Topic: Cider

[owtfornowt]

Anyone out there making cider I’m looking for tips on brewing and ideas on anything related to it.

[Beersmith]

What varieties of apple tree are you growing?  Or at least what varieties of apple can you obtain in sufficient quantities to produce the unfermented apple juice?

You are unlikely to produce a traditional cider from a modern dessert apple, nor a modern sweet light cider from a heritage cider apple.  The apple type will be a big influence on what you can do.

[peanuts]

This question  reminds me of our early married days back in 1970s.  We used to make homemade fruit wine, soaking the fruit in water.  One year we prepared lots of apples from a glut, probably a mix of Bramley and James Grieves, which is what we had. We used a large black plastic dustbin, left it covered outside, stirring occasionally,  but at some stage completely forgot all about it. Weeks later we remembered, tasted it, and hey presto, we had produced a quite respectable "cider" .  We drank all of it!  Never done it since!

[BarriedaleNick]

A mate of mine does it - he collects lots of different types of apples from friends and neighbours to get a decent brew.
Gets a couple of mates round to help as he has to manually chop them up and then presses them - he had to buy a small press but they are reasonable.
Then the juice goes into demijohns to ferment.  That's it! 
Lot's of work and mess but done in a long afternoon - 7 gallons he got last year.

[ancellsfarmer]

Locally we have the Garden Cider Co,
which is a crop-share scheme
http://www.thegardencidercompany.co.uk/about-us/4589410878
There may be others across the country.Perhaps members can share their knowledge with us all.

[owtfornowt]

I’m hoping to make something drinkable with James grieves, falstaf, and various other unknown varieties. I’ve done a bit of research some do it with a lot of science involved some just juice the apples stick it in a fermenting barrel and hey lets get merry.

[Beersmith]

I’m hoping to make something drinkable with James grieves, falstaf, and various other unknown varieties. I’ve done a bit of research some do it with a lot of science involved some just juice the apples stick it in a fermenting barrel and hey lets get merry.

Go for it. My old dad - with little or no expertise - used to produce a very drinkable light white wine from his surplus apples. His tree was a very old Newton wonder. Huge crops but only every other year as the tree had developed a strong biennial cropping pattern. Good luck!

[ACE]

They say a dead dog will give it flavour


In eighteen hundred and forty-nine, in a little cider mill,
A poor old dog lay down to rest, for he was feeling ill;
He chose a most precarious perch, above the apple press,
And in his sleep he tumbled in and perished in distress.
This caused his master for to grieve, likewise his mistress too,
And so their sorrows to relieve, they sampled of the brew;
"Gadzooks," cried Farmer Afwater, "the likes I ne'er did sup;
Let's summon all the neighbors in, and bid them take a cup."

Now, here's to Dead Dog Cider, the best there is by far;
Here's to Dead Dog Cider, no moaning at the bar;
You can search this wide world over, find many a beer or ale;
But, when you've tried Dead Dog Cider – your search will be curtailed!

Now everyone that drank that night got drunk as drunk could be,
And wondered how the scrumpy had acquired such potency;
The farmer kept his council, as he took another drop,
When all at once that poor old dog came floating to the top.

A silence fell around the room, and everyone did frown,
For they recognized old Bendigo, though he was upside down;
The parson lost his color and collapsed upon the floor,
And the squire split his britches in the rush to reach the door.

Now, here's to Dead Dog Cider, the best there is by far;
Here's to Dead Dog Cider, no moaning at the bar;
You can search this wide world over, find many a beer or ale;
But, when you've tried Dead Dog Cider – your search will be curtailed!

"Oh, halt!" cried Farmer Afwater, "For in his life I vow,
He never bit man nor beast, nor will he bite ye now;
And this shall be his epitaph, 'Here lies old faithful Ben
Who perished in the cider vat, only to rise again.'"

So if you're down in Devon, and you stops off at a bar,
Just call for Dead Dog Cider, it's the best there is by far;
Refuse all imitations; you'll sleep just like a log,
You can always recognize it by – the hair of the dog.

Now, here's to Dead Dog Cider, the best there is by far;
Here's to Dead Dog Cider, no moaning at the bar;
You can search this wide world over, find many a beer or ale;
But, when you've tried Dead Dog Cider – your search will be curtailed!
Yes, when you've tried Dead Dog Cider – your search will be cur-tailed!

[Beersmith]

They say a dead dog will give it flavour

Now, here's to Dead Dog Cider, the best there is by far;

Brilliant stuff. (I mean the song not the brew).
In the grand tradition of cockerel ale.

"Cockerel ale, popular in 17th and 18th-century England, was an ale whose recipe consisted of normal ale brewed inside a container, to which was later added a bag stuffed with a parboiled, skinned and gutted cockerel, and various fruits and spices."