Homebrew cider

Hi guys
I have god knows how many apples, a cider press and my 'pulpmaster 2000' should be delivered today.
Has any body got any good home brew cider recipes / top tips to ease the my path to the title of homebrew scrumpy guru.

All SENSIBLE answers / suggestions considered. All the rest of the crap this is likely to attract had better be funny or else.......


Cheers folks
Fishmiester
(soon to be blind - around May next year)

 

Try Here http://www.recipegoldmine.com/bevcider/bevcider.html

Careful Fish mate, you don't want to be swooped on by the Anti Terrorist Squad for manufacturing liquid explosives......Home made Cider...such a good idea!!...You'll be blind in a week!

 

Cheers mate. I will just have time to pop off on a secret mission to Iran and be back in time for the first tasting

 

Not one of those Cider Terror training camps i hope!

 

Al Cyeedah - Run by Osama Bin Magners

 

Ahh it all becomes clear....they all have cold towels wrapped round their heads to sooth the cider hangover...and no wonder they want to kill everyone, we're probably making too much noise....nothing worse than a cider hangover.....I now understand the terrorist threat!!

 

Apparently the suicide bombers are mis understood. It is simply the bottles of hooch they are carrying, in specially adapted holsters, under their burburrys which are cooking off and exploding. What a waste of hooch!!

 

The 'pulpmaster 2000' has just arrived. Tomorrow is brewing day.

Has anyone ever visited

http://www.pimpthatsnack.com/

look out for my special feature on Magners

 

Get your pulp done, when you have the pulp and yeast in the barrel, add ethanol, and some more sugar, and just leave it be, you had best put in a air valve so that when the pressure gets a bit much that it can be released, just dont stand too close with a fag or a flame, or you might end up in orbit .

Oh, if you go blind can i have the rest of your hooch, i promise i will put it to good use.

 

Hey Fishmeister,

I hope you're going to get a suitably adapted computer so you can continue on RR? If you need help buying it, let us know, and we'll have to do some fund raising for you! A sponsored rum drinking contest: who can remain upright the longest!

Let us know how it goes. I've never made cider before. Wine... bitter... yes. Well the bitter was one of those kits Boots used to sell to make 5 gallons of the stuff! Tasted...er.. not very good! :lol:

Steve.

 

regular updates will be available in the thread "Fishmiesters one way ticket to blindness" LOL
Will try and post some piccys of the events tomorrow as the transpire.

Oh god help me.............

 

"For the best cider, a mixture of different varieties of apples is best. Those usually chosen are non-keepers, small sour or windfall, with, if desired, a few crab-apples. An odd rotten apple in a large number is permissible, but otherwise they should be sound.

Before the second world war, my historical searches tell me there were travelling cider presses in some districts, as many farms and cottages had a small orchard. This practice seems to have disappeared, though it may still exist in a few country areas.

To get your apples pressed ideally, a cider factory is the thing, if you can persuade them to do it. Alternatively, a cider factory might sell you newly pressed apple juice. For those who cannot find a cider factory, you can buy a fruit press from your local specialist shop.

The juice should be put into a wooden cask -- a 30 gallon ex-brandy cask is ideal for first-class good keeping cider. Base your calculations on the fact that a ton of apples makes approximately 150 gallons of cider, therefore a cwt. makes approximately 7.5 gallons. Any good size wooden or plastic cask is suitable but the larger the better as fermentation goes on longer in a greater quantity of juice, thus producing a high alcohol content. The cask should stand in a cool place either on its side or end, Wherever the bung hole is uppermost.

Never bung up the hole while fermentation is still going on; unless to bring the cask home, perhaps! After about forty eight hours the apple juice will start to ferment and white froth will bubble up through the bung hole. This will continue for about three weeks when fermentation has almost stopped, some juice should be siphoned out of the cask with a short length of sterile clear plastic pipe. The amount of juice removed should be sufficient to dissolve the required quantity of sugar.

Add 2 to 4 lb of sugar (depending on how sweet you want the cider) per gallon in the cask to the juice you have removed, and dissolved over heat. When quite dissolved, allow to cool, then return to the cask. Owing to the addition of the sugar all the sweetened juice will not go back in at once. During fermentation, which will go on for about two weeks, the quantity of liquid in the cask reduces so that you can add the surplus gradually (as space permits). When fermentation has nearly finished, if all the 'juice and sugar mixture' is not in the cask, siphon out enough juice to allow this to go in. Bottle what you take out and use to keep the cask full while the cider is maturing -- as the quantity reduces during this process. Developing airspace in the cask will otherwise allow bacilli to breed and turn the cider acid.

When the juice has completely ceased to 'bubble up' bung the cask up tightly with either cork or wood, and leave for eight months.

Cider is usually made in October - November, and should be left as long as possible -- up to two years before opening it, but at least until the cuckoo sings the following year. Then the cask may be tapped, or the cider bottled down with care.

Innocent to taste but powerful -- up to 15% alcohol can be achieved."

 

Hard Cider
Q) What is hard cider?
A) Its distilled cider. Drinks such as apple jack are more popular in the USA. I have not seen this on sale in the UK but know its got a strong following else where and is sometimes made by back woodsmen with a home made pot still.
The steps to make this are
1) Make Cider
2) Distill the cider to make a stronger brew. (40% Alcohol)
This is where we stop as distilling is a skill of its own and if not done correctly can be very dangerous. The alcohol fumes can blow up home made stills, and the end result if not done by an expert can be toxic.
Don't let me stop you of course.

 

Well folks its in the bag

6 Gallons of Cider and 7 Gallons of Perry are now fermenting wildly at Chez FM. Oh for the love of Grog

 

Up date...

Fishmiester gets a call last night on board.

"I'm getting this crap out of the house and putting it in the shed"

"Why?" says I

"Cos its making the house smell like shit"

All I can say is that it must be fermenting up a treat....... Deffo blindness by next summer