Cider from apples..

[Clint]

Hello all
Seeing as I now have a few apple trees...can anyone point me in the direction of making cider from scratch..

Thanks!

 

[Rigsby666]

Seeing as I now have a few apple trees...can anyone point me in the direction of making cider from scratch..

You still interested in doing this Clint? If you are and still need some advice, I may be of some use.

 

[Clint]

Hiya
Yes still thinking about it although whether it's this year or next ...

 

[An Ankoù]

You'll need a scratter and a press. Entry level of about £300+ if you're going to buy. Plenty of info online about making your own. I used a garden shredder for years to chop the apples and made my own press. Have a great crop this year so I'll be digging it out.

 

[stan.distortion]

See what it's going to cost for everything you need for pulping and pressing, I'd tried it with poor equipment and it took almost an entire day for just 2 gallons! It shouldn't take a whole lot, a while back there was a thread with decent size fruit presses for under 100 quid and something to go in a drill to pulp the apples shouldn't be too hard to find.

 

[An Ankoù]

https://www.brewuk.co.uk/cider-kits/cider-presses/presses.htmlGo for the 20 litre press.
But not the Pulp Master. It'll take you ages:
https://www.brewuk.co.uk/cider-kits/cider-presses/pulp-master.html
This press is even better value
https://www.themaltmiller.co.uk/product/30l-fruit-press-apple-wine-cider-incl-pulp-bag/and one of the two on the right for breaking the apples:
https://www.themaltmiller.co.uk/product-category/food-drink-craft/cider/fruit-mills/
But I used to use something like this, kept for shredding apples only, when I was in the UK. You may already have one.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Einhell-34...eywords=garden+shredder&qid=1595254141&sr=8-3

 

[Joust]

I did it last year.

I used a kitchen blender to chop the apples. Then put them in small batches in a small fruit press that I borrowed from a mate. (He said it was 30 quid).

It took ages and made a mess. But after 3 or 4 hours i got about 20L of juice.

The cider was ok. No different from using supermarket juice though, annoyingly.

 

[Loonytoone]

I don't pulp apples anymore.
Quarter them with a sharp knife, or cut smaller if they are large.
Bag them and put them in the freezer for a day or two.
After that you can just thaw them and press them with no or little effort.
For pressing, I am currently using a small fruit press but am planning to make a larger one from a hydraulic jack and some wood, eventually...

 

[Sinktipper]

I did it last year.

I used a kitchen blender to chop the apples. Then put them in small batches in a small fruit press that I borrowed from a mate. (He said it was 30 quid).

It took ages and made a mess. But after 3 or 4 hours i got about 20L of juice.

The cider was ok. No different from using supermarket juice though, annoyingly.

My neighbour made cider with donated apples a couple of years ago, I didn't get to try it but it seemed a lot of effort for not a lot of cider. Fun, though. He also said my turbo cider was better than his real stuff (and my turbo cider is quite horrible).

 

[Gerryjo]

LIDL had one of these on sale earlier and will probably be back and just under a £100.
Screwfix have one of these for £100

 

[Joust]

(and my turbo cider is quite horrible).

 

[Sinktipper]

It is. I wince it down. I make it for the neighbours.

 

[foxy]

Bottle the apples, use the cores and peel and make cider vinegar. So easy.

 

[Bernie]

I've just pressed apples for the first time. Used a scratter and a 20 l press. A net to retain the apples in the press is essential. 9 kg of apples gave about 4 litres.

 

[Cwrw666]

It's hard work! I've got a few cider apple trees which I press having first frozen the apples - when they thaw the apples will have turned soft and mushy which makes the pressing much easier.
I dilute my juice with tesco apple juice (which is from desert apples) about 50/50 which makes the finished cider much better balanced.
Tip - after picking your apples store them in a trug or something for a few weeks before freezing them. This reduces the acidity of the juice by a lot.

 

[Leon103]

A local whole foods store have a juicing day where you bring your Apple's and they do they work for you. You may have something similar locally to you.

 

[Shirley Bassett]

I can recommend the garden shredder as a scratter. I modified the top to get whole apples in. I catch the scrat in large plastic tubs, the kind that plasterers use for mixing in.

I remove the blade and exposed moving parts after use, and washed them down and dry them. They are then stored in sunflower oil. This is washed off prior to reassembly. I then spray them with Starsan prior to use.

I made a pressing board from inch marine ply and put a rim around it, screwed down from underneath and sealed with food grade silicon sealant.

The pressing board has a modified sink waste, with plug, to allow the juice to drain into the fermenting vessel. It also has a raised centre section.

I cut the top off a bucket about 3 inch deep to act as a cheese former. The cheeses are made by lining them with muslin, adding the scrat and then wrapping the muslin over to seal them. They are made on individual boards of inch marine ply and stacked. I can press 5 of these at a time.

The press Is a cross beam type that I made from an oversized (thicker) version of a pallet. I use a 6 ton bottle jack as the pressing mechanism. It is helpful to put a sacrificial piece of wood between the press top beam and the piston of the bottle jack, to prevent damage to the beam.

For 2kg of apples I get around 1 litre of juice, so based on weight the system is around 50% efficient.

The real faff is making the cheeses,

I used to try and get every last drop out of the scrat, but quickly realised that most of the juice comes out on first pressing.

If there’s one scratting and one pressing, then we can get around 40 litres of juice per hour.

Cost was less than £100.

You’ll never make a living off it, but if you like cider, then it’s far nicer than turbo cider.

I had a few bad batches allowing the juice to ferment off natural yeast, so nowadays I use Campden Tablets and wait 24 hours before adding packet yeast. I normally buy a 100g bag of cider yeast and added a good heaped teaspoon to each fermenting vessel.

I joined freecycle and put out adverts on the surrounding area(s) asking for apples and pears for cider and Perry, in return for some of the product back.

I have a really good network of donators in the local area, and most of them contact me each year to offer excess fruit, once they had tried their own cider. Some even saved me the bottles.

Good luck with your project.

 

[MagnusTS]

Might be worth checking your local allotment society. Our allotment runs a juicing day in autumn. They hire a big scratter and press for the day. You just bring in your apples, and containers for the juice, and you're done in 20 mins. They even gave me a load of spare cooking apples 'to improve my cider' last autumn. You might have to pay membership fees to the allotment, ours is £3 per year as an associate member (no plot, but use of the cheap shop).

 

[Hagrid]

I’m toying with this idea too. There’s some great ideas here, thanks guys.

I’ve found plans for a press I plan on building with a friend but wondering about cheap scratter. Would a neat mincer work? I like the idea of freezing the apples first. Is there any change of flavour from this?

 

[Shirley Bassett]

You can pick up a garden shredder for free, if you are quick and lucky. Try Freecycle.org and join your local group. You can put out a “wanted notice for one”. People also put them on eBay for about £20 to £30.

If they are badly soiled you can always soak the blades and metal parts in full fat Coca Cola to get the crap off them, then wire brush them, or sonic bath them if you have access to one.

Once you’ve opened up the top you can get about 80 to 100kg an hour through one.

I’ve never frozen apples, but I would imagine you need a lot of freezer space to get a significant amount of juice, and I guess it would turn them to pulp, which may lead to excessive amounts of sediment getting through the pressing fabric. This is a problem I’ve found if you try to scrat very ripe pears.

With regards to apple mix, then cookers do improve the flavour complexity, as do crab apples, but only add 10% crabs, or 30% cookers to dessert apples.

A good source of apples is roadside lay-bys as people discard cores, and they have germinated.

When I first started making cider from fruit I toyed with the idea of starting a craft business called Road Cider, for the reason above. However, my Mrs said If you’re involved it should be called Rogue Cider.