So last week i got about 80 kg of Dabinet and other "Cider apples"as mentioned on a previous thread. So here's what happened which may be of assistance to other novice cider brewers.
Sunday morning , filled with enthusiasm (and ignorance) I set up my (new) equipment to start juicing the apples .
Things started to go wrong immediately .
Firstly the pulpmaster bucket thing proved utter ineffectual for chopping the apples before pressing ....maybe it was me but I doubt it
So grabbed the domestic Juicer (expecting to burn the motor out)
Fine, it juices apples but the juice is full of "pulp" .Then pressed the juicer pulp for a lovely clear brown apple juice.This all took far longer than expected and was a bit messy , so a long clean up and the juice was beyond cloudy , it had a head on it Guinness would envy.
Next problem was the acidity reading was 4.5 and I had no Mallc acid powder (D'oh!) So quickly ordered some online (we don't have brewing supplies in Dublin anywhere but online!)
Added some sulphite and some Pectalese .....but not nearly enough and put juice in the fridge .
100g of Mallic acid arrived by Tuesday and after adding teaspoons and seeing the acidity barely move i chucked the lot in, regretting noy buying 200 g ....24 hours later acidity was 3.4 then added recommended sulphite for that reading and left for 24 hours (convinced the apple juice had probably gone off, or would go off )
Wednesday I pitched the yeast - Mangrove Jacks cider yeast and plugged the heating unit and inkbird setting the fridge to 20 degrees
By Saturday nothing had happened ....not a sign of fermentation ...so I asked SWMBO to taste the apple juice to see if it had gone off or it was worth ordering more yeast for a repitch (which wouldn't arrive until Tuesday as it's a bank Holday here)
She thought that the apple juice was fine but tasted very pectin heavy ...so added (lots) more Pectalese and gave it a good stir
Lo and behold about 2 pm today ,almost a week after the apples were juiced there is moderate activity in the fermentation bucket bubbler
God knows what it will taste like , but my takeaways from a week where a bucket of apple juice took up far more of my time and attention than is healthy for a grown man, are these
Scratting and juicing apples is laborious with the right equipment and a downright pain in the ass without
Have chalk , Pectalese and Mallic to hand ..as well as some back up yeast
Be unbelievably patient
Don't give up , its more forgiving than you think if you follow the basics (I hope)
Enjoy it ..even the failures
Sunday morning , filled with enthusiasm (and ignorance) I set up my (new) equipment to start juicing the apples .
Things started to go wrong immediately .
Firstly the pulpmaster bucket thing proved utter ineffectual for chopping the apples before pressing ....maybe it was me but I doubt it
So grabbed the domestic Juicer (expecting to burn the motor out)
Fine, it juices apples but the juice is full of "pulp" .Then pressed the juicer pulp for a lovely clear brown apple juice.This all took far longer than expected and was a bit messy , so a long clean up and the juice was beyond cloudy , it had a head on it Guinness would envy.
Next problem was the acidity reading was 4.5 and I had no Mallc acid powder (D'oh!) So quickly ordered some online (we don't have brewing supplies in Dublin anywhere but online!)
Added some sulphite and some Pectalese .....but not nearly enough and put juice in the fridge .
100g of Mallic acid arrived by Tuesday and after adding teaspoons and seeing the acidity barely move i chucked the lot in, regretting noy buying 200 g ....24 hours later acidity was 3.4 then added recommended sulphite for that reading and left for 24 hours (convinced the apple juice had probably gone off, or would go off )
Wednesday I pitched the yeast - Mangrove Jacks cider yeast and plugged the heating unit and inkbird setting the fridge to 20 degrees
By Saturday nothing had happened ....not a sign of fermentation ...so I asked SWMBO to taste the apple juice to see if it had gone off or it was worth ordering more yeast for a repitch (which wouldn't arrive until Tuesday as it's a bank Holday here)
She thought that the apple juice was fine but tasted very pectin heavy ...so added (lots) more Pectalese and gave it a good stir
Lo and behold about 2 pm today ,almost a week after the apples were juiced there is moderate activity in the fermentation bucket bubbler
God knows what it will taste like , but my takeaways from a week where a bucket of apple juice took up far more of my time and attention than is healthy for a grown man, are these
Scratting and juicing apples is laborious with the right equipment and a downright pain in the ass without
Have chalk , Pectalese and Mallic to hand ..as well as some back up yeast
Be unbelievably patient
Don't give up , its more forgiving than you think if you follow the basics (I hope)
Enjoy it ..even the failures