First go with the new apple press

[chefgage]

I got an apple press last year but have never used it. I grew a load of apples on three dwarf apple trees and also collected some pears from my grans garden. These have been in the freezer since last autumn. Today we decided to get them pressed!




The juice tastes very good The OG turned out to be 1.057 which I am very happy with. The yeast is just a wilko cider yeast.

[Jim]

Looks great! Fingers crossed for a good ferment.

[Carnot]

That looks to be quite a good start to your cider making. Your fermentation should just about be complete by now and hopefully the gravity will be down somewhere just over 1.00. I would rack it into another demi-john for a week or two to clear and then bottle or whatever. I made 22 ltr batches in an SS Brewbucket and conditioned in a SS Chronical and then kegged. After 3 months in the keg it was pretty damn good. A few tart cookers helps with the flavour. See what you get and maybe add a few cookers if you need to next time . We pulped a fair number of crab apples last year and this made a tarter cider in one of our batches..

[chefgage]

That looks to be quite a good start to your cider making. Your fermentation should just about be complete by now and hopefully the gravity will be down somewhere just over 1.00. I would rack it into another demi-john for a week or two to clear and then bottle or whatever. I made 22 ltr batches in an SS Brewbucket and conditioned in a SS Chronical and then kegged. After 3 months in the keg it was pretty damn good. A few tart cookers helps with the flavour. See what you get and maybe add a few cookers if you need to next time . We pulped a fair number of crab apples last year and this made a tarter cider in one of our batches..

I was wondering about racking off to another demi john. I will do that and see if it clears. I was going to check the gravity over the weekend and go from there. I was quite supprised how much juice we got from a couple of dwarf apple trees.

[Carnot]

You will do nothing wrong by racking into another demi-john. Give a week or even two and you should see it clear. Put it in a shed to get it cooler will also probably help. Just a thought, did you add any pectinase at the start? I usually add the pectinase the day before yeast pitch. I always prepare a yeast starter in a conical flask on a magnetic stirrer the day before pitching. The pectinase really helps with clearing. My cider comes out pretty clear and quite pale. I might even be able to get a photo of a glass at the weekend so you can get a comparison.

[chefgage]

No I did not add any pectinase. I decided i wanted just the juice and yeast (although i did add a camdem tablet 24 hours before). The idea being to see what our apples and pears would taste like with nothing added.

I will take your note and rack off and move somewhere cooler.

I have another 2 demijohns with turbo cider in but i am just going to bottle them.

Then its back to all grain brewing untill the apples grow again

[Carnot]

Your are right. Cider is a waiting game. Waiting for it to mature and waiting for the next apple crop. I do not know what juice yield you achieved but we reckon on about 2kg apples per litre juice and the SG usually hits around 1055 +/-. Last year we we did 120 kg of apples and could not face the food processor so I bought a Fruit Shark scratter. Expensive but saves hours. The choke point is now the press, but that will have to do.

I have attached a picture of my #4 cider of November last year. As you can see it is rather pale and quite clear but tastes pretty good - quite dry. It does not retain the head for long.

[chefgage]

Looks a nice drop that . The OG was 1.057 and we collected 4 liters. This was with about 3.5kg apples and a weight of pears that i cannot remember of the top of my head.

I am planning on purchasing a few more dwarf apple and pear trees very soon.

[chefgage]

I have racked it off into a spare demi john and put it out i an out building we have that has no heating. Hopefully this will clear it up. Need to get hold of lots of apples later this year as after racking i only have about 2/3 of a demi john now