gravity of pure apple juice?

[chris.]

No grief taken drsmurto its all good , Chris i bet your are easily suprised then lmao great forum

& how does it feel to have no arse?

[dragonphoenix73]

I too am looking at making an apple cider from scratch, so I await with curiosity and baited breath as to how your experiment goes, drsmurto!

I have found a certified organic orchard not too far from home, and they have cidering apples quite cheap. I don't know what makes an apple a "cider" apple, but there must be a reason.

I was actually wondering whether you couldn't use honey in the initial fermenting process to bring out the sweetness - thoughts anyone?

Are you planning to bottle your cider into standard bottles, or are you going o keg it? I was thinking of using those sherry bottles (about 5litres?) coz we have a heap we found buried next to the shed down on our block - caps and all!! I would like a nice wooden keg but don't know where to look.

I'm making this for our Handfasting Ceremony in June, and apples are in season now, so I better get onto it.

Does Cider get better with age?

[KEG]

i wouldn't use sherry bottles if i was you unless you're making a really low carbonation cider. they're not designed to take the pressure, and may well go kaboom..

[dragonphoenix73]

Thanks for that....

...I'll stick to the regular long-necks....

....unless someone knows where I can get hold of a genuine rustic keg?

[drsmurto]

Experiments are go!

Got 4kg of royal gala apples and juiced. Ended up with ~3L of juice!

So 1 longneck has the juice, nothing else. Leaving at room temp (25ish) covered in glad wrap to see what the wild yeast in the apples does.....

The rest of the juice got a 24 hour treatment with campden tablets (sodium met) and then added a small amount of yeast from a coopers ale kit i had saved. Gladwarp and same temp conditions. Had action in this bottle within 30 mins! Now just have to wait and see how they go. Got an SG of 1056 but think thats far too high due to the cloduiness of the juice. The FG is the one i am interested, as well as the taste etc.

Looked at a house ot buy a few hours ago, it has 4 huge apple trees so hope this experiment wokrs out and my offer is accepted......

Cheers
DrSmurto

[gregb]

Got an SG of 1056 but think thats far too high due to the cloduiness of the juice.

May be affected by the cloudyness, but if the clear juice from Granny Smith was 1048 it doesn't seem that far out. Royals are generally the sweeter of the two.

Looked at a house ot buy a few hours ago, it has 4 huge apple trees so hope this experiment wokrs out and my offer is accepted......

Only really hinges on acceptance of the offer, if you get the trees then it'll either be another experiment or full scale production, eh.

Cheers,
Greg

[drsmurto]

Loads of yeast in the bottom of the ones using the coopers yeast, the natural one is hard to tell, i also didnt 'filter' the juice for the natural one so it has a lot of pithiness floating on top but thats how the bretons do it so will let it go, if no action in a few more days i will take the gladwrap off and let nature have a go......

Put in an offer on the house with the apple trees this morning. Not sure what apples they are, one is possibly granny smith. It also has apricot, nectarine and fig trees. And the garage has been converted to a bar.....

Full scale production of cider.....

Cheers
Mark

[gregb]

Let us know what time the housewarming is.

Cheers,
Greg

[drsmurto]

Cider experiments in full swing!







Cheers
DrSmurto