My cider story. Lucky or Dumb?

mojomoto · 12-31-2008, 06:52 PM

Heres my cider story.
This year i decided to juce my apples since i was feeling too lazy to peel and slice them for pies. I use an old hand crank meat grinder with the breading disk instaled. I washed the apples, quartered them, and didnt bother in coring them. I put an insolated water cooler under the grinder to catch the juice that comes out where the grinder screw mounts into the grinder (works great). The cooler has a spigot mounted about a half inch from the bottom. When I was grinding some of the smashed apple fell in along with alot of foam. When i was done juicing i drained the cooler with the spigot. Using the spigot i only get juce. no heavy sediment and no foam. After that i boiled all the juice. I know this isnt recomended but i was originaly just going to use the juce to drink as juice. Anyway i froze a few containers and put some in the fridge. I left three containers in the back of the fridge for about three months. They got plump with pressure. I tried about a cup full and it was really good. Great carbonazation with a little tartness. Its not really dry but I like it that way. Was this a dangerous way to make cider? I didnt get sick or go crazy. How long will it keep? Give me some advice.

scinerd3000 · 12-31-2008, 07:02 PM

sounds like you got some wild yeast fermenting away. You not gonna die....how do you think alcohol was first discovered. Some caveman ventured out of there mancave and found some randomly fermenting fruit or something and ate it. I dont suppos you took any type of gravity reading did you?

mojomoto · 12-31-2008, 07:37 PM

I am Mr. Nubie here and im guessing that the gravity is using some scientific device to check the alcohol content. I only have my mouth. Like a......a caveman! So you are in the "your lucky" vote side. Thank you.

scinerd3000 · 12-31-2008, 08:05 PM

a hydrometer tests gravity....(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydrometer)it shows you essentially the density of the liquid which in brewing equates to disolved sugars. If you know how much you start with and what it finishes at (a lower #), you can derive alcohol content and figure out if thew yeast is done based on how low it will usually drop down. There pretty cheap: Austin Homebrew Supply

Crawl through the cider threads and you should get some ideas...Welcome to HBT