TITLE: Making Cider
DATE: 2018-09-29
AUTHOR: John L. Godlee
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Last weekend I went down to my parents’ house to make some cider.
Our neighbour has a cider press and a load of demijohns. We got
enough apples for about 100 litres of cider and plenty of bottles of
apple juice.

We got apples from three different gardens in the village, so we had
plenty of variety. There were a few unknown varieties but the
majority of the apples came from a Lady Sudeley tree, which has very
pink sweet apples, sometimes even the skin is pink. We also had some
bramley cookers and various green dessert apples. In preparation I
went to the Brewstore in Edinburgh and got a few different types of
yeast. I got a Sweet Bulldog Brews Cider Yeast, a Medium Brewstore
Premium Cider Yeast, and a Dry Fermentis SafCider Yeast.

The process went like this. First we floated the apples in water to
wash off any bits of bird muck, or insects.

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Then we cut the apples into thick slices.

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Then we put the slices through a garden shredder, like the one [seen
here], which produces a juicy pulp. Then we put the pulp into the
cider press and filled up buckets from the pressed pulp.

  [seen here]: https://www.bosch-garden.com/gb/en/garden-tools/garden-tools/axt-rapid-2200-3165140430579-199967.jsp

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Finally, we mixed the different juices in demijohns and added the
yeast.

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I wrote on the demijohns the combinations of apples and the yeast I
used.

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This is a rundown of the apples and yeast combinations:

Fruit:

-   LS - Lady Sudeley - West Farm
-   BM - Bramley - David Burk’s
-   GE - Green Eaters - Mike Cooper’s
-   GD - Green Dessert - Mike Cooper’s - Have a few cooking apples
    mixed in, maybe 5-10%
-   P - Pears - West Farm

Yeast:

-   S - Sweet - Bulldog Brews Cider Yeast
-   M - Medium - Brew Store Premium Cider Yeast
-   D - Dry - Fermentis SafCider
-   B - Generic dried bread yeast
-   P - Pear peel

Combinations, a demi-john each:

  fruit                            yeast
  -------------------------------- -------
  30% LS, 70% GD                   S
  30% LS, 70% GD                   M
  30% LS, 70% GD                   D
  50% BM, 50% GE                   M
  50% BM, 50% GE                   S
  50% LS, 50% GD                   P
  50% LS, 50% GD                   B
  50% LS, 50% GD                   D
  50% LS, 50% GD                   M
  50% LS, 50% GD                   S
  100% LS                          D
  100% LS                          S
  100% P                           M
  25% BM, 25% GE, 35% GD, 15% LS   D

Now we have to wait a few months until the fermentation finishes and
all the sediment comes out of the brew, then I’ll re-rack the cider
before bottling it. Then another few weeks in the bottle and it’s
ready to drink. So I think probably by Christmas it’ll be ready.