no doubt some buggers, especially you charlie, are going to laugh at this.
Uncharitable huas.

Friday was racking off night for the cider. I started 10.30pm, not realising
how long it would take, finished after 1 am.

Groan, what a bloody job that was. Cleaning & sterilising everything, bad
enough.

5 x 5 litre carbouys from the first cider pressing. 1 x 23 litre plastic
brewing barrell from the second cider pressing. around 47-48 L all up.
7 x 5 litre carbouys (inlcuding the 5 with cider brewing in them), 2 x 3
litre carbouys and 3 x 2 litre old sherry flagons. About 47 L capacity.

Trying to figure what brew to syphon in to which carbouy/flagon was
interesting. Because I had several experiements with apple juice & brewing
techniques I wanted to try and keep each seperate through to tasting time. I
sort of got it ok. Easy part that.

Syphoning. Not my strong point. ABout 2 litres ended up on the laundry floor
I reckon before I had it sorted. Place stunk like a brewery. Floor got
mopped out twice.

Worse still, mouth fulls of just fermented cider. Easy you say, spit out.
Yup, I learnt that after I had swallowed about 12 mouthfuls. Gees it tasted
crap.

Next morning I woke up feeling a little seedy. Not hung over, just a slight
headache from drinking something bad.

The 23 L brewing barrell batch tastes not the best, it has a slight sulphur
taste to it. I sterilised with sodium metabisulphate. Instructions said not
to rinse as it is harmless to the brew in the concentrations used. I
understand that the sulphur taste should clear in time anyway.

The 5 x 5l brews each tatsed slightly different. The two that I sulphited
and used cultured yeast taste similar to the 23L batch. The best stuff is
where I didn't sulphite and used either wild yeast or a mixture of wild &
cultured yeast. They had a cleaner taste and a little more appley. The
sulphited brews taste, at this point, kind of like the shitey commercial
ciders we get over here. Shitey and fake. Shitey tasting commercial ciders,
with a shitey taste.

Leave to sit for at least 3 or more months I reckon & then bottle. Leave for
at least another 3 months and maybe try one or two, leave longer if taste
requires.

rob