18 1 ltr cartons pure apple juice(from concentrate)
12 dessert pears
1 vanilla pod
1 packet youngs cider yeast
I put 1 ltr of the apple juice into a big stainless saucepan and brought it to the boil.
I quartered and cored the pears leaving the skins on.
Chopped up the vanilla pod put in a muslin bag and put it in the pan tied off to the pan handle
Boiled the pears and liquidised until the pan contents were the consistency of baby food
Boiled the whole lot for about a 1/2 hour
Removed muslin bag
Poured the rest of the apple juice into my FV, funneled in the pears/apple juice mix into the FV.
Pitched the packet of youngs cider yeast at 30 deg, gave it huge swirl and fitted airlock
Moved the lot to my 19 deg spare room covered in towel and left.
During fermentation i gave the FV 2 big swirls to get the pears turned over etc
Fermentation took about 6 days from a SG of 1050 to a FG of 1.000, this puts the cider at around 6%ABV.
I bottled and primed this morning and got 36 pints. The costs were
18ltrs apple juice £9
12 dessert pears £1.50
1 vanilla pod £1.50
1 Pkt cider yeast £1.50
bleach and bottle tops and gas £1.50
£15/36=£0.41 per bottle and it tastes bitchin' already
Its dearer than beer to make but much easier. I am glad the Summer is coming as i will do it again with Raspberries this time round. What a hobby!
I have to force myself next time i make it to water it down to about 4.5% but it goes against the grain!
