"Billy" wrote in message
...
In article ,
"George.com" wrote:

"Billy" wrote in message
...
In article ,
"George.com" wrote:

"Billy" wrote in message
...
In article ,
"George.com" wrote:

Any of yous tried making cider before?

This weekend just gone I got about making up some cider. 3 days of
work
yielded 22 litres. An interesting experience but one I am going to
have
to
stream line if I do it next time around.

The apples were free, scavenged from a few trees round the
neighbourhood.

Cleaning them was no problem, dunking in a big tub.

Cutting them up and cutting out the odd bad bit or bug was
laborious.
I
did
have some help at one stage which speeded things up a bit.

Shredding the apple pieces in a kitchen whizz was also time
consuming.
Its
gets easier the longer you go on. But. If done every year I reckon
I
will
have to make some sort of apple scratterer.

Then came the pressing. Roftl (not).

I had made up a frame from old off cut pine 4 x 2 to hold a car
scissor
jack
(850 kg limit) and an old chilly bin with a hole cut in the end.

Worked ok to start with however the hole was too small to let all
thenjuice
out and it filled up the chilly bin past a certain compression
point.

From there I borrowed a (small) grape press. Worked to a point but
did
not
extract as much juice as I hoped.

So, I drilled holes in a 10 litre plastic bucket and went back to
the
scissor jack press. Got more juice than the hand press. Still not
enough
holes though. Near the bottom of compression the frame cracked.

Drilled more holes in the bucket and strengthened the frame.

Next press was the best yet.

After a bit more stress the frame came apart at one end. A few
screws
put
it
back together.

A couple of final presses and 22 litres were deposited in 5
carboys.

2 are relying on natural yeasts for fermentation. One I will add a
little
bit of extra yeast in to. One I have sulphited and will add yeats
in.
The
final carboy is only 1/2 full. I will have to cut in some more
apple
juice,
sulphite and then add yeast.

Interesting exercise. Note to self for next time (if there is a
next
time).

Build an apple scratterer.
Build a sturdier frame
Use a bottle jack with maybe 1 ton plus capacity
Find a really good basket to hold the pulped apple juice.
Hope the finished cider is worth all the effort.

Worth trying from start to finish at least once though.

rob

Try to keep the SO2 under 20 ppm at inoculation. Wine yeast are more
resistant to SO2 than wild yeast. The alternative is to hit the
juice
with a large inoculation to swamp out wild yeast (note: wild yeast
aren't always bad but can be surprising).

1 lb potassium metabisulfite / 1 gallon of water = 5% solution SO2.
ppm x gallons x .063 = ml of 5% solution
This formula isn't exact because sugars and aldehydes suck up SO2.

If you want to keep some sweetness in the cider, the easiest thing
is
to
put the bottled cider in a refrigerator (40F - 4C) or sterile
filter.

the wild yeast brew has been sitting for 2 days now and the
fermentation
has
really (and I mean really) slowed down to the point of being almost
non
active. Maybe either not enough yeast or not enough sugars. I will
look
at
pitching a little bit of yeast in to the stuff tomorrow maybe. See
what
that
does.

rob

Do you have a hydrometer to test for dissolved solids, i. e. sugar?
If the density is below -0.5, fermentation may be over. Apple juice
doesn't have that much sugar to begin with.
How do you start your inoculation? Use yeast to juice ratio of 1 kg /
1000 gal. Add hot water to juice and bring to 37C, add yeast, wait
until
yeast foams or 20 minutes (which ever comes first), and add to juice.
A fermentation lock is helpful in keeping insects out and indicating
rapidity of fermentation.

thanks for the info billy. my approach was more "close enough might be
good
enough" and "she'll be right, maybe".

A couple of days fermentation is pretty short though isn't it? I mean,
some
immediate activity and then slowing down to almost nothing.

rob

Depends on fermentation temperatures. 95F (35C) and it can finish
overnight (apple juice is about 13% sugar vs. grape juice at 26% and
up.) Still, you need a hydrometer to tell you where you are or put it in
a refrigerator, 40F - 32F (4C - OC) (and start drinking it now :O)

I checked the gravity this afternoon &b this evening. The 2 wild/cultured
yeast batches were about 1.40 and the wild yeast about the same. That should
be enough sugar to continue the fermentation for a wee while. The wild yeast
batch has started bubbling away today quite quickly. I will monitor its
progress over the next few days. One jug of wild/cultured yeast has started
fermenting again after I pitched in some extra yeast, the other jug has not
gotten started yet. The jug of sulphited & cultured yeast has not started
fermenting yet but I only yeasted last night. Given the gravity, the problem
may have been with the yeast.

I should have checked the gravity on the sunday but only buying a hydrometer
on Monday kind of made that difficult. On well. Maybe the 'close enough'
rule of thumb is a little bit arbitary eh.

rob