Home cider making seems to be making a bit of a comeback. Centuries ago it was pretty commonplace for many homes and farms with their own apples to make cider. Most of us don’t have access to bittersweet cider varieties but decent Kent-style cider can be made from dessert and culinary apples. Since buying a property with seven or eight apple trees, I’ve been making it for a few years. Still learning, but have built up a fair bit of knowledge. Given many mature gardens have apple trees and most owners have a surplus of apples this time of year, are many of us making cider? Would be interested to hear where, with what, how and what the results are like. Cheers!

The apples from my parents tree go to Moss Cider so they get a blend of apples from all around Manchester.

Got just under 100kg off the tree last year and that translated to 23 litres of cider 🙂

Pressed ours on Saturday, with the help of the in-laws.

40 pints this year.

Add a little bit of yeast and off they go.
[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_LwPHjE-5qE[/video]

Our apples make a crisp, clean drink. We’ve never tested the alcohol content, but I reckon it compares with a 6 or 7% ale.

goon – that’s exactly what I used – I had 16kg of apples – some desert apples from the garden and some cookers from the local wholesaler.

I got 6 litres of apple juice at a starting SG of 1055 – fermented it for 3 weeks – the SG didnt move after the second weekend when it hit 1005. my calcs show that’s an ABV of about 7%(ish).

I’ve had to sweeten it once poured with 2 teaspoons of sugar per 500ml – but it’s bloody delicious – there’s loads of ‘green’ apple flavours coming through.

It’ll come out at about 7-8% Leave the apples on the trees until they fall themselves. You’ll get maximum sugar content which will make it stronger and less acidic. Invest in some good fermenters (Speidels are top quality), throw some homebrew oak chips in and leave for at least six months. Avoid adding yeast as the best ones are natural. As long as you’ve been really clean throughout the process, you should end up with some lovely clear still cider that’s more like a white wine than scrumpy.

We had our first attempt of making cider this weekend 🙂

We scrumped all the local apple trees with 1/4 being crab, kids had a great time climbing trees and I got some catching practice in.

We used a wood chipper to mush the apples, stuck a bucket underneath and it worked a treat.

Quick question, now I have two 20L containers of juice, if I want the natural yeast to ferment one container, do I need to leave the air lock out to start the yeast off and if so, how long does it take for the yeast to activate?

I made some cider last week with the windfall from our tree, now it’s being turned into wine. Early results are not entirely promising…

Not this year but I’m going to give it try next year as we never get through half of the pears from the tree before they go off.

Ski, you don’t need to leave the airlock off. Natural yeast is the same stuff as cultured yeast, just that there are probably 30+ strains ready to start sluggling it out for dominance! The good ones usually always win out. With all yeast, you can leave the airlock off / lid loose as more oxygen helps them get going, but I’ve never had to do that, they’re tough critters, not a lot will stop them. Give it five days and you should hear the glugs (if airlock fitted). If you leave it in a garage or shed, can sometimes take longer, but the longer the better. You don’t want a really quick ferment as that can affect the flavour badly.

Thanks for the reply Jim, interesting info about a slow ferment can aid the flavour, might try one natural and the other with a packet yeast, then compare 😉

Don’t forget to put a dead rat in the vat to aid fermentation 🙂

Round here we have made some pretty god awful scrumpy over the years. It is the reason I have hairs on my chest for sure. Not made any for a while since the last lot (4 x 205 litre barrels) just about put us all off cider for life.

Usually can collect apples from loads of unwanted trees/orchards for free.

12×8 ft trailer… (we also made a small amount of perry)

Fermentation take as long as it takes. It can be over quickly or take for ages, much to do with the ambient temperature and the types of sugar available to the yeast. Generally the longer you leave it the better the end result. Adding sugar as a sweetener is a no no, the yeast will just eat it up and may cause bottle explosions with the extra CO2 produced. Half a teaspoon to carbonate the bottle is enough. Try back sweetening (as it is called) with Splenda.

Brew your own cider kits are much cheaper and easier. £20 gets you 40 pints / 23 litres / 5 gallons of lovely cider. Will power and much patience is required to let it condition.