Making Cider with local apples, is it worth it?

I've got a lot of friends with apple trees in their yard that just let the apples go to waste. These are all various types of eating apples and it just kills me to see them go to waste. I've been wanting to make hard cider for some time now and thought this would be a perfect opportunity. After reading the fourm I'm kind of hesitant to use these. Is it possible to make decent hard cider with these? I'm not looking to make a competition worthy cider, and I'm not worried about the time it takes, I'm just looking to use the wasted apples up. So.....is it worth my time using these apples? or should I not bother. I have a press I can use and I have the apples why not make cider?

If you can make regular apple cider with them, you can make hard cider. I say go for it!

It should turn out ok. Some people like it, others don't. The trouble comes in that it is really one dimensional because of the lack of Tannins mostly. You can monkey around with it to get it right. At any rate, you can always just enjoy freshly pressed Cider which will probably be on the order of $5/gal this year I am guessing based on last years numbers. At least locally here. If you pick a few bushels you'll have plenty to experiment. You can expect around 3 to 3.5 gallons per bu depending on the apple, press, growing season.

I say go for it if you want to put the time and effort into it.

thanks guys. I like the oyster mushrooms zoebisch01.

what about mixing some pears in with it?

RoseburgBrewer said:

thanks guys. I like the oyster mushrooms zoebisch01.

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Actually, although it does look like Oysters, it's a really young "Hen of the Woods". Not my pic though. I usually find them a bit more mature. Thanks for the compliment.

RoseburgBrewer said:

what about mixing some pears in with it?

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Sure why not. I think they have a name for it? "Perry" is hard Pear Cider. I'd go 50/50. Either that or do the two separate.

so i picked the apples and filled a 55 G drum with them. Do I need to make it right away? I can let them sit a few weeks right?

How ripe are they and whats the storage temp?

wait, is the barrel full of apples or Juice. If its juice and you wait a few weeks you will already have wine from the wild yeast.

they are whole apples that I picked from under the tree. So some are fully ripe, some are under ripe, and some are a little too ripe. The whole apples (not juice) are in a bareel that is in my garage which is about 70 degrees

If you let a whole barrel of drops (apples from the ground) sit for weeks, you're going to have a lot of unappetizing stuff in a few weeks. Those "too ripe" apples - ever heard "one bad apple spoils the barrel" - it's not purely metaphorical, it has a basis in reality.

If you just dumped apples in the barrel (even if they were from the tree and not over-ripe), quite a few are probably bruised, as well, and those bruises will serve as a starting point for rot.

Press them soon.

I've been told to avoid ground drops for cider, risk of contamination, i'll use them for apple sauce and butters, but i do have a question for this thread, will cedar rust cause any problems with making cider?

I've always avoided windfall fruit for anything other than animal feed due to the fact that at the very least, it's bruised & at the worst it's harbouring nasty bacteria/yeasts/molds/etc... Find out more about cedar-apple rust here Cedar-apple Rust As far as how cedar rust will effect cider: Rusts are fungi, like a mushroom, or the blue/grey fuzzy stuff you see on old bread. In all honesty I cannot say for certain that it will, or will not have an effect on your cider; BUT, that having been said, do you really want to introduce a fungus into something you're going to be drinking? I wouldn't think it would be able to survive in the bottle, but you never know. If you're intent on using the "good fruit" from an infected tree, I would think sanitizing your fruit (whole) would kill off most, if not all of it. And I would still sanitize the must before pitching your yeast. I wouldn't use any fruit that had lesions though. You might consider spraying with a fungicide at the appropriate time of year to rid your trees of it. Sorry I couldn't answer your question directly, but I hope this "indirect" info will be of use to you. Regards, GF.

I'd press them soon. At 70 they are going to turn fairly fast. It's OK to have some that are soft and all, but if you start getting rotten ones that is not a good thing. Pasteurized Cider gets away with a good deal of bad apples. If you want to ferment out naturally though, it's best not to get various molds going in there.

zoebisch01 said:

It should turn out ok. Some people like it, others don't. The trouble comes in that it is really one dimensional because of the lack of Tannins mostly.

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Where do the tannins come from in normal cider? Aged in barrels?

I do not make cider but have been considering it. Would this work for an apfelwein (which I do make)?