Drinkable Gardening

Hertfordshire's smallest cider circle (i.e. me).

Not too much actual gardening; apples were scrounged and scrumped from friends and neighbours, but for those with excess apples, surely this is the best way of preserving them..... ;-)





I mixed up varieties this year after last years result was a bit thin. Probably about 3/4 cookers, the rest a rather nice russet (I think) from a friends tree.



After a wash, chop roughly..



Stick in a bucket...



And use this hairy old tool to pulp them up.



Splodge the resulting slurry in to the press...




And bob's your couple-of-pints-of apple juice.




It does take a while. I started at 9am collecting apples, and finished at about midnight (including couple of meals, running out of petrol on my motorbike and spending 2 hours wandering around with a petrol can, and various cider "test" sessions (later on after the motobiking, obviously)).



The (intermediate) result; 6 gallons glooping away in my front room.

BTW, test results...
1. westons still. organic. fabulous value in a box. fruity and full body. lovely.
2. westons bottled (same stuff, fizzy)
3. scrumpy jack. fairly OK.
4. magners. pretty dreadful. thin and charmless.

Obviously non-exhaustive sample of a) cider I had knocking about in the house followed by b) cider in little offy just up the road.

 

Excellent work, I have copied the post and pasted it on my jobs to do list

 

Good stuff, I rekon the cookers will make a nice medium dry to dry cider. I keep meaning to buy a press, with my job I have acess to limitless quntitys of unnwanted apples.

 

:thumb::rocksn::okies::euw:
What a lot of work. Good for you.

 

A crackin' job. :D

 

That's what I'm hoping. I was advised that cookers are nearer proper cider apples but I think having a mix is probably the best chance of getting an interseting result.

Blimey. Sounds a plan! My only advice is get the bigger kit.

http://www.art-of-brewing.co.uk/acatalog/AoB_OnLine_Catalogue_Wine_Presses___accessories_____26.html

Not sure if that is actually where I bought it last year, but it looks the same. I got the 3 litre but you are looking at 3 to 4 presses per gallon, so for 6 gallons that can be 24 cycles. And, believe me, that is more than enough. Halving that with the 6 litre press for another £40 is well worth it. (Mind you, I'm hoping to do another couple of batches this year - maybe for a one-off that's not that important.)
Or - you can hire the press. Don't know about the pulper though.

And you need some peripheral kit, barrels etc. which I had for beer brewing anyway.....
But I would totally recommend giving it a go - especially with your inifinite apple supply!

 

Love it :thumb: well done you

 

well done brilliant job:thumb:

 

I'll help you with the sampling when its ready:yez::thumb: 02

 

That's time well spent mchumph and as rewarding as putting home grown veg on the table , I don't have access to apples but have three gallons of blackberry wine plopping away. If it stays as it is (bright and breezy), I'll be out this afternoon to pick another four pounds for another gallon, at least the blackberries haven't suffered from the miserable weather, cheers and good health hic. T.D.:p

 

Hi digger would be grateful for a recipie on blackberry wine.:thumb: You can only eat so much jam. 02

 

good work! Think my ma would kill me if I put apples in her bath!! Try cornish rattler (cider), be-he-utiful!

 

Hiya takemore, here's the recipe I use :---4lbs. blackberries
3lbs. sugar
1 gal. water
wine yeast, yeast nutrient and pectic enzyme
Wash the fruit, put it into a plastic bucket and crush it, pour on 1 gallon of boiling water and stir with a wooden spoon. Allow to cool to about 70f, then add the pectic enzyme, cover and leave for one day then add the yeast and yeast nutrient, cover the bucket again and stir daily over a period of four or five days. Strain through nylon or muslin on to the 3lb. of sugar, stir well to disolve all the sugar then add to the fermenting jar, fill to the shoulder of the jar only and keep any spare liquid in a sterilised bottle, when the early fermentation has died down , add the remaining liquid. There are plenty of web sites too, just Google 'blackberry wine recipe' and check them in case I've missed anything out. Highly recommended for cheering the dark winter evenings and reminding you of the day when you picked the blackberries with the sun on your back, good luck and cheers, T.D

 

Cheers digger, thanks for taking the time. I will give it a go.:thmb: 02

 

Blimey - already fermented out to 1005 (from about 1050 ), so should be a good'n!
Just tried a splash and it's *really* dry (and as murky as extracts of sock), but it's got a much better depth of flavour than last year... here's hoping...