Introducing myself with first batch of 2022

[Vindicator]

Hi All,

I have been lurking on this forum for about a year picking up tips since I started making cider last year, thought time to introduce myself.

I moved in to a new house in 2020 on the site of an old farm that had a Bramley orchard. 3 trees remain of that orchard in my back garden. They produce insane numbers of Bramley apples and there is only so much apple crumble/baked apples/bags you can give away!

in at attempt to use them up, I decided to give cider making a go the following year and produced ~40L in 5 batches. I experimented with alcohol, bottle conditioning etc and surprisingly for my wife, was actually drinkable. Style is bone dry, tart (from the single Bramley variety) with a light fizz from bottle conditioning. Many have described the product as apple Prosecco.

This year, drought in the UK and a more severe Codling Moth infestation has caused a late proportion of the crop to fall already. No matter, have cut the moth‘d bits out and started 1st batches early. Base juice was surprisingly good.

Hope to post more in time.​

 

[Rwilts]

Welcome

 

[starseeker]

Welcome,
Good to have you here

 

[The Baron]

Welcome

 

[Chippy_Tea]

Welcome to the forum

 

[jezbrews]

If you haven't seen it already, I really recommend this brilliant website which helped me to use microscales, precipitated chalk and malic acid to make a turbo cider with Aldi apple juice that you could mistake for being off the shelf, crystal clear amber colour and medium dry with good carbonation, not prosecco level like is often the case with homebrew cider (due to high attenuation of fruit sugars) but sparkling.

http://www.cider.org.uk/frameset.htm
On the left, under The Science of Cidermaking, check out juice and fermentation.


If you feel it is too highly carbonated and/or dry, I recommend measuring the gravity over the course of a few days, twice a day (say, Friday evening, Saturday morning, Saturday evening, Sunday morning and Sunday evening) evenly spaced apart to get a good idea of the rate of fermentation. Decide what final gravity you want for the style you like, bottle it and then based on the time that elapses for your brew to achieve the gravity points needed, then pasteurise the bottles to end further fermentation. It worked a charm for me but you may want to keep the bottles in a shed or garage to be on the safe side.

Sorry if this is stuff you already knew well, just thought better shared than not. Who are you getting your yeast from? I assume it's proper cider yeast.

 

[Vindicator]

If you haven't seen it already, I really recommend this brilliant website which helped me to use microscales, precipitated chalk and malic acid to make a turbo cider with Aldi apple juice that you could mistake for being off the shelf, crystal clear amber colour and medium dry with good carbonation, not prosecco level like is often the case with homebrew cider (due to high attenuation of fruit sugars) but sparkling.

http://www.cider.org.uk/frameset.htm
On the left, under The Science of Cidermaking, check out juice and fermentation.


If you feel it is too highly carbonated and/or dry, I recommend measuring the gravity over the course of a few days, twice a day (say, Friday evening, Saturday morning, Saturday evening, Sunday morning and Sunday evening) evenly spaced apart to get a good idea of the rate of fermentation. Decide what final gravity you want for the style you like, bottle it and then based on the time that elapses for your brew to achieve the gravity points needed, then pasteurise the bottles to end further fermentation. It worked a charm for me but you may want to keep the bottles in a shed or garage to be on the safe side.

Sorry if this is stuff you already knew well, just thought better shared than not. Who are you getting your yeast from? I assume it's proper cider yeast.

Thanks for the link - very helpful

i use cider yeast (Gervin GV13) and as I prefer bone dry so ferment all the way to FG 1.000 and then bottle condition.

I have done some batches by killing yeast with Camden and adding an inhibitor before bottling, but had already gone to 1.000. I did add a bit of sugar back to level I would bottle condition at, but end product too sweet for me

 

[jezbrews]

Ah fair enough, if that's what you like then that's fair! Very lucky to have access to all those. Do you think you'll ever try propagating to plant more?

 

[Vindicator]

Ah fair enough, if that's what you like then that's fair! Very lucky to have access to all those. Do you think you'll ever try propagating to plant more?

…That’s not to say I am not open to experimenting. Each batch has been a progression where I have tweaked something then decided if I like or not.

The trees are old with one not producing as much as others. Propagating to preserve them may be something to try.

 

[klaus]

Welcome - Looking good!