Making cider.....

Looking for cheap ways to be self sufficient i came across cider making,it seems quite easy to do,a bit of effort required and you end up with alcoholic cider or cider vinegar seems to be a winner both ways,anyone have any tips how to make a large apple press? also can the vinegar be used to pickle?


Here is a simple way to make cider (the alcoholic stuff). This is a traditional method of cider making that produces amazing results.

We tried making our own kitchen produced cider following this stunningly simple set of instructions (see below). The results exceeded our wildest dreams and I am planning another vintage pressing this year. We use a mix of Worcester Pairmain and Cox apples from our garden.

Choosing apples for making cider
1. Remove the fruit from your apple tree and wash your apples, discarding all magotty, rotten or mouldy specimens. Do not be tempted to buy apple juice at any point. Make Cider which tastes of real apples.

Pulping apples for making cider
2. Pulp the apples. There are many ways of doing this. For small volumes you can use an electric kitchen juicer or a blender. The more traditional method is to stand above a strong bucket half full of apples and hit the apples repeatedly with a heavy object. We tried both and eventually settled on using the blender with a grater attachement so effectively we push our apples through a cheesegrater.

Pressing apples for making cider
3. Now you have to press your apple pulp.

For small volumes a kitchen press such as this is fine, but if you want to make more than 2 or three gallons I suggest you invest in a bigger press. Our home made apple press consisted of four G-clamps and two pieces of old melamine board (an old kitchen worksurface).



We wrap apple pulp (with all apple presses you have to pulp the apples before pressing the juice out) in cheesecloth and place it between the boards and start turning the screws. The juice drips out on all four sides into a large shallow tray.

After two years we decided that to make cider in the quantities we wanted, we would have to buy a cider press.

Fermenting apples for making cider
4. Pour your juice into a cleaned and sterilized wooden keg from a home brewery supply store. You should fill the keg to the top. Having an only half-full keg is apparently a sure-fire recipe for vinegar.

5. No yeast needs to be added, traditional cider making relies on wild yeasts, so remove the bung on the top of the keg to let some yeast in. The fermentation starts in 1-2 days and you will see white froth bubbling up through the bung hole. Do not panic at this point.

6. Wait for for several weeks until fermentation stops and then replace the bung

Maturing cider
7. Leave your cider to mature for at least 8 months and then after tasting a sip to ensure it hasn't gone horribly wrong, invite some friends round to enjoy a strong (we got 9% alcohol) sweet and cloudy glass of traditional cider. Remember not to drink and drive.

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Tigger2 thanks for the reply,
   Yes we are losing a lot of quite valuable knowledge,i can understand how those poor people felt in the 1800s as the industrial revolution engulfed them taking away there freedoms and becoming totally reliant on mass production.Its when i hear modern stories of children living in inner cities never having seen a cow,horse etc i feel we are loosing our way on this planet,and if we did ever have a situation where our young ones had to become self sufficient who will teach them.