Cider - Apples

fryup

I was told that bramble apples are not the best for home brew cider is this correct?

I have a selection of eaters and cookers in the garden can i mix them?

oblivious

lots of people mix to to get different lfavor, eaters of sweetnes and suger devlopemt and some cookers of acid and tannins


Bu the are specfice cider apples that are grown

evolving_doors

If you can't get your hand on 'cider' apples (who can!!) ..
a blend of eating apples + 20% cooker (sometimes called bramley but I think they're not actually bramley!!),, i think cox's pippin are recommended in the mix although couldnt find them anywhere this year.

Do you know what type your eaters are?

I just used a mix of 6 types.. seriously lacking in tannin, so a bit of bite was needed, i brewed the arse out of darjeeling and assam and added 1 cold cup to the gallon (could have added more i reckon as it was still 'soft' enough).

fryup

Armelodie wrote: »

Do you know what type your eaters are?

nope haven't got a clue, my old man planted the trees way back in the 80s:cool:

> anyway i haven't got enough apples to fill my 5gallon fermenting bucket, i'm about 1gallon short of juice- so can i add water or apple concentrate to it or will that spoil the taste?

loyatemu

fryup wrote: »

nope haven't got a clue, my old man planted the trees way back in the 80s:cool:

> anyway i haven't got enough apples to fill my 5gallon fermenting bucket, i'm about 1gallon short of juice- so can i add water or apple concentrate to it or will that spoil the taste?

top up with Lidl cloudy apple juice.

how many apples did you press to get 4 gallons btw? I have approx 70 lbs (mostly single variety) ready to go but no idea how much juice I might get out of them.

SalmoTheLeaper

You could try adding some of those tiny decorative crab apples to the mix, they're loaded with tannins!

If anyone is interested in getting proper cider apples, you should check out www.talatonplants.co.uk they're a fruit nursery based in devon, UK and will post bare root trees over to Ireland no probs! They have a great range of traditional cider apple trees, I rang them and they are pretty helpful & v. reasonable prices too.

Apples are about 75-80% juice, so depending on how you press them you should be able to get up to that amount of liquid off them- it depends on how many tonnes of pressure you can apply.

oblivious

Irish seed savers also sells some native cider apple trees too!http://store.irishseedsavers.ie/products/search/?product_keyword=cider&x=0&y=0

fryup

loyatemu wrote: »

how many apples did you press to get 4 gallons btw? I have approx 70 lbs (mostly single variety) ready to go but no idea how much juice I might get out of them.

Generally speaking its 20 lbs per gallon so 70 lbs would be just shy of 4 gallons.

> Anyway i didn't bother with the concentrate in the end, i decided 4 gallons was plenty.

Today before i put the juice into the demijohns i did a quick reading with a wine hydrometer and got a reading of 1050...so what should the ideal reading be at the end of fermation?

evolving_doors

Ya about 20 pounds to the gallon

4 gallons of cider should see you through the winter anyhow no!!!

Just wondering if you added any tea/ what yeast did you use too?

Cheers

fryup

tea i used cider yeast

i basically followed the recipe here

the video at the bottom of the page is the best cider making video on the web imo

loyatemu

fryup wrote: »

tea i used cider yeast

i basically followed the recipe here

the video at the bottom of the page is the best cider making video on the web imo

good video and instructions on that site - another good source of information. Still need to find a decent sized tray for the bottom of my press - I'm assuming this needs to be fairly sturdy due the pressure?

evolving_doors

Tea for that bit of pucker, other wise it'll be a bit to soft and sweet with all the desert apples...usually desert apples dont have enough tannin compared to cider apples.

fryup

Armelodie wrote: »

Tea for that bit of pucker

i see, you learn something new everyday

round tower huntsman

we use a mix of crab,cooking and eating apples. i think a mix is best.

hardCopy

I've been offered a couple of crates of cooking apples.

I assume I can just press these and add some lidl juice to fill my fermenter.

Will I need much tea or malic acid if I use cooking apples?