# Hard Cider



## FrankZ

So I want to make hard cider.  I am likely going to start with apple but I want pear too.

There are a couple of options for the actual juice.


Buy it.  Either pasteurized or not.
Make it.
1. is pretty easy, and may be where I start.  The downside is when it comes to pear, that becomes harder to find in gallons at any reasonable cost.  This takes us to

2.  This has become an interesting challenge.  I want to try and not drop $400+ for a crusher and press.  And I don't want to give up that kind of space.  At least until I am happy with the cider and want to make a LOT of it in one go. So.......


I think I can mulch apples with the KA meat/food grinder.  I tried this morning and I was cautiously happy with the results.  Used a corer/segmenter thing to make manageable pieces (manageable for the throat of the grinder).  Turned a few apples into mulch in a reasonable amount of time, and with someone feeding and someone using the tool it would go really quickly.  So I think crushing/mulching is sorted.

The issue is pressing.  I had a great idea, what looks like a cider press that I already have?  Ahh.. the 5 pound LEM sausage stuffer.  This is where the process fell down some.  If you just drop the mulch in it pushes out like meat for sausage would.  Ok, I don't have a bag, but Kathleen cut up a tea towel for other things so a square of that behind the nut for the tube and that should do it.  

No.  The juice bubbles up through the pressure relief valve.  I can fix that too.. so I put a washer on that to "almost" close.  I could hear air escaping when I cranked down.  Then I started pressing and no air, no juice.  

I ended with apples on the ceiling, and in my air, up the  wall, up the cabinet, under the cabinet.  The gasket gave and allowed a blow out.  Not one that isn't cluey I backed off lickety split and minimized the shower.

I think it is time to order one of those fruit bags they use in the presses for the next go.

So, who juices their own apples?  I don't want sauce (cooked).  I need raw juice.  I hope apples are hard that pears to do with with.

Thanks


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## Dawgluver

My best advice is to find someone with a cider press.  A friend owns a press, we combined our apple bounties and came away with lots of juice.  Be sure to save your plastic juice, pop, and milk cartons, with lids!


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## FrankZ

Ifn' I had found someone I wouldn't have tried alternative means...


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## Aunt Bea

If you have a hydraulic jack you could probably rig one up and a clean pillowcase could be used to hold the pulp for squeezing.

Good luck!

Quest for Cider - experiments at building an Apple press

When I was a kid my father used to make a barrel of hard cider using half pear juice and half apples.  He believed the pear juice made a smoother finished product.  We picked up the windfall pears and took them to a local apple farm to be ground and pressed with apples he purchased from them.  The juice was placed into a used oak whiskey barrel, purchased fresh each year.   I wish I had his original formula I know he added a large amount of honey, rye whiskey, raisins and oatmeal to the barrel of juice.  The honey and whiskey insured a high proof finished product, I'm not sure what the raisins and oatmeal were for.  We drank the cider for the first few weeks as fresh cider, then it was allowed to get hard and eventually it became cider vinegar.  The only rule that we were told was not to shake or jiggle the barrel because it would make the finished cider cloudy.  Today I doubt that you could find a commercial cider maker who would custom squeeze such a small amount and sell it without additives.


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## Mad Cook

Could ou use an electric juicer? I might be a bit long winded but......


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## Steve Kroll

I make cider every year (below is the 8 gallons I made last fall). Unless you plan on dropping a small fortune on equipment, it's WAY easier to let someone who has the equipment do the work and just buy the raw juice. I get my juice from an orchard the next county over for $2.50 a gallon, fresh out of the press. So for the 8 gallons below, it cost roughly $25 in ingredients, including the yeast.

If you have the option, I would highly suggest using a mix of tart and sweet apples. No single variety really has all the right parameters.

You'll also need yeast. I know guys that use dedicated cider yeast but, to be honest, I've always used white wine yeast. I feel like it makes a clean drink where the aromas jump right out of the glass.

Other than that, it's pretty easy to make. You'll want to get a hydrometer (available for $7 here) to measure your sugar. Get an airlock and drilled stopper while you're at it, too. The important thing is to make sure there is enough sugar present so you end up somewhere between 5-7% alcohol.

You'll also need a suitable container. I use glass or plastic carboys. Brand new they run around $30, but there are always deals on craigslist or eBay.

I always like to see people get in the home brewing/winemaking hobby. I've been the president of our local club for the past two years. I'd be more than happy to answer any questions, or maybe even post a simple tutorial.


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## FrankZ

Thanks Steve.  We have most everything already from Kathleen's adventures in wine making.  I am obviously starting small so I need the gallon jug.  I have been planning on using Nottingham Ale yeast since I have heard good things about it.  Luckily we have a brew store a few minutes from the house (we found this out a couple weeks ago).

I want something sorta sweet and fizzy.


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## FrankZ

Dropped by the brewing store today.  Got the gallon jug for the secondary (with stopper and lock), some tubing and yeast.  It is likely this first batch will be bought juice (cider) if I can find it without the preservatives.

If not then I am likely crushing apples this weekend.


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## FrankZ

And it is in a bucket.

I went with store bought juice (some stuff from Mom's Or....c Market) which came with its own secondary fermenter 

So we are now going down the path.


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## PrincessFiona60

Have you tried just freezing it...you know to make it hard...

running and hiding


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## Aunt Bea

PrincessFiona60 said:


> Have you tried just freezing it...you know to make it hard...
> 
> running and hiding



Freeze it after it gets hard and you have a version of Applejack!


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## taxlady

PrincessFiona60 said:


> Have you tried just freezing it...you know to make it hard...
> 
> running and hiding


Then he could make ice cider.


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## CWS4322

We are fortunate to be storing not one, not two, but THREE heavy-duty industrial fruit presses for one of DH's clients. We were going to make one of these:

Spend Zero Dollars to Press Your Own Cider

but why bother when we have three different presses sitting in the barn? We are having a pressing party--three friends have apple trees but no presses, and we have several apple trees out at the farm. Everyone has to bring their "mash" ready to put through the press. 

We are going to follow one of the recipes in True Brews: How to Craft Fermented Cider, Beer, Wine, Sake, Soda, Mead, Kefir, and Kombucha at Home: Emma Christensen: 9781607743385: Books - Amazon.ca. 

Fortunately for us, apple season is in the fall, so we don't have to do this while harvesting the other things in the garden.


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## FrankZ

CWS4322;1378099

We are going to follow one of the recipes in [url=http://www.amazon.ca/True-Brews-Craft-Fermented-Kombucha/dp/1607743388 said:
			
		

> True Brews: How to Craft Fermented Cider, Beer, Wine, Sake, Soda, Mead, Kefir, and Kombucha at Home: Emma Christensen: 9781607743385: Books - Amazon.ca[/url].
> 
> Fortunately for us, apple season is in the fall, so we don't have to do this while harvesting the other things in the garden.


That its the book we have.


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## FrankZ

Just wanted to mention...

Tis bubbling!


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## Mad Cook

CWS4322 said:


> We are fortunate to be storing not one, not two, but THREE heavy-duty industrial fruit presses for one of DH's clients. We were going to make one of these:
> 
> Spend Zero Dollars to Press Your Own Cider
> 
> but why bother when we have three different presses sitting in the barn? We are having a pressing party--three friends have apple trees but no presses, and we have several apple trees out at the farm. Everyone has to bring their "mash" ready to put through the press.
> 
> We are going to follow one of the recipes in True Brews: How to Craft Fermented Cider, Beer, Wine, Sake, Soda, Mead, Kefir, and Kombucha at Home: Emma Christensen: 9781607743385: Books - Amazon.ca.
> 
> Fortunately for us, apple season is in the fall, so we don't have to do this while harvesting the other things in the garden.


Do be careful when drinking the finished hard cider. I had the most horrendous hangover and felt ill for days after having "one over the eight" while "testing" a friend's delicious homemade cider. At the time I would cheerfully have died and I hadn't drunk very much


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## skilletlicker

I enjoyed reading all this. I just make 1/2 gal. batches using grocery store apple juice and distillers yeast. Nothing fancy, but I like it as well as the commercial ciders.


Steve Kroll said:


> The important thing is to make sure there is enough sugar present so you end up somewhere between 5-7% alcohol.
> 
> I always like to see people get in the home brewing/winemaking hobby. I've been the president of our local club for the past two years. I'd be more than happy to answer any questions, or maybe even post a simple tutorial.


Steve, why are you holding the alcohol down to 5-7%?


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## FrankZ

So today is the day!  I am going to be bottling this evening.

The plan is to use a corn sugar solution I made for the carbonation and some Splenda for the sweet.

I have a look at the jug today and there is some slow effervescence happening which encourages me that it will carbonate.

We are going to be using flip top bottles for this.  I can't wait to see what the ABV% is and give it a taste.


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## Steve Kroll

skilletlicker said:


> I enjoyed reading all this. I just make 1/2 gal. batches using grocery store apple juice and distillers yeast. Nothing fancy, but I like it as well as the commercial ciders.
> 
> Steve, why are you holding the alcohol down to 5-7%?


I'm not holding the alcohol down; just saying that's the minimum you need to have a shelf stable product. Some apple varieties have very low sugar. Once they finish fermenting, there isn't enough alcohol to keep it aseptic and it will spoil quickly.


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## FrankZ

BOTTLED!!!!

Ok.. so if I understand this floating alcohol thingy we should be about 8.9%ABV. 

We ended up with 6 and a third bottles (half liter flip tops) so that isn't too bad.


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## Steve Kroll

FrankZ said:


> BOTTLED!!!!
> 
> Ok.. so if I understand this floating alcohol thingy we should be about 8.9%ABV.
> 
> We ended up with 6 and a third bottles (half liter flip tops) so that isn't too bad.


Good job! I'm guessing you drank the third of a bottle?


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## FrankZ

Steve Kroll said:


> Good job! I'm guessing you drank the third of a bottle?



No.. I flipped the top closed and am going to wait until Kathleen can enjoy it with me.

But soon.. soon..


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## Steve Kroll

You are lucky!

Once a year - usually late April or early May - we have a big bottling party at the house, where family and friends come over and we bottle the stuff from the previous year. For their gracious assistance, I "pay" the participants in food and wine. I have one rule for these gatherings: no one gets to drink until the work is done.

On average I make a dozen different varieties of wine in a given year, and there are always the inevitable partial bottles leftover after bottling sessions. Those partial bottles are the ones I put out first once the bottling is finished, and they are quickly swooped in upon by thirsty participants.

I don't think any of those bottles ever lasts more than about 10 minutes.


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## FrankZ

Sunday we tried the little partial bottle.

It was a little sharper that I would like, but it hasn't had near enough time to mellow as it should.  It was more mellow than when we bottled so that is a good sign. I think it will be right nice in a few more weeks.

I started the next batch last night as well.  I didn't put tannin in and I didn't fortify it with sugar this time.  the online ABV thing said I can only expect about 6.2ABV out of this one which is ok.  I did use the same brand of bottled cider for the start.

Looking forward to seeing the difference in the two products.


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## CWS4322

Got 20 l of cider in the carboy fermenting. We used 10 l of cider from the crab apples we picked at the farm and 10 l of cider from the apples off the tree at my house (no idea what kind of tree it is--could be a MacIntosh--the apples are quite juicy and a bit tart). Took a bit of experimenting with the press to master getting the cider extracted. I think it worked best with 3000 psi, but not sure. The first batch of apples put through the press splattered all over...that was a bit of a mess. If we don't like it, I see 20 l of apple cider vinegar in my future.


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## FrankZ

Just bottled attempt #2.  

This one we didn't add sugar to start.   The ABV seems to read about 6.7.

We both really liked this one going into the bottle so we are really excited to try it in a few weeks.   This time we had 7 full bottles and alittle left over. The left over is already gone.


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## Steve Kroll

Just sitting here enjoying a glass myself. We're down to the last gallon from 2013, but in two weeks we're picking up another 15 gallons from the orchard.

I don't like adding sugar, either, Frank. If sugar is a little on the low side, that's fine. Just as long is there is enough to preserve it. I've noticed that whenever I have to add sugar, it tends to throw the balance off.

Cheers!


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## buckytom

i wish ronjohn was still here. he made outstanding hard cider using champagne yeast.

it was delicious; not too sweet or tart, and the bubbles were tiny as if from a bottle of champagne.

it easily rivalled magners or bullmers, but was more refined tasting in a way.


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## Steve Kroll

Magners style is what I try to aim for. Crisp and refreshing. Most of the American ciders are waaaay too sweet for my taste.

This year, I'm also thinking about making a batch that includes some cranberry juice in it. Cranberry and apple makes a delicious beverage.


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