New to home cider making

[Bristol43]

Hi All,

I’ve just joined the forum as I’m looking to start making my own cider.
I think I understand the basic process, and will try some small batches as practice to start off with.
I’ll probably use shop bought pure 100% Apple juice first, but eventually want to press my own apples with a press that I’m going to make.
I don’t have access to any free apples when it comes to harvest time, so wondered where people get large quantities of apples from to make roughly 5 gallons? Local farms? Green grocers? Wholesale supplier?
Any advice would be much appreciated.

Cheers.

 

[Chippy_Tea]

I don’t have access to any free apples when it comes to harvest time, so wondered where people get large quantities of apples from to make roughly 5 gallons? Local farms? Green grocers? Wholesale supplier?
Any advice would be much appreciated.

Most members use 100% apple juice from the supermarket its 69 pence per litre so approx £15 to make 5 gallons of cider - Growers Harvest Pure Apple Juice 1 Litre - Tesco Groceries

A great how to guide here - How to make Turbo Cider.

 

[VW911]

Scrumping. Used to love it as a kid, and still do now!!!

 

[VW911]

Seriously, the best ciders (in my opinion) are made with a mixture of apples. Scrumping helps, as you can't really stroll off with several kgs of apples. So, a few here, and a few there means that they probably won't be missed, and you end up with a half decent cider!
Some people are more that happy to give away windfalls, but that takes the fun out of it!

 

[Bristol43]

Seriously, the best ciders (in my opinion) are made with a mixture of apples. Scrumping helps, as you can't really stroll off with several kgs of apples. So, a few here, and a few there means that they probably won't be missed, and you end up with a half decent cider!
Some people are more that happy to give away windfalls, but that takes the fun out of it!

I did wonder how people could make homemade cider without access to large quantities of free apples. After reading the forum a bit more it seems most people use shop bought juice.

I’ll have a go at that first, then see if I can get my hands on a smaller quantity of apples to possibly make 5 litres.

I’ve read that a mixture of apples is good, somewhere around 70% dessert to 30% cooking seems to be the ratio. I like a medium dry cider around 6 or 7%, so will be hoping to make something like that.

 

[VW911]

Generally, 90% dessert to 10% cookers or crabs.
Most apple juice will ferment to about the %age you are looking for.

 

[Hytower]

We used a mixture of apples from the trees in my garden, and farm pyo ones.
using supermarket juice is easier, i also used crabapples in the last supermarket batch to give it some je ne sais quoi, however that one is still bubbling, so jury is still out. . . .

 

[BrewMeHappy]

Scrumping isn't something I have heard of for years. Good work though

I was given a few bucket loads of apples a couple of years ago and, to be honest, it was hard work extracting the juice with a juicer. A press is probably much easier but shop bought apple juice is the easy way to go for me though.