Apple trees are often seen burden with fruit that is never used. For the last two years I have been collecting from friends and neighbours any unwanted fruit and making cider. I lack an apple press and the time to make one so have been using a juicer.
This instructable will tell you how to make your own cider without a press.
You will need:
Apples
Juicer
Sieves and muslin cloth
Funnels
Tubing for syphoning off
Demijohn & airlock
Campden tablets (to kill the yeast)
Yeast of your choice
Finings to clear the liquid
Bottles to store it in
A hydrometer to measure specific gravity and hence alcohol % is useful
This instructable will tell you how to make your own cider without a press.
You will need:
Apples
Juicer
Sieves and muslin cloth
Funnels
Tubing for syphoning off
Demijohn & airlock
Campden tablets (to kill the yeast)
Yeast of your choice
Finings to clear the liquid
Bottles to store it in
A hydrometer to measure specific gravity and hence alcohol % is useful
Remove these ads by
Signing UpStep 1: Prepare the apples and juice
To make about 8 litres of cider you'll need approximately two supermarket carrier bags full of apples. The various yeasts etc will probably set you back around £3 for the batch, less if buying in bulk.
Chop the really bad bits out and cut down to whatever size is required for the juicer, then pass through the juicer.
I then use a fairly fine sieve to remove and lumps and pour into a cocktail jug to collect.
Once left it will separate in the cocktail jug, sediment at bottom, yummy juice in middle and foam on top. My cocktail jug has a mesh type pouring attachment so will retain most of the foam and some sediment as you pour in the next step.
Then pour this through a muslin cloth into another bowl. You can skip the first sieve stage but then your muslin will get clogged quicker.
Chop the really bad bits out and cut down to whatever size is required for the juicer, then pass through the juicer.
I then use a fairly fine sieve to remove and lumps and pour into a cocktail jug to collect.
Once left it will separate in the cocktail jug, sediment at bottom, yummy juice in middle and foam on top. My cocktail jug has a mesh type pouring attachment so will retain most of the foam and some sediment as you pour in the next step.
Then pour this through a muslin cloth into another bowl. You can skip the first sieve stage but then your muslin will get clogged quicker.
Visit Our Store »
Go Pro Today »
If I want the cider to have a specific alcohol strenght, could I just stop the yeast proccess?
Because every recipe I see adds yeast, I would appreciate your comments as I'm beginning to think after reading these recipes that this brew may have some hidden danger.
It's been a long time since this comment was posted I know, but I came across it today and also found this on Wikipedia:
"Applejack is a strong alcoholic beverage made in North America by concentrating cider, either by the traditional method of freeze distillation, or by true evaporative distillation. In traditional freeze distillation, a barrel of cider is left outside during the winter. When the temperature is low enough, the water in the cider starts to freeze. If the ice is removed, the (now more concentrated) alcoholic solution is left behind in the barrel. If the process is repeated often enough, and the temperature is low enough, the alcohol concentration is raised to 30–40% alcohol by volume. In freeze distillation, methanol and fusel oil, which are natural fermentation by-products, may reach harmful concentrations. These toxins can be separated when regular heat distillation is performed. Home production of applejack is illegal in most countries."
So the freezing removes the water, making it stronger, and the boiling removes the dangerous stuff that is left behind. I like the last bit - illegal in most countries! If it got that cold here in Ireland I'd give it a go myself! Sounds like good stuff! ;-)
Thanks so much. I was beginning to doubt my memory. An old teacher of mine had us all over to his farm house where he disclosed the recipe of the golden cider that was making us all feel silly. Even with that circumstance, the concoction I made from the procedure (I thought) he had disclosed to us always graced us with needed warmth on winter nights.
Because of this forum, I've started adding yeast, thinking that I had somehow forgotten that step. This worked OK, but now I feel vindicated.
And so in Ireland, it rarely gets cold enough for you to try this? Honestly, I didn't realize that. It must go well below freezing at night for two-three weeks. Like you, my problem is that I now live in a region, the American south, where the temp is rarely cold enough consistently to make a batch. But thank goodness for modern refrigeration. We bought an old junker refrigerator that we stuck in the basement. We use it basically for this purpose.
This wallop, by the way, is enough to get a room of adults very happy and yet has been consumed, albeit in smaller quantities, by the partying young'uns. They seem just as happy, but nobody appears drunk, including a normally ditzy 11-year-old.
I've heard that apple peel has wild yeast on it. Why don't you use that instead of killing it and adding extra yeast?
Of course the really cheap and natural version of this is just pass through juicer, add to demijohn, and just let it go. A lot of what you filter out above will settle in the demijohns anyway so if you do a careful syphoning you'll get a clearish cider and have spent nothing at all. If it is still a little sediment in the bottles then filter through a coffee filter as you serve!
Other possibilities: compress and dry it, make it into edible plates? it's perfectly good compost (not clever). You can use it in critter fodder (lots of critters like apple, just dry it and add it to granulated feed). Add it to oatmeal for an interesting apple flavoring.
I hope these inspire a few ideas for recycling the apple solids.
so if we take some alcolic cider than put in to the frech apple with sugar is this will work??
My understanding is when you ferment most things you allow the fermentation to come to a complete stop or add a fermentation agent such as campden.
Also, if my memory serves me right, yeast (a form of bacteria) dies off when the % of alcohol reaches ~12%. Alcohol is a waste product of the yeast and as such is a poison to it; you wouldn't go eating your own faeces would you?
You could possibly take French apple juice and add wine yeast and perhaps a bit of sugar, though I suspect the juice has enough to begin with.