Anyone here make cider?

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Permalink Reply by Sinykill on August 4, 2008 at 7:33pm

Hi I make a wee bit and have planted a couple of apple trees (cider varieties) for fun.
You will need to get the og to above 1050 or about this range to prevent spoilage.
if you are using apple juice granny smith makes a nice varietal cider, but can take 6 months to age nicely. fermentation can also be slow weeks to months so be prepared.
will need to be racked a couple of times early on to prevent it picking up bad flavours from the yeast.
Acidity and tannin levels are important in ciders , not enough (ie if you use too much sweet juice ) and the flavor can be to medicinal. acidity normally need to be between 4-5 parts per thousand (this can be achieved by adding malic acid.
sorry if this is a bit of a waffle but have a go, get a couple of varieties of juice some sweet some less so. Blend them and taste the mix till you get a flavour you like, then launch yourself into the unknowen

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Permalink Reply by denimglen on August 4, 2008 at 8:00pm

Awesome, lots of great info.

Will I have any luck with supermarket juice? Or will I have to go with expensive 'boutique' type juice?

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Permalink Reply by Sinykill on August 4, 2008 at 8:20pm

Super market juice would be fine I guess. A kit costs about $20-25 and it is basically just concentrated apple juice. I was just reading that commercial cider is only about 30% apple juice. I've found this link useful http://www.cider.org.uk/
good luck

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Permalink Reply by denimglen on August 7, 2008 at 8:24pm

Cheers mate, was gonna go supermarket juice but black rock cider extract was way cheaper.

Just gonna make that up to 19 - 20L (instead of recommended 23L), throw in some nutrients and yeast and hope for the best. If it's no good I'll find some pisshead mates to drink it, or run it through the still.

Interesting that commercial cider is only 30% apple juice, wonder what the rest is. I assume that the Harvest's Scrumpy type of cider. Oh the nights I've had on that stuff...

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Permalink Reply by Sinykill on August 8, 2008 at 8:39am

FYI copied this for you
"This sounds like a daft question. Cider is made from apples, surely? Well yes it is, in part. But over the last 30 years or so the UK cider industry, like the UK brewing industry, has increasingly relied on the addition of other fermentable sugar syrups to substitute for apples (or, in brewing, for malt). Originally these might have been cane or beet sugar, but nowadays they are typically glucose syrups prepared from the hydrolysis of maize or wheat starch, or fructose syrups from the hydrolysis of inulin (a fructose polysaccharide found in the roots of chicory and Jerusalem artichoke). These are normal commercial food ingredients and they're widely used across the food industry wherever cheap bulk sugars are required.

These syrups are perfectly wholesome and they do not have to be declared on the beer or cider label, since alcoholic drinks above 1.2% ABV are currently exempt from food ingredient labelling. They allow the cidermaker to add enough sugar to his juice to take it up to an SG of around 1.100. After fermentation this gives a strong base cider of around 12 - 14% ABV, which is then diluted with water to drinking strength for retail sale. This process is known in the industry as "chaptalisation" (which is a complete misnomer, but that's another topic), and as a result of this the final cider may contain only 30% apple juice equivalent and sometimes significantly less. In the UK (though not in other countries) this is all quite legal and permitted by Customs and Excise Notice 162. Nearly all ciders you'll buy in the supermarket are made this way. They are in effect not ciders any more but "glucose wines". "

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