Cider from scratch

I collected some apples from my father's farm but most of the apples got bruised up pretty badly (I was in the tree tossing them down to a buddy who caught them in a bag). Will these be any good for making cider? If it's a waste of time them I'll just go buy the juice.

My Apfelwein recipe takes about 10 minutes to make once you buy the ingredients. The hardest part is waiting till it is ready to drink.

Thanks Ed, but what I really want to know is whether the bruising will cause any problems with scratch made cider.

Get the grinder going NOW. The bruised apples will start to turn very brown, and will not improve the quality of your cider.

If you consider the time, effort and equipment needed to properly press out apple juice, just go buy some juice.

Remember you have to wash and sterilize all the pressing equipment before you use it, and then you must wash it all up afterward.

Lots of work to do it correctly!

i wouldn't waste my time. I use canned frozen concentrate and my cider is just as good as any.Maybe even a litte better. I used whole apples once that i juiced and it turned out like ****. I had to use about 20 pounds for about a gallon and a half.

Can't help feeling like this is equivalent to telling someone with a sack of malted barley not to waste his time and buy himself a ready made canned malt extract kit for beer making.
This link for authentic Breton cider may be of use.

Breton cider link

delboy said:

Can't help feeling like this is equivalent to telling someone with a sack of malted barley not to waste his time and buy himself a ready made canned malt extract kit for beer making.
This link for authentic Breton cider may be of use.

Breton cider link

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The best apple juice for cider is a blend of many different types of apple. That's what is in a canned concentrate. Of course you have to add your own acid blends,tannin, yeast energizer, and whatever else you want to throw in. Point is it is the easiest way to start out and will make high quality cider without countless times of racking and racking and racking and racking to clear. Strongbow doesn't have **** on the most basic recipes that i make.. Trust me.. Bake the apples in a pie and use the concentrate for cider.

jesse said:

The best apple juice for cider is a blend of many different types of apple. That's what is in a canned concentrate. Of course you have to add your own acid blends,tannin, yeast energizer, and whatever else you want to throw in. Point is it is the easiest way to start out and will make high quality cider without countless times of racking and racking and racking and racking to clear. Strongbow doesn't have **** on the most basic recipes that i make.. Trust me.. Bake the apples in a pie and use the concentrate for cider.

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Agreed strongbow and the likes is really rather poor but im talking about proper cider and not that commercial garbage.

Sterilisation isnt too important - just rinse the whole press down (I made a 2 gallon apple press this year after i found a perfect old vice screw) with tap water, put the apples in a fermenting bin, beat the hell out of them with a lump of wood and press them. Then put the juice back in the fermenting bin and leave it, rinse down the press again.
I believe you can make good cider without even adding a cider yeast as the yeasts that live on apples are naturally specialised as fermenting apples for obvious reasons.
The only reason to add anything other than apple juice and yeast to natural apple juice is if you want a specific kind of cider (dry, sweet or whatever) but I tend to let nature take care of itself and be happy with what comes out.
This pretty crude way isnt perfect but its quick, easy, and is 10 times better than strongbow.

Well, I thought I'd update for anyone who might care. I juiced the apples last night (don't have a press). I ended up with a big pulpy mess. I strained it through some boiled pantyhose. I then pastuerized it. I added some water, sugar, and cinnamon to the pulp and pastuerized it, too (homemade apple sauce). I pitched some munton's ale yeast (all I had) and I have about a half gallon of homegrown cider fermenting. I know it probably wasn't worth all the effort but I had fun anyway. I'll post back once all is done. Thanks for the advice.

Hey, I care! We're all in this hobby because it's fun, not because it's easier. Hearing some of these nay sayers, we could all say 'Sounds like doing all grain batches isn't worth the effort, why not just buy beer at the store?'

Next time if you were to get really worried about nasties in the liquid coming out of the juice hole, drop some crushed campden tablets into the juice, (one tablet per gallon) wait at least 24 hours, then pitch your yeast.

Bruised apples are fine. Once they get turned into pomace, the oxidation turns it all brown anyway. Tbh, a few apples in the amount you need is not going to make a difference in your end product. What you don't want is rotten apples, and apples that have fallen to the ground should be avoided because they can pick up undesireable bacteria.

In the future, there is a whole cider subforum here if you weren't aware.

I don't have any campden tablets and I wasn't really concerned with pectin haze so that's why I pastuerized. Also I was unaware of the cider subform. I will post there in the future. Thanks to all for your input.

Clifton said:

I don't have any campden tablets and I wasn't really concerned with pectin has so that's why I pastuerized. Also I was unaware of the cider subform. I will post there in the future. Thanks to all for your input.

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No worries.