Is anyone starting out with apples instead of juice?

All the recipes i see here start with juice but i have a vacant lot behind my house with an apple tree and a pear tree. i ground up the apples in a blender and put them in a covered crock pot with some campden for a couple of hours and then i added (horrors) bakers yeast.

I am 20 miles from the closest home brew store and my arm is in a cast so i can't drive. i am in the usa so bus service here is awful.

After 5 days i had a friend wring out the must, The resulting juiuce was put in a 3 gallon carboy with some boiled sugar water . I will make more syrup to fill up the carboy and add in the rest of the sugar in a couple of weeks. almost week later the fermentation is still going strong with several bubbles per minute in the air lock and bubbles and froth on the surface. I did not measure anything just trying to entertain myself while cooped up with a broken wrist and a sprained wrist and i don't have a kitchen scale. I also added 1/4 cup of black tea for added tannins but maybe i did not need to. I am using a mix of white table and natural mexican style sugar.

I seem to be making wine rather then cider. so far i detect no off flavors, just the flavor of wine that is far too young to drink. i plan to start drinking it in 6 months to a year. i will rack it in one week.


sorry for the lack of capitals, typing with one finger with my left hand in a wrist brace.

That actually sounds pretty cool, you did what you had in the name of cider making!

I have never used pressed apples yet, only juice. But atleast you tossed a camden in there, I was afraid at first you might of left it wild!

So already it tastes like wine, I figured the bread yeast would crap out fairly early and leave a noticable sweetness. Is it very dry?

You sound as if you've got the idea.
Have neither apple nor pear trees so I use quince and in fact have more in the freezer intended to be turned into cider for the relations at Christmas. Things got away from me though so fruit's still frozen and Edworts is 10 days in the carboy. So I'll soon know what cider from juice is like and the rellys will be none the wiser!

I haven't brewed beer in maybe 8 years. I have been thinking of getting back into it. I bought a new house recently with a lot of fruit trees in back including an apple tree. So I figured I would make some cider for the first time before I start in with beer again.

I pressed 5 gallons of juice with a hand press. To my green apples I added some sweeter reds and yellows to get enough for 5 gallons. I added campden tablets a little less than 24 hours ago. So far natural fermentation is still vigorously going. Hopefully it will die within another day or so. I'm going to add about 5 pounds of corn sugar then, and take a gravity reading before pitching some champagne yeast.

Wish me luck, and, SUPERCABBAGE, let us know how your concoction turns out in the end.

Nothing wrong with using fresh fruit, it's just most people don't have a press and it's messy. Sounds like you're on your way to making cider!

i've seen a beautiful little traditional press in an antique shop here... i only wish i had the money for it!

I thought this looked like a pretty neat idea - doesn't seem like it would be too hard to make... probably fairly cheap too...

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b0fvkiSHOsY]YouTube - How to make Cider at home the easy way: Part 1[/ame]

After I got my cider batch going I also made one from apples. I have a corer/slicer that I used then chopped them up a little more( I read blending them is bad)
This was a small batch(2 gallons)
12# of apple
2# lt. brown sugar
10 oz of honey
1 gallon of water heated to 150 for about 20 minutes

once cooled some I added
2tsp pectic enzyme
1.5tsp of yeast nutrients
1 can welchs fruit concentrate + 1 qt of water

I made a starter out of redstar pasteur champange yeast --added starter after about 3 hours.
My notes are bad after this(something I need to work on)

I let if ferment just covered with a towel for 2 days then put it in a pale with a bubbler.

after 5 days i have split it up inot one gallon jugs

I took a small taste...so so Still needs to settle out.

One thing that I have started doing is letting it ferment for 3 or 4 days just covered with a towel. Then filter out the apples(or what ever) pieces and transfer to fermenter with a bubbler.

Sorry to hear about your injuries, and I hope everything heals up OK. I have broken both my arms, thankfully not at the same time though.
Sounds like you know what your doing, most people recommend 24 hours for the camden tablet bombing, but a few hours and a healthy pitch of yeast should be fine.
Using bakers yeast will just mean a little more time for the flavor to blend, your already talking half a year so that will not be problem, and that time will also allow for it clear and become a really good drink.
Nice to hear your keeping yourself sane and making homebrew. Best of luck.