Just checking in to my hotel room here---so this is my first post.
Short story made longer......decades ago, I bought a 50 gal. oak whiskey barrel from an orchard ($50) and decided to make my own hard cider with no experience. Yup, I know.
I had no apples, and no way to press. Having grown up on a farm, and using our old 100 lb. grain sacks that we used to pick corn in (raised on a produce farm), I went around to different ancient orchards in our rural fields and proceeded to fill up 22 sacks of all sorts of drops, filling the sacks to the brim. Borrowing an old cider press from a buddy at work, I pressed out my first barrel of cider over the course of two days. I placed a piece of burlap over the bung hole, then using a mallet to drive in my bung. It took myself, my brother, and two other friends to get the barrel down off the truck and using wooden 2x4's that I laid on edge like a train track, we rolled the barrel down in to the cellar which was dirt and then hoisted it up on top of an old potato bin and chocked it.
I took a drill, and drilled a hole through the middle of the bung (nope, didn't worry about wood floaties), then fit a clear plastic tube down through it, dripped melted candle wax around it to seal it, and then put the other end in an old gallon vinegar jar, which sat below the barrel. It didn't take long to she started to percolate, and she started to rumble in a few days. So, I did both this one that Fall, then filled my keg again the following year, but did it differently in that I went over to New Hampshire to a nearby orchard, backed up to the loading dock and the guy handed me a garden hose hooked up to a massive vat of freshly pressed cider. While we were waiting, he handed me a small jug and said to try it as it was cider he'd put up that last year. It was very good. For those old enough to remember---at least in New England, he had used several pounds of Zarex, which was a popular syrup you added water to make a sweet drink.
Prior to my first attempt, having grown up on a farm, and living in a farming area I asked a few questions and talked to a couple of old timers about hard cider. The consensus, according to old time tradition was to get your cider put up in your barrel no later than early October. You could bung it one of two ways.....the way I did it with the hose in the water jug or, by waiting for the snake to stop coiling, like a friend of mine did. The "snake" was the foam from it working which pushed up and out of the bung where it created a perfect ring or snake, that would then crawl down over the side of your barrel. When the snake stopped crawling, you topped off your cider and drove your bung home.
Lastly, was timing. How long were you supposed to wait after your cider had stopped making in the barrel? The old timers pretty much agreed that, you opened your spigot that June ()with your favorite pewter mug as soon as you had laid down your first hay for the season. I figure that was around 8 months.
So......I waited. And I add here that, I used no yeasts, no sugars or any other additives. I had decided to rely on natural sugars. The end product was clear, with a flavor I would find hard to describe other than it had a somewhat apple flavor. I've no idea how much the alcohol content was. I will say that I could feel my ears getting warm and that not infrequently, you could end up with a headache should your help yourself to a pitcher's worth. But those are all memories. I probably haven't made it for 40 years.
This past spring I bought a 100 year old cider press from up off the West side of Lake Winnapausaukee a lady was selling. Real nice machine....all complete with the wooden hopper, crank handle, and the two baskets. I spent time this Summer cleaning it up.
Then, this past Christmas, my boys bought me two 35(?) gal. oak whiskey kegs. I guess like they say....in for a penny, in for a pound. So, I guess I've joined up here to see how others are refining the end product. I've not got a lot of experience, and I'm not looking for champagne quality cider. I'm interested in pretty much adding a few things, like a yeast, and either a few pounds of sugar, or perhaps corn syrup or the like.....nothing fancy.
Guess that's my long winded story.
Short story made longer......decades ago, I bought a 50 gal. oak whiskey barrel from an orchard ($50) and decided to make my own hard cider with no experience. Yup, I know.
I had no apples, and no way to press. Having grown up on a farm, and using our old 100 lb. grain sacks that we used to pick corn in (raised on a produce farm), I went around to different ancient orchards in our rural fields and proceeded to fill up 22 sacks of all sorts of drops, filling the sacks to the brim. Borrowing an old cider press from a buddy at work, I pressed out my first barrel of cider over the course of two days. I placed a piece of burlap over the bung hole, then using a mallet to drive in my bung. It took myself, my brother, and two other friends to get the barrel down off the truck and using wooden 2x4's that I laid on edge like a train track, we rolled the barrel down in to the cellar which was dirt and then hoisted it up on top of an old potato bin and chocked it.
I took a drill, and drilled a hole through the middle of the bung (nope, didn't worry about wood floaties), then fit a clear plastic tube down through it, dripped melted candle wax around it to seal it, and then put the other end in an old gallon vinegar jar, which sat below the barrel. It didn't take long to she started to percolate, and she started to rumble in a few days. So, I did both this one that Fall, then filled my keg again the following year, but did it differently in that I went over to New Hampshire to a nearby orchard, backed up to the loading dock and the guy handed me a garden hose hooked up to a massive vat of freshly pressed cider. While we were waiting, he handed me a small jug and said to try it as it was cider he'd put up that last year. It was very good. For those old enough to remember---at least in New England, he had used several pounds of Zarex, which was a popular syrup you added water to make a sweet drink.
Prior to my first attempt, having grown up on a farm, and living in a farming area I asked a few questions and talked to a couple of old timers about hard cider. The consensus, according to old time tradition was to get your cider put up in your barrel no later than early October. You could bung it one of two ways.....the way I did it with the hose in the water jug or, by waiting for the snake to stop coiling, like a friend of mine did. The "snake" was the foam from it working which pushed up and out of the bung where it created a perfect ring or snake, that would then crawl down over the side of your barrel. When the snake stopped crawling, you topped off your cider and drove your bung home.
Lastly, was timing. How long were you supposed to wait after your cider had stopped making in the barrel? The old timers pretty much agreed that, you opened your spigot that June ()with your favorite pewter mug as soon as you had laid down your first hay for the season. I figure that was around 8 months.
So......I waited. And I add here that, I used no yeasts, no sugars or any other additives. I had decided to rely on natural sugars. The end product was clear, with a flavor I would find hard to describe other than it had a somewhat apple flavor. I've no idea how much the alcohol content was. I will say that I could feel my ears getting warm and that not infrequently, you could end up with a headache should your help yourself to a pitcher's worth. But those are all memories. I probably haven't made it for 40 years.
This past spring I bought a 100 year old cider press from up off the West side of Lake Winnapausaukee a lady was selling. Real nice machine....all complete with the wooden hopper, crank handle, and the two baskets. I spent time this Summer cleaning it up.
Then, this past Christmas, my boys bought me two 35(?) gal. oak whiskey kegs. I guess like they say....in for a penny, in for a pound. So, I guess I've joined up here to see how others are refining the end product. I've not got a lot of experience, and I'm not looking for champagne quality cider. I'm interested in pretty much adding a few things, like a yeast, and either a few pounds of sugar, or perhaps corn syrup or the like.....nothing fancy.
Guess that's my long winded story.
