Newbie help please

[lukertweek]

Hi there,
I am hopeful you guys may be able to help me and my friend as novice (first time actually) cider makers.

Essentially we have two apple trees in our garden as well as one pear tree. Tree one bears much more, larger fruit than tree two. Yesterday we got as many apples as we could from tree one and using our very loosely improvised press (using a car jack and a knocked together wooden frame etc) we managed to extract 17 litres of juice which we put into a sterilised fermentation bucker purchased from a home brew centre. We want to now gather fruit from tree 2 and press it too. However what we don't know and can't find an answer to anywhere on the web (so far) is how long we can leave the juice we have pressed already from tree 1 (we pressed it yesterday evening 04/09/13) before adding the sodium metabisulphite to kill the wild yeasts, so that we can add to it the juice from tree 2 apples. We are currently storing it at room temperature. I am concerned all the juice we have pressed may spoil before we can get the other juice pressed to add to it and then treat it all with the sodium metabisulphite.

NB: Today it is set to be very warm here as high as 27C

The other minor thing is can we add the pear juice too? Or should that be brewed seperately into pear cider/perry?

Many thanks in advance for your help.
Kind regards

 

[oldbloke]

Get the sod met in asap, it's what prevents the spoiling. You can always put a bit more in when you add the second batch of juice. It all gets processed away during the ferment.
You can keep the pear juice for perry or mix it in with the AJ for a different tasting cider. Up to you. If they're dessert pears they may not make great perry on their own.

 

[lukertweek]

Aha. I was kind of thinking that might be the way to go. I have cleared space in the fridge and have it in there last few hours. Will get the sodium metabisulphite in right away. Thanks for the kind advice.
Cheers

 

[lukertweek]

Get the sod met in asap, it's what prevents the spoiling. You can always put a bit more in when you add the second batch of juice. It all gets processed away during the ferment.
You can keep the pear juice for perry or mix it in with the AJ for a different tasting cider. Up to you. If they're dessert pears they may not make great perry on their own.

One more question. Would you know what quantity per litre of juice we should add using sodium metabisulphite please? We can only seem to find references to Campden tablets which we don't have.

Thanks

 

[oldbloke]

One more question. Would you know what quantity per litre of juice we should add using sodium metabisulphite please? We can only seem to find references to Campden tablets which we don't have.

Thanks

Moley answered this for somebody else last night, but I can't recall the details. Maybe search for his recent posts. The powder is a lot stronger than the Campden tabs.

Oh hang on, found it:
[channelling Moley]
One level 5ml teaspoonful is equivalent to 10 CTs.
I dissolve 2.5 tsps of SodMet powder in 250ml of water, keep that solution in an old finings bottle, and then use 10ml of solution in place of one CT.

 

[lukertweek]

Thanks a million OB. I found out the amount by calling the manufacturers in the end. However I like your tip seems like a sound way to go in future.

Cheers