Advice

Hi all,

New on here, live in West Sussex in England. We bought a house recently that has 31 apple trees, all about 40 years old I believe. As you would expect, the trees are now full of fruit and my wife and I are wondering what we should do with all these apples!! I think we have cooking apples, but the majority look to be Bramleys. The trees themselves are anywhere from 10 ft to 25 ft (!) in size. Looks like some have gone out of control to be honest.

At any rate, I have no idea how many apples this amount of trees will generate but I gather a few thousand.

If I was to consider making cider with some/all of these apples, where would I start and what equipment should I look at? I imagine with the volume of apples we have we'd need some semi serious equipment?!

As you can tell my experience in making cider is extremely limited!

Thanks all,
Denny

you can buy/build a cider press, which is the expensive piece of equipment. Other than this, you just need some carboys and airlocks, the yeast on the apples can ferment them if you don't want to buy yeast. Making Apple cider isn't really rocket science, brewing beer is much harder.

I would definately get some food grade plastic barrells, cider press and plenty of pectic enzyme.

The nice thing about apple juice and wine yeast is it's very temperature tolerant. Plus you can leave it alone for a couple or 3 months if you like before you bottle or start the clearing process.

DennyUK said:

Hi all,

New on here, live in West Sussex in England. We bought a house recently that has 31 apple trees, all about 40 years old I believe. As you would expect, the trees are now full of fruit and my wife and I are wondering what we should do with all these apples!! I think we have cooking apples, but the majority look to be Bramleys. The trees themselves are anywhere from 10 ft to 25 ft (!) in size. Looks like some have gone out of control to be honest.

At any rate, I have no idea how many apples this amount of trees will generate but I gather a few thousand.

If I was to consider making cider with some/all of these apples, where would I start and what equipment should I look at? I imagine with the volume of apples we have we'd need some semi serious equipment?!

As you can tell my experience in making cider is extremely limited!

Thanks all,
Denny

Click to expand...

Hi DennyUK: To make cider from your own apples, you'll need to buy or build an apple grinder. Sometimes pricey to buy, but if you're handy with a saw & a screwdriver, easy (and cheap) to build: http://www.curezone.com/blogs/fm.asp?i=973784 You'll also need a press. I think I'd buy a press as opposed to building one, but if you've got the tools & the time, have at it. This will give you an idea of what you'll need as far as a press goes, but you'll likely find something just as good, or better in the UK: http://www.lehmans.com/shopping/pro...807&itemType=PRODUCT&RS=1&keyword=fruit+press You'll also want a few food grade plastic barrels with lids. If you decide to use most, or all your apple crop for cider, that's a considerable volume & you'll need to ferment in a larger volume too. As long as the barrels are food grade & sanitized, and have a good seal, you should be good to go. I have no idea what the ratio of pounds of apples to gallons of juice would be for Bramley. You'll also need sugar, yeast, energizer & nutrient, maybe some tannins & such, a recipe or two of course, and finally bottles suitable for you end product whether it be still or sparkling & a way to cap/cork those bottles. You'll also need sanitizer of some sort (I use plain old chlorine bleach). I'd contact some of the cider organizations there in the UK if I were you (establishment of groups such as UKCider and the Welsh Perry & Cider Society have spurred communication among producers), they'll likely know a lot more about cider making than most of us yanks would; they've been doing it for hundreds of years, though I'm certain you'll have no trouble getting 2 cents worth from folks on this site. <LOL> Just a thought, but you might sell some of your crop to pay for the expenses of equipment & other supplies to make cider. I know it may sound like a lot, but don't let that put you off, you might just make the best cider you've ever tasted from your orchard. Good luck! I hope you find some of this info useful, GF.

Try advertising locally for someone with a grinder & cider press. Split the juice.

When I was in college, a local company would grind & press your apples. They kept half the juice and sold the pulp to a cattle operation.