Homebrewed Cider

The shortest route to the shed from the front garden is through the house.  SOMEONE decided that carrying the straw bales through instead of around would be quicker.

Not for She Who Wields The Vacuum Cleaner. sigh.



So, Cider.

Last night, upon finding we were out of wine, I cracked open our first bottle of home made cider. And it was fantastic!!  I was really surprised, as I was expecting something along the lines of vinegar, but not at all, it was bubbly and crisp and wonderful. :)

The recipe I used is as follows...

You need:
Apples, campden tablets, pectin, yeast nutrient (lactose), wine yeast (I used champagne yeast) and a brewing vessel.

Method:
Crush the apples (we got cider apples from Shields orchard in Bilpin) and extract the juice, (I used our juicer, hell of a mess but the kids loved it).

To each 5 litres of juice, add two crushed campden tablets and let stand for 12 hours to kill the wild yeasts. Then add 1 teaspoonful each of pectic enzyme and yeast nutrient per 5 litres, plus some wine yeast. (For a medium-sweet style, add 50g of lactose per 5 litres, or a sweet style, add 100g lactose per 5 litres.)

Fit an air lock and allow to ferment right out. At this point bubbling will cease through the air lock and the hydrometer will show a reading of 1000. Leave to stand for a further two days to clear, then bottle, adding one teaspoonful of sugar to each bottle.

Here is my post on the early stages (and also how much I hate kites). http://caitlynnicholas.blogspot.com/2010/04/kites-cider-and-pesto.html

The cider will be ready to drink in 3 to 4 weeks, but will be much better if left for 3 to 6 months.