![]() (This step is optional, depending on whether you have a lot of foam/ pulp floating at the top of your demijohn.) Put your demijohn on a tray or in a bowl, and keep it in a warm spot for about a day or so.Don’t get hung up on this step, as you can add more sugar later if the brew is turning out too dry or tart for your taste. Those of you in the USA may not really need to add much sugar, as most of the apples there tend to be really sweet. During the fermentation process, the yeast will eat the sugar (both the fructose from the fruit and the added sugar) and turn it into alcohol– so this step is both for flavor and alcohol level. I usually add about a cup of sugar to a gallon of juice, and I don’t like mine very sweet. This is where a little guesswork will come in, because the acidity and tannin content, as well as the sweetness of your fruit will vary. Once you have juiced all of your fruit, taste the juice and add sugar.Pour the juice into the demijohn, and get back to juicing. Your pulp (now called pommace) should be really dry when you’re done, and you can just compost it. My own juicer is not great, so I actually get 50% of the total juice this way. Put a couple heaping handfuls of pulp in the towel, and gather the edges and twist to wring out as much of the juice as possible. Place your sieve over a clean bowl, and line it with your kitchen towel. When the pulp container starts getting full, take a few minutes to squeeze the juice out of the pulp.Start juicing! As your juicer pitcher gets full, pour it through a funnel into a sterilized demijohn.You don’t need to worry about coring or taking stems out– the juicer will do that for you. Transfer chopped fruit to a clean bowl by your juicer. It’s nice to have a partner for this part, and it’s the perfect job for a kid with basic knife skills. Discard or cut around any that have an infested core, and cut out major bruises. This is mostly just to check for bugs or other issues with the apples. I don’t use any vinegar or veggie wash because I want to keep the yeast on the skins on the apples. I’ll include some modifications for these concerns at the end of the post. ![]() While this produces a very authentic English-style cider, I know that not everyone is comfortable with unpasteurized juice, and some don’t like to gamble with the flavor of wild yeasts. ![]() This means that I use the wild yeast already present on the fruit skins. Hopefully you can go get some apples, pears, or crab apples and make some drinks! Just a note before we get started– I make unpasteurized, wild cider. We have never had the luxury of using an apple press– maybe someday we will be so lucky, but for now we have a pretty good method just using a juicer. Quite a few people have asked me about how to make hard cider from whole apples, without using a press. While we worked, we enjoyed a couple glasses of our first batch– it’s fun to work on a home brewing project that you can drink so soon. We have been busy around here! There is so much fruit falling on the ground or withering on the branches, and we feel compelled to put as much of it as possible to good use! Yesterday, we started our third batch of hard cider so far this season. I may receive a commission if you purchase something mentioned in this post.
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