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It all seems to be going well with the cider

A steady stream of bubbles are breaking the surface and keeping my balloon erect (another one for you MKG )

Once it has stopped bubbling and the balloon has gone flaccid Ooo er! do you think it will be safe enough decanting it into another 5 litre water bottle for racking

mamos

Well, yes - but why decant and then rack? Once your balloon is less excited, leave it for a while (but stick a bit of sellotape over that hole). That will give you a good idea if it's still fermenting very slowly and it will allow the yeast to consolidate at the bottom. That will leave a blanket of carbon dioxide over your cider and avoid any oxidation which might occur if you decant it. When you do finally rack it, you need to put it into vessels which you can fill right up to the top (well, half an inch below). I don't imagine for one moment that you're going to keep it for a year before drinking it, so a couple of PET bottles are your best bet (any excess goes in taste testing!!!!).

Let's see - when it's ready, I give it ... errrmmm ... two nights, maximum

It may taste a tad on the rough side, but a chill and a bit of sugar syrup will mask that - just don't add it until you're about to drink it.

Mike

the first time I had a go at making wine the red wine kit said add 2 oz of sugar. Surely not said I, it must be 2 pounds of sugar. So I added 2 pounds of sugar a few spoons at a time and kept it going for ages. It turned out to be like sherry and the friends I gave it to were drunk on 2 small glasses... I mean flat out, knackered. It turned out to be around 34% alchohol but then I did use a tokio yeast...

.. So I read this post, saw all the apple trees in my neighbours garden and low and beholh o now have a lot of apples, thanks "Our Brian" I stuch them all in the blender and this chopped them up of but they mush in the bucket is stick very thick. All I've done is smash the apples to a semi liquid state and put in the bucket covering said bucket with a tea towel. I've stirred it once or twice and the brown top crust has broken to reveal a lighter liquid below. Is this ok ?

Big Al wrote:.. So I read this post, saw all the apple trees in my neighbours garden and low and beholh o now have a lot of apples, thanks "Our Brian" I stuch them all in the blender and this chopped them up of but they mush in the bucket is stick very thick. All I've done is smash the apples to a semi liquid state and put in the bucket covering said bucket with a tea towel. I've stirred it once or twice and the brown top crust has broken to reveal a lighter liquid below. Is this ok ?

Doing the bump........

Mmmmm. Blended apple mush isn't my idea of good source material - although I can understand why you tried it. The brown cap is simply oxidation, which will disappear with fermentation. For fermentation, of course, you really should add some yeast (unless you're being brave and hoping for a nice wild yeast to come along_. But you need to get the mush apart from the juice. The only way I can think of to do that is get it all into a couple of layers of muslin and press it - straining would take forever and you'd lose a lot of the juice.

That's my thought, anyway. Maybe a real cider maker will drop in.

Mike

See previous posts, I ain't no real cider maker.....

Agree with Mike, you need to get the juice out.

Jelly bag over night might work, muslin will work if you press it really hard. Collander first maybe?

Last year I made some bannana wine, and had loads of fermented "mush" I thought I would try and feed some to the chickens, 4 of them "slept" for over a day......lesson learnt!

DH makes cider with a group of friends in the village on a fairly large scale.

They collect loads of apples (the wider the variety the better), put them unwashed through a shredder, press them in a large homemade press and then leave the juice to ferment-all dead technical. The cider is (surprisingly) very drinkable (and fairly potent)!

We also have a small press, about the size of a large stockpot, acquired from my parents garage, which might be the sort of thing you need. Ours came from Boots in the days when they sold wine making kit, but ebay has lots of similar presses
http://home-garden.shop.ebay.co.uk/Food ... 86.c0.m282

Hope this is helpful, and happy experimenting!

HMK

thanks for the ideas...go to experiment. Mind you with the pain numbing tablets I'm on I can't drink alchohol anyway

Oooo I've never heard of turbo cider before.... I watched a video of how to make it and they had a demijon stood on a heat pad for a day, is that essential? Would standing it on the boiler work or would that get too warm?

ETA: Or would it be too heavy for the boiler?

Just picked all the apples off the trees, and about to start making Cider tomorrow. Any hints, tips, ground rules etc, that I should know. Any help would be appreciated

Kezz wrote:Oooo I've never heard of turbo cider before.... I watched a video of how to make it and they had a demijon stood on a heat pad for a day, is that essential? Would standing it on the boiler work or would that get too warm?

ETA: Or would it be too heavy for the boiler?

The only time in the UK a heat pad may be required for any kind of fermentation is in deepest winter - so I wouldn't bother yet. In fact, keeping fermenting wine/beer/cider too warm doesn't do anyone any favours as too vigorous a ferment can produce off-tastes in the finished product. Just keep it in a Goldilocks place, like the kitchen.

Mike

gilly wrote:Just picked all the apples off the trees, and about to start making Cider tomorrow. Any hints, tips, ground rules etc, that I should know. Any help would be appreciated

I think Andy has that one covered ...

http://www.selfsufficientish.com/main/b ... -hamilton/

If you prefer it a bit stronger, add up to, say, 7 ounces of sugar per gallon. I'd add some yeast, too, as we don't all live in the south-west where cider yeasts inhabit every corner.

Mike

Kezz wrote:Oooo I've never heard of turbo cider before.... I watched a video of how to make it and they had a demijon stood on a heat pad for a day, is that essential? Would standing it on the boiler work or would that get too warm?

ETA: Or would it be too heavy for the boiler?

I used to stick the demijohns on the fireside of the coal fire but had to keep moving them about depending on the heat.

The heat pad is not needed and cost a lot to run. I've just put my apple liquor into the demijohns and put them in a sink of hot water which has equaled out to 30 deg C.
Remember if you have it to hot then the yeast will be killed off.

I put mine on a hot water bottle wrapped in a couple of towels for the first few hours and that was enough to get it started.

I think fermentation is now slowed as my balloon is now limp. I shall just leave it now to see if it clears

mamos