Happy to report that the cider making went very well, and I am on my way through the second gallon! Once I has sorted out the fruit crushing I found it very easy. Much easier than wine making, in my humble opinion. With the credit crunch scaring the world to death its a very good way to economise!
Tag Archive | cider making
Cider traumas
I have has an aweful weekend, my ex decided to vist and is his want decided to tidy up…the result? Within two minutes he had broken the fruit press someone had lent me. Now its bad enough to break something, its even worse when you break something that isn’t yours but its even WORSE when its not even you who did the breaking. The result is that I have had to spend half the weekend sorting it out….. the matter is now resolved, in my favour! Say no more! To date I have made two gallons, I am going to make some more over the next few days..I hope I like it after all this! My temporary glitch meant I had to top up one of the gallons with commercial apple juice, it will be interesting to see if there’s any difference. Unfortunately I don’t have enough pears to make any perry, so I pickled some instead. I will pop up the recipe for that over the next few days,SO much nicer than some ‘orrible bought pickled pears I got from the shops, revolting! Pickled pears go nicely with ham, cheese or duck I have discovered…
The cider continueth
I felt like someone in Africa grinding maize!
Well, I have managed to do half of the apples so far. Freezing them definitely worked. What really helped thought was using a fruit press, this is definitely on my list for future buys. A kind freecycler lent me one…thanks Jacqui! This made it just SO much easier. I find Freecycle really good, and you meet such nice people and by default quite a few with similar interests. I posted up a wanted ad for a cider press and Matt contacted me about cider making and made the suggestion that you can reuse the spent mash to make a second batch of weaker cider!
I am having a few problems getting it to start fermenting. I think it may need a bit of sugar so have added a bit.
Cider making
OK, I have never made cider before but I have pounds of apples, and as I like cider I thought I would give it a try. The main thing that has put me off is that I dont have a cider press, and pressing the apples looks like hard work! I did try if for apple wine and swore I would never do it again. However someone told me its a lot easier if you freeze them first. It needs 20 lbs of apples to make a gallon! I am chopping away and bunging them in the freezer. I’ll let you know how I get on. Despite being told its OK to use windfalls I am still methodically cutting out the nasty bits! I have put up a couple of cider recipes on the home brewing link if you want to try, one for a fairly small amount (1 Gallon!)
most of them are sound Bramleys
