Looking for an Apple Cider recipe that uses real apples (not cider or juice from a store)

[billincsprings]

Have a bunch of apples this year, and would like to make them into a cider. Any ideas?

 

[TheMadKing]

Crush them, there's juice inside

 

[Golddiggie]

Heat pasteurize the juice you get.

 

[dmtaylor]

No recipe required. Juice plus yeast, whether wild yeast or your own, equals hard cider. The most difficult part is juicing the apples. The second most difficult part is having patience to let it ferment. There is truly, truly, nothing easier to ferment and have turn out excellent than cider.

 

[madscientist451]

Go on you tube and look for cheap ways to smash the apples and get the juice out using a couple of buckets and a car jack. Let the apples "sweat" or soften up for a month or so for better flavor. Keep an eye on them and pick out any that are going bad. You don't even have to add yeast if you don't want to, the cider will make itself without you doing a whole lot. However, adding your own yeast gives you more control. If you have a local home brew shop, I would suggest looking for 71-B wine yeast, or get some from an on line source.

 

[Golddiggie]

Along the lines of yeast to use/add (provided you pasteurize the juice first)... I've had great results using the Wyeast sweet mead yeast in my batches. It leaves 2-3% sugar in the cider so it doesn't go to dry. So far I've had my batches come out at about 6% ABV and are HUGE hits. I do add spices to mine (apple pie flavor profile) which is also a crowd pleaser.

Ultimately it really depends on what your target is for the batch. Do you WANT it to ferment to dry? If so, then 71-B or D47 would be good yeast choices. If not, then the Wyeast sweet mead yeast is a solid choice. I would advise adding yeast nutrient to the juice.

 

[Yooper]

I don't pasteurize my juice- I use potassium metabisulfite (campden tablets), 1 crushed tablet per gallon of juice, and let it sit for 24 hours before adding my yeast. That's it.

Now, if some of my apples aren't the best combination, I do add a few things. First, 12 hours after adding the campden, I add pectic enzyme to help break up the possible pectin haze in the juice. Ideally, the apples would be a combination of sharps, bittersharps, sweet, and bittersweet apples. However, since I get local wild apples and those from my trees, it's not a predictable mix so once the cider is finished I may add a bit (tiny bit!) of powdered wine tannin. Normally, the cider is plenty acidic but if not I may add some acid blend to it. That's really about it.

I used to freeze apples after letting them sweat in my garage, then smash them by hand, but about 10 years or so ago I got a cider press. Once they were smashed, I would ferment the pulp and juice together with the pulp in a bag, and then pull that pulp out and squeeze to "press" the apples. It was a pain, but it worked for years and years.

 

[TheMadKing]

Since I gave a totally unhelpful response before, I'll also add that I really like the flavor of wild fermented cider. You can replicate it to some extent while still maintaining control by using a blend of S04 dry yeast and your favorite Brett strain with some yeast nutrient.

I tend to like a very dry, barnyardy, funky old world style cider though and I think that's unusual

 

[Raptor99]

I used to freeze apples after letting them sweat in my garage, then smash them by hand, but about 10 years or so ago I got a cider press. Once they were smashed, I would ferment the pulp and juice together with the pulp in a bag, and then pull that pulp out and squeeze to "press" the apples. It was a pain, but it worked for years and years.

Is the freeze/smash method what you did before you had a cider press? Did you core the apples first, or freeze/smash them with the seeds and stems?

 

[Yooper]

Is the freeze/smash method what you did before you had a cider press? Did you core the apples first, or freeze/smash them with the seeds and stems?

I never used the stems, but froze them whole and then they would smash fairly easily with a big mortar and pestle type of set up.

 

[FLYPacNW]

I don't pasteurize my juice- I use potassium metabisulfite (campden tablets), 1 crushed tablet per gallon of juice, and let it sit for 24 hours before adding my yeast. That's it.

Now, if some of my apples aren't the best combination, I do add a few things. First, 12 hours after adding the campden, I add pectic enzyme to help break up the possible pectin haze in the juice. Ideally, the apples would be a combination of sharps, bittersharps, sweet, and bittersweet apples. However, since I get local wild apples and those from my trees, it's not a predictable mix so once the cider is finished I may add a bit (tiny bit!) of powdered wine tannin. Normally, the cider is plenty acidic but if not I may add some acid blend to it. That's really about it.

I used to freeze apples after letting them sweat in my garage, then smash them by hand, but about 10 years or so ago I got a cider press. Once they were smashed, I would ferment the pulp and juice together with the pulp in a bag, and then pull that pulp out and squeeze to "press" the apples. It was a pain, but it worked for years and years.

Same here. Pasteurizing is not necessary if you use potassium metabisulfite and are planning to get on with the fermentation. Pasteurizing is for drinking the juice.

 

[MtnGoatJoe]

One thing I like about pasteurizing my juice is that the process makes it shelf stable until I get around to fermenting it.

And I know intellectually that potassium metabisulfite isn't bad, but emotionally, I just don't like it. I want my drink 100% pure. There's no real logic to it; it is what it is.

 

[dmtaylor]

One thing I like about pasteurizing my juice is that the process makes it shelf stable until I get around to fermenting it.

And I know intellectually that potassium metabisulfite isn't bad, but emotionally, I just don't like it. I want my drink 100% pure. There's no real logic to it; it is what it is.

DITTO.

 

[Golddiggie]

The reason I don't chemically treat the cider I make (or anything else) with potassium metabisulfite (or anything like it) is there are people drinking the products that have a BAD reaction to those chemicals. Which is why I simply buy cider that's pasteurized and not worry about it.

The cider I'm getting is from a place not far from where I'm at (in NH), which makes me feel better too. IF the orchard a few towns over didn't do nothing to their cider, I would have bought that. I simply didn't want to deal with making sure the yeast I'm adding is the only one present. I like what I get from the known yeast (doesn't go to dry, without doing anything else).