cider from apples... gimme a hand here

[Deebee]

guys I can get a load of sour apples. from a mate. Kilos of the things.

my thinking is to use a juicer to extract all the juice from them then turn it into a cloudy cider.

please keep the instructions simple... how do I go a bout it.

Just add a cider yeas and leave it or is there more I should do?=

thanks

[oldbloke]

Extract the juice, Campden it, leave 24 hours, pitch yeast, rack when fermentation done, leave a year.

[Deebee]

any particular yeast? Have heard that the whitelabs one good+

would it be best to bulk store it or bottle then leave it?

[orlando]

any particular yeast? Have heard that the whitelabs one good+

would it be best to bulk store it or bottle then leave it?

The yeast clinging to the apples is often used, without pitching anything else. Safer is to wash the apples and use a cider yeast, but a clean fermenting beer yeast would do it. Just be careful if you use a campden tablet to not pitch the yeast for a day or so or you will end up killing that as well.

[jmc]

There are quite a few videos showing the 'juice and strain' method of small scale juice extraction of a few kg.
I think it would take ages for more than a few kg.

eg one below (with very powerful juicer)



Great Cider info resource
http://www.cider.org.uk

[oldbloke]

If you had a centuries old cider brewery, the yeast floating around the place would do, but you don't, so...
I defaulted to Young's cider yeast for my turbociders. This may or may not be actually the same strain as a champagne yeast, another common recommendation.
Lots of people in the USA are currently into using ale yeasts, and I've had good results with Munton's Gold in a turbocider.
I got a really nice fruity finish with one I put a red wine yeast into.
If you want a scrumpy, you want a secondary malolactic fermentation, so you need a source of the lactobacillus. You can buy it, or you can culture up the yeast from a bottle of Old Rosie - it happens to carry the bacillus.

[jmc]

any particular yeast? Have heard that the whitelabs one good+

would it be best to bulk store it or bottle then leave it?

see Yeast for Cider

My gut feeling is it matures better in bulk, though I haven't done any blind tasting / comparisons.
Gives it a chance to drop bright and probably safer too if you get a malolactic fermentation spontaneously starting in spring.

Only down side of keeping in bulk is ensuring you don't let any air get in.
Post fermentation air is the enemy, as with beer, but I think more so as likelihood of other bacillus being there is greater.
You need to keep air space and surface area exposed to air/co2 at top to an absolute minimum to reduce chance of infection.
I use old-fashioned 5 gal glass demijohns to bulk store as plastic barrels are permeable to O2 over time.