apples

I'm new at this...help with what may seem a silly question. how do you know when apples are ready to harvest. this is my first year, and I have a lot of fab "bramleys" and a duel trea with eating apples.
the bramleys have looked ready for a month. the size is superb, and i don't want them to fall and spoil.

 

Eaters will taste sweet, but cookers will always taste acidic so wait until the pips are brown. I do it slightly more techie by using a refractometer to measure the % sugar content of the juice, but also use the brown pips test.

N.B. Windfalls may be riper before the rest of the fruit because apples with maggots in can ripen and fall first, so also check those on the tree before picking the lot!

P.S. It does seem very early for Bramleys to be ripe.

 

If, when you hold the apple and it comes away easily in your hand then it is ripe. Anything else and they are not ready.