Shem's cider

Well, I hadn't originally considered the legal implications of this. I believe there are only two others on this forum allowed to do this. Beware, children! I have posted the disclaimer.

Well next door, there is a small empty patch of ground. It hasn't been touched for years apart from neighbours' cats. However, there are several apple trees.After years of watching the apples ripen, fall from the tree and rot, I decided that scrumping these apples wasn't immoral. We have our own apple trees for eating, so cider-making seemed ideal.
I would put a note in - don't take apples immorally, and don't buy apples from the supermarket- if you do that, you may as well buy cider straight.

My practice run began roughly a week ago. It's too early for them to be ripe, but I wanted to perfect my technique before the main crop.

1. wash your apples well, with boiling water is best
2. chop up apples
3. mush up your apples - I used a liquidiser, but also tried boiling then beating into a pulp. If you have a sturdy liquidiser, then use it.
4. sieve out the big bits. How fine you want to filter is up to your patience. Add water to dilute.

I didn't want to expend the effort of buying equipment, as I don't expect to do this as a long-term hobby. Therefore, the instructions I give are not recommended for best results or best health security.

5. pour apple juice into a container, glass is best, but I used plastic milk bottles.
6. I didn't buy brewer's yeast, so we need some wild yeasts. Leave open in a well ventilated space, covered by a cloth.
7. Stir at least three times a day until you see bubbles rising to the top constantly
8. Sample roughly every eight hours until it is how you want it. Warning - if left too long, it will turn to vinegar.

9. This can be repeated as long as desired by kick starting the process quickly via adding some of the yeastiness at the bottom of the containers to new batches.

The process is more haphazard than by using all the professional equipment and ingredients. Sometimes it can be only 50/50 successful. But as you aren't putting much in, anything you get out is a bonus!

Wow, if only I had an apple tree. Me mama has talked about getting one in the past, but nothing ever happened. LOL

i tried that with kiwi fruit it worked.
then died after 1 day

Trees aren't supposed to die that quickly.
Were you watering it with quicksilver?

Anyway, now I wants me some cider. I was wondering though, could you pasteurize it at the end? I don't know if that would work, but it should stop the cider from advancing farther, along with making it a bit safer to drink.

no the drink tree i live in the uk

Pyrophage wrote:Anyway, now I wants me some cider. I was wondering though, could you pasteurize it at the end? I don't know if that would work, but it should stop the cider from advancing farther, along with making it a bit safer to drink.

I dunno, probably. However if there is something nasty in there you'll be able to tell. Oh, and when it's ready, it's ready. You can't store it or it turns to vinegar.

i live in the middle of an apple orchard

Read that, and then look back at your avatar....

So fitting.

Well, first batch has gone well! As with natural yeasts, it isn't very strongly alcoholic (3-4%) as far as I can tell. Nice appley flavour, yet quite crisp. Better than some commercial cider I've had. A nice thing I found was that the plastic cap on my bottle acted like a gas cap, making life even easier for me (I went away for a few days and it hadn't exploded all over the floor)

Wow, nice work! Now lets see a pic of you drinking it!

Too late. All ten pints gone.

Hmm...

Homemade Apple Cider looks WAY different than Market Apple Cider... Market Apple Cider is clear.....

really? I;ve never seen clear Apple Cider before, not even at a store

I've seen clear apple cider before. And pasteurizing it would probably make all the alcohol evaporate...
If it turns to vinegar, use it as vinegar.

Shemuel wrote:Too late. All ten pints gone.

Then make more!

Darkwing wrote:really? I;ve never seen clear Apple Cider before, not even at a store

It usually is clear. However, you're a teetotal family right? So you wouldn't inspect alcohol that much.

raffitz wrote:I've seen clear apple cider before. And pasteurizing it would probably make all the alcohol evaporate...
If it turns to vinegar, use it as vinegar.

You don't pasteurise it to get it clear. They add a substance called 'isenglass' which is dried fish pancreas or something. And yes, if the stuff isn't drunk fast enough, it turns into (slightly sludgy) vinegar

Darkjedi wrote:

Shemuel wrote:Too late. All ten pints gone.

Then make more!

Not enough time until I leave. Plus, my schedule for cider-tending is too crammed now.

Shemuel wrote:

Darkwing wrote:really? I;ve never seen clear Apple Cider before, not even at a store

It usually is clear. However, you're a teetotal family right? So you wouldn't inspect alcohol that much.

i'm not 100% sure what teetotal means, but I have a guess, so I shall respond with this:

No we're not, we drink alcohol, we just don't drink enough to get drunk or anything. My parents like it more than me, I don't like the flavour alcohol gives most products. And apple cider is quite common around here, considering that this is like the apple capital of the maritimes.

I must admit all scrumpy jack is cloudy whereas magners bulmers gaymers (all made by the same company) are clear

maybe it's like cream soda, one is pink, one is clear

Yes it depends on who and how it's made