I am very lucky that the house I rent has an established apple tree in the garden and this year it didn't disappoint! The variety of apple is 'James Grieve', a beautiful yellow and red apple with a good tangy flavour and suitable for cider making!
We picked over 30lb of apples (a massive crop this year) and encountered some beasties along the way!
All the apples had damage, like bruising or coddling moth holes cut away and then we smashed them up using a large piece of wood.
If you prefer you can freeze them before pressing to soften the apples but we didn't have enough freezer space to do that.
We bought a lovely shiny new 18L fruit press, which was great fun and a lot easier to use, especially considering in previous years I have hand pressed apple pulp! I should think it will coming in handy again next year too.
When you have finished pressing and have a large amount of juice its a good idea to check the gravity with a hydrometer. This allows you to check the sugar content of your juice. Our juices' gravity was at 1.050, which is the top end of the starting range.
All the juice was divided between glass demi-johns, with 200g of sugar and a small amount of white wine yeast added to each. With an air-lock on the top of each demi-john, they have been left to settle, bubble and they should eventually clear.
This should take about three months, so just in time for Christmas/Winter Solstice celebrations!
Making cider is pretty easy if you have the right equipment and willing to spend you weekend picking and processing apples! If you are not lucky enough to have a fruit press then you can usually hire them or get a local cider/apple farm to press you apples for you.
In a few months time I shall share with you what will hopefully be a drinkable home made cider.
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