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With September only six weeks away I'm planning on making cider again. I'm lucky enough to have a neighbor who lent me his very old press and pulper last year and has said I can borrow them again this year. Last year we used Bramley apples with 20kg of sugar in a 45 gallon barrel, but its still not ready to drink and it looks like it might take three years. Worth the wait as his tastes great (more like cherry)

So my question is, whats your cider recipes for a quicker cider ?

Last yrs video of us can be seen here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ArAfJpSVXo0

That's what I like to see - meticulous attention to hygiene and anti-oxidation

Traditional methods, eh? They'll never work ...

Mike

It's worked since 1890 and it worked in 2010! Only difference in 1990 they stopped putting a dead rat in the barrels.
Please explain your comment.

Mike was being nice, promice!

Mike is the homebrew guru here, so if you want help, be nice too!

I though I was I just don't understand what he's saying when he says it "won't work" it has for over 100 yrs.
Sorry if I offended you both.

No offence taken here.

It was an ironic joke. Quite innocent. I found it amusing that we go on and on in this section about cleanliness and there you all were doing, as you say, what has been done for centuries with glorious results.

So no offence intended either

Mike

I do not understand why your cider is taking 3 years, surely it can't be that it takes 3 years to ferment?

Regarding oxidation, as apple juice oxidises in minutes, I don't know how you can prevent it unless you have industrial machinery that mashes the apples and presses the juice out without it ever coming into contact with air.

I wasn't offended either!!

I did understand that you could choose to interpret what Mile said in a negative way, and I was pointing out that he didn't mean it that way, as he has explained. Sorry for interfering.

My cider recipe.
Apple Juice, Yeast.
Normally it's drinkable in 3 months.

Last year I froze all the apples first and then defrosted and quartered and pressed. The gravity was reading between 4 & 5 %. I like this method as you can keep lots of varieties as they hit the deck, and just make in one.

regards

everything being clean, bugger perhaps the toddlers shoe that got thrown in the kiwi wine explains the still trying to explode barrel in my kitchen :D :D teehee!

Ah - I've heard about the toddler's shoe trick with kiwi wine, but I thought that the toddler was supposed to be still attached to the shoe

Mike

don't tempt me mike, please note i type this from the sofa at midnight waiting for the little git to get up again!! Couldnt be bothered to go to bed only to get up in an hour!!!

grahamhobbs wrote:I do not understand why your cider is taking 3 years, surely it can't be that it takes 3 years to ferment?

Regarding oxidation, as apple juice oxidises in minutes, I don't know how you can prevent it unless you have industrial machinery that mashes the apples and presses the juice out without it ever coming into contact with air.

The yeast interact with sugars in the Apple juice and sugar that was added. We 've had the first, second and third fermentation but it will take time for it all to break down. Worth the wait I hope.

Ah - now you've got me, tisme. I understand the first fermentation (the normal yeast-driven one) and the second fermentation (the malo-lactic one) but what is the third fermentation?

My understanding was that the malo-lactic fermentation generally occurs during the spring following the initial pressing and, after that, it was a simple matter of waiting until the cider had matured to your liking - which could be immediately or up to a year later. There's certainly nothing wrong with maturing into a third year, but I would have assumed that's rather a long time. So is it just a taste thing? If so, I'm guessing that this is maybe a result of using Bramleys rather than cider apples, so it may be that you can't speed up your recipe.

Mike

Third fermentation is the one you wish would speed it up.