Hello all! Cider fan here wanting to make my own.

Bootcutboy · Oct 23, 2013

Hi all

This is both my introduction and my first question, intro first.

I love Cider, most kinds of cider and I used to live in bournemouth and drank all sorts of weird and wonderful local Dorset ciders whilst there. I am now in Teesside though and into my fourth year off work with a spinal injury and would finally love to start brewing my own home brews, partly as a hobby as i am keen to learn and partly to keep me busy and stocked up with booze while I am off work.

My partner bought me a cider making kit for my birthday which i just made up today, it wasnt from real apples, just a concentrate tin. It was a brewmaker Cider De Luxe tin and i have made it in the fermentation bucket with airlock in the top, could someone advise me on the next steps with this process? I know i am supposed to bottle it in 5 to 8 days but how long after that until it is drinkable please? any advice would be brilliant as i am a total and utter newbie.

Thanks all.

oldbloke · Oct 23, 2013

Don't bottle it until *at*least* 8 days, maybe longer. Do you have a hydrometer you can use to check if it's done? Or will you be able to see if it's nice and clear?
Once bottled, it wants a couple of weeks warm for the priming sugar to make gas and a couple of weeks cold for the gas to be absorbed into the cider. Longer is better, but a kit ought to be fine in that time.

You will probably enjoy the turbocider threads in the Wine & Cider How To section

Be careful with your back injury - hefting full fermenting vessels about can aggravate it. Use the proper lifting technique!

Bootcutboy · Oct 23, 2013

Hi oldbloke, thanks for taking the time to reply. I did get a hydrometer in with my kit, i am going to have to research this a bit as i haven't got the foggiest idea what it does, could you tell me very simply what this basically does please? One thing i may have done wrong is half fill my bubble airlock with water straight from the tap, not sterilised water, will this matter?

I will certainly check out the turbowine section, one of my faves has always been Old Rosie.

Also i do actually have some demijohns and half a dozen carrier bags of apples to try making some proper stuff so if anyone can suggest any great simple cider making tutorials or youtube vids that you would suggest for a newbie cider brewer that would be cracking please.

oldbloke · Oct 23, 2013

The hydrometer measures the Specific Gravity, which changes as the sugar turns to alcohol. You can take readings before the yeast goes in and at the very end, and use the difference to calculate the ABV.
More simply, you can use it to see if something's finished fermenting: wines finish at 0.99x, ales at 1.00x, ciders, well, anywhere from 0997 to 1004.
Making turbocider I rarely bother, I just wait until it clears then bottle it. That works fairly well for most wines too.

I use tap water in my airlocks - everything goes OUT through them, not in. But I do sanitise them beforehand.

There are a whole bunch of recent cider threads on here from people who've been making small batches from real apples. Got a decent food processor?

Bootcutboy · Oct 23, 2013

Wow this is a whole new world all this brewing malarky, thanks for the info on the SG, makes a little more sense now, only a little though haha.

I do not unfortunately have a decent blender, i have just read that this can lead to the pips being crushed and this is not good for the cider? Anyway i have approx 3 carrier bags full of gorgeous looking apples to juice, what i do have is fair sized vice on my garage workbench, are you aware of any methods to extract juice with vices?

Also just read the phrase "rack off" the cider, what does this mean please?

Great forum this, very very helpful, i am hooked already!!

oldbloke · Oct 23, 2013

Dunno about using a vice, but if you smash up the apples with a bit of 2x4 the simplest press I've seen is a couple of sturdy chopping boards with the apple pulp in a bag between them and a G clamp at each corner. If you've only a few to do that could work out OK.

Racking is siphoning the good stuff off the crud that falls to the bottom.