)
I am just beginning to try my hand at other fruit wines, and I recommend http://www.winepress.us for the winemaking forums.
Also, that "fenris" fellow is some cray coot with a severe "naysayer complex." Homemade wine is safe. Homemade Brandy or hard alcohol is potentially dangerous. The worst you will end up with if you do homemade wine badly is homemade vinegar (also quite desirable). The greatest example I ever heard of for this was someone who accidentally made homemade huckleberry vinegar, and gave it away as prized Christmas gifts.
Happy brewing!
James
impressed by abilty to save yours for so long though. Doesn't happen often here!
It was indeed lots of fun to make, and pretty good to drink actually, which is always a satisfying ending to a brewery creation.
I have a satchel of mulling spices I placed in a cheesecloth that I intend to add after a week (unless recommended otherwise.) Then, I plan on siphening off the liquid and transferring into a steralised gallon jug, and discarding the sediment from the initial jug. Am I on the right track here?
When do you recommend I take my next SP/Brix/Potential alc reading?
Thank you,
Cheers!
good for you. It's good that you are just going for it. It sounds like this should work, but your basic idea of trying a few variations is the best way to go. I write it down each time to record what I did. You don't need to go overboard. Just the ingredients, gravity readings with dates and anything you note like if it was really hot or really cold or the fact you forgot something. If you do that, you can reproduce good stuff, and avoid repeating bad stuff!
I would probably not use brown sugar for cider, but depends what you like. It's great in beer. As for readings, I use specific gravity, not BRIX, but it its the same principle. The most important thing is to have made an original gravity reading, and to make periodic readings every few days. You should see a rapid drop in gravity, then a slowing down unti it doesn't change any more. The difference between the orriginal and final gravity will allow you to calculate the alcohol.
Once it does not change, that is also the time to siphon off the main yeasty stuff. Then leave to stand in a cold place for about a week, and it will clear. Then siphon off again into sterilised, primed bottles if you want it fizzy, or a sealed container if you are making it still. Try not to allow the liquid to pour in from a height. Siphon with te end of the tube under the liquid. This means oxygen does not get into the cider, which will cause oxidisation over time (makes it more sherry tasting, and can change the colour)
If you make it, post a picture!
best of luck
Batches 2 and 3 taste better, more of how I had hoped. I'm just worried they may lose the sweet flavour over time.