Have an apple and a pear tree, some DIY skills, what next?

[Compact]

Hi

Can someone point me to the the beginners How to (i've read a few but non that seemed right)

For starting from scratch with apples on the tree and pears in a bucket.
I've lots of questions, but hopefully they will be answered in a post.

i.e. when do you make the cider, should the pears / apples be hard or soft or super soft?

I've watched a few YouTubes on making a carjack press, so will try to fashion one of those and will pop off to the local brew shop in Manchester for the demi john's and air lock.

Thanks in advance.

 

[DethApostle]

I will be making my first homegrown cider/perry this year too.
The process as I understand it is:

Harvest apples/pears
Allow to ripen or even go just over-ripe
Chop/crush fruit into pulp
Extract juice from pulp in a fruit press
Kill wild yeast, wait 3 days, pitch cultured cider yeast
OR
Allow wild yeast to do their thing

Cross fingers and hope for the best!

Good luck
DA

 

[Crastney]

apples can be windfall, or picked from tree, the riper they are the more sugars you get (and hence more alcohol), and riper apples are softer, so are easier to mash up, and extract juice.

apples can be picked, mashed and pressed all on the same day if you like. I stored after picking then remove any mouldy ones, and cut out any large bruises. Once mashed they will oxidise and turn brown rather quickly, most people accept this and are happy with the colour change. Mashed fruit should be juiced as soon as possible, to reduce the risk of spoilage - it can be stored in airtight container for maybe 24 hours. I wouldn't recommend that though. Freezing the fruit, and then defrosting it will break down cell walls, and make mashing and juicing easier and more efficient.

Pears are slightly harder, and freezing is a good idea, commercially pears are left pulped to 'macerate' for 24 hours, after pulping before pressing, which increases juice extraction. (again in sealed sterilised container).

once you have the juice, either go natural, and let wild yeast collanize and ferment your brew, or add camden tablets to stun wild yeast, leave for 24 hours for sulphites to disperse, and then add your own yeast culture.

 

[Compact]

Thanks for the replies
I've read that a lift and gentle twist shows when the fruit is ready to be picked.

What is the best way to store the apples and the pears until the are ripe and ready for mashing?
(My freezer is rather smaller and being filled with berries i've been picking)

I've currently got a gorilla rub of pears which are quite hard.

The apples I'd like to pick soon as by the time they hit the floor they're pounced upon by the little bugs

 

[Crastney]

apples are best stored somewhere cold/cool, seperated from each other - this is usually each in a twist of newspaper, then in layers on trays, or you can get those recycled paper trays with dimples in, each apple is a few mm away from it's nearest so no need to wrap individually - you can probably get some used ones from your nearest green grocer / fruit shop.

another way is single layer trays that stack, with newspaper top and bottom, with apples not touching.

remember to check every week or so to remove ones that are spoiling because as soon as one goes, the nearby ones go quickly too.

it's a bit of a faff, but it's the easiest way of bulk storage, with least risk of mass mouldyness.

Pears presumably dealt with in a similar way.

 

[Wetroads]

How many apples do you have?

If you want to just try your hand at it:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/CDGF-Fruit-Pres ... ss+6+litre

I have had my eye on one of these (bearing in mind I am obsessed with small scale brewing!). However, my apple tree has blessed me with the grand total of two apples this year, so even this is too big :lol: