guest1957 Posted September 25, 2014 Report Share Posted September 25, 2014 I have come into a large quantity of apples and pears. Has anyone made a passable cider by mixing the lot and fermenting it out as I intend to do? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
matth12321 Posted September 25, 2014 Report Share Posted September 25, 2014 What type of apples are they? They if you press them separately you can always mix them once fermented... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
39TDS Posted September 25, 2014 Report Share Posted September 25, 2014 Have to admit to never hearing of apples and pears being mixed. I think I would do it post fermentation. Mix all the apples up, don't use too many Bramley. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hesstondriver Posted September 26, 2014 Report Share Posted September 26, 2014 has anyone tried chucking a few blackberrys in with a cider brew ? Kopaberg seem to have made a few££ by doing it so I don't see why a hedgerow brew wouldn't work ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
birdsallpl Posted September 26, 2014 Report Share Posted September 26, 2014 There would be no problem in mixing the two juices prior to fermentation. It is all about sugar content. If you have never made cider before I suggest you stop the fermentation to leave a bit of sweetness still in the drink. It can be very dry and a bit bitter if left to completely ferment out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
matth12321 Posted September 26, 2014 Report Share Posted September 26, 2014 I work on an orchard and we make a lot of cider.... The way we get the different levels of sweetness is to back sweeten with juice once it has finished fermenting.... We also add black current and other flovour juices once it has fermented out.... If you stop fermenting the abv can be very low unless you are measuring with a refractomiter regularly it's hard to be accurate in stopping it. You can add all kinds of stuff once it's done, but it's easy to mess up a batch if you add it before. Matt Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Muddy Funker Posted September 27, 2014 Report Share Posted September 27, 2014 I work on an orchard and we make a lot of cider.... The way we get the different levels of sweetness is to back sweeten with juice once it has finished fermenting.... We also add black current and other flovour juices once it has fermented out.... If you stop fermenting the abv can be very low unless you are measuring with a refractomiter regularly it's hard to be accurate in stopping it. You can add all kinds of stuff once it's done, but it's easy to mess up a batch if you add it before. Matt If you back sweeten doesn't the fermentation kick off again with the added sugar? I've done loads of all grain ale brews but only recently a proper pressed fruit cider, we collected apples and pears from hedgerow crushed and pressed. I was amazed at how quickly it started fermenting naturally, less than 12 hours! How long should it be left in demijon? I'm not worried about it being too dry on this occasion, it's been in around 5 weeks. Cheers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
matth12321 Posted September 27, 2014 Report Share Posted September 27, 2014 If you back sweeten doesn't the fermentation kick off again with the added sugar? I've done loads of all grain ale brews but only recently a proper pressed fruit cider, we collected apples and pears from hedgerow crushed and pressed. I was amazed at how quickly it started fermenting naturally, less than 12 hours! How long should it be left in demijon? I'm not worried about it being too dry on this occasion, it's been in around 5 weeks. Cheers. Not if you've killed the yeast, you can leave it as long as you like it all depends on temperature, we have the fermentation room set to about 20/25 degrees and each barrel (1600 liters) stays in there about 9 months. There are lots of ways to kill the yeast but at home I've found the best way is to heat it to 64C for about 20 mins once the juice is added. You can also do it by putting it into bottles early but be ready to call the bomb squad! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
guest1957 Posted September 27, 2014 Author Report Share Posted September 27, 2014 So I made two demijohns of apple today. I used about 50% bramley and 50% mixed dessert apples including some wildlings to add some tannin. Tomorrow I intend to do a demijohn with about 25% bramley and 75% pear based on something I saw online. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Muddy Funker Posted September 28, 2014 Report Share Posted September 28, 2014 Not if you've killed the yeast, you can leave it as long as you like it all depends on temperature, we have the fermentation room set to about 20/25 degrees and each barrel (1600 liters) stays in there about 9 months. There are lots of ways to kill the yeast but at home I've found the best way is to heat it to 64C for about 20 mins once the juice is added. You can also do it by putting it into bottles early but be ready to call the bomb squad! Thanks for the reply. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kenj Posted October 6, 2014 Report Share Posted October 6, 2014 (edited) I've just started off three gallons of cider. Where I shoot, they usually let me raid the Bramley windfalls, which make up about about 50%, plus about another 10% of Cox's, the rest from mixed hedgerow apples, some quite sweet. This year the Bramley's and Cox's failed to fruit, so have made up this batch with mostly wild apples, plus 10lb of sweet red Royal Gala from my own trees. After we had mashed the fruit we realised that we had put about 10lb of quinces in the mash.The juice was not as sweet as usual, but is fermenting like the clappers. Quite interested to see how this lot turns out. I'm still on the lookout for some more apples for another batch. My blog : http://www.urbanfieldsportsman.com/index.php/cider-making/ Edited October 6, 2014 by kenj Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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