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Does anyone have a recipie for an Apple Cider from scratch? I am thinking of using apple juice without preservative or even squashing apples?

I have been using the kits in the past and have always found that they are too dry due to all of the sugar being eaten out by the yeast.

I have tried adding 1kg of lactose and that has made a difference but am looking to start from scratch.

Many years ago I started with a box of granny smiths, a kilo of white sugar and some yeast. Jucied the apples, added the sugar, topped up with about 5 litres of water added the yeast and waited. Came up a bloody good cider. Bit tedious juicing all the apples through the sunbeam though. Also pricey if you have to pay too much for the box of apples (I scored mine for nix).

Blackrock Cider kit also makes a good cider, heap of posts around the forum.

Cheers,
Greg

i did 4.5Lt batch in a demi a while back. all i used was a 3.3Lt bottle of "Berri" apple juice (no preservatives), 800g of raw sugar and a handful of chopped raisn's (old trick from the family) with wine yeast. result was very sweet, but im not sure if the yeast took hold proberly (didn't make a starter). quite easy and great to drink, not too alcoholic.