Getting Ready to Make My First Cider

[sreichenberger]

Hello everyone,

I am new to this forum, hence apologies of this question has been asked before.

I live in Brazil, and Brazil is just starting to get into cider making. Until recently, it was relatively unknown to the market.

As a result, finding the right equipment to make ciders here is impossible. I am wondering if I can use a blender instead of crushing the apples prior to pressing the apples?

Also, any other advice you can offer to an apple cider novice like myself will be greatly welcome (including preferred yeast to use).

Thanks in advance!

 

[Beerisgud]

A great way to get started is with frozen apple juice concentrate from the grocery store. By a one gallon glass jug, an airlock, a small siphon, 3-4 12oz cans of apple juice concentrate, thaw, dump in, add 4-8 ounces of white or brown sugar, maple syrup, or honey, add pectic enzyme, add yeast nutrient, top up with water, leave a couple inch headspace, add yeast (dry-I like cote des blancs champagne yeast) ferment for 2-3 weeks at 68F. Drink still or carbonate. This is a great site to learn and plenty of easy ways to make a mean clean tasty cider. Making my own pressed juice is a dream for me right now so if you start there more power to you. If this is your first go at fermentation I would try the concentrate and experiment with yeasts and sugars before fermenting your precious fresh squeezed! Good luck✌

 

[Beerisgud]

Welcome to the forum!

 

[bernardsmith]

Not sure that I agree with Beerisgud. Juice pressed from apples to be drunk as a soft drink tends not to be as acidic, as flavor intense, as tannic as juice expelled for hard cider. At a pinch you can obviously ferment the first though you need to check that it has not been drowned in preservatives to prevent fermentation.

If you can get a good variety of apples intended for cooking rather than eating then you are in a better place. And if you can find crab apples (they tend to be high in tannins) and add a few to your basket that would be excellent.

I am not sure that using a blender extracts juice as much as it pulps the apples. What you might do is freeze your apples and then allow them to thaw when you press those apples you will extract more juice. Moreover, if you add pectic enzyme to the fruit once broken down that will both help break down the fruit even more AND extract more of the juice.

Of course, as Beerisgud suggests, you can add all kind of things to the juice, but pure apple cider is king and does not really need brown (or any sugar) , does not need maple syrup or honey. Adding those sugars might make apple wines but cider can stand on its own two feet any day against any apple wine... unless the wine is made by concentrating the juice by freezing (not cooking) and then collecting the first runnings of that juice. Doing so can double the SG (to about 1.090) without the need to add table sugar etc. But that makes for a rather expensive wine as you may be able to bottle only one gallon, say, even if you started with three.

 

[Beerisgud]

@bernardsmith totally agree. I was only suggesting if this is his first fermentation to go a quicker and much simpler route of using concentrate. I suggested sugar only because I like to make it a bit stronger and dry. I shouldve kept my preferences aside lol if I could press my own juice I would probably have some more experience to share here but my ciders with fresh cider from the farm were not the winners with my friends as much as the “like a angry orchard” concentrate ciders.

 

[bernardsmith]

I live in upstate NY and around here we have some very good orchards that work with local home brewers and wine makers to produce quite excellent apple juice created for cider makers. And the scrumpy (wild yeast fermented) you can make with that juice is delicious

 

[sreichenberger]

Not sure that I agree with Beerisgud. Juice pressed from apples to be drunk as a soft drink tends not to be as acidic, as flavor intense, as tannic as juice expelled for hard cider. At a pinch you can obviously ferment the first though you need to check that it has not been drowned in preservatives to prevent fermentation.

If you can get a good variety of apples intended for cooking rather than eating then you are in a better place. And if you can find crab apples (they tend to be high in tannins) and add a few to your basket that would be excellent.

I am not sure that using a blender extracts juice as much as it pulps the apples. What you might do is freeze your apples and then allow them to thaw when you press those apples you will extract more juice. Moreover, if you add pectic enzyme to the fruit once broken down that will both help break down the fruit even more AND extract more of the juice.

Of course, as Beerisgud suggests, you can add all kind of things to the juice, but pure apple cider is king and does not really need brown (or any sugar) , does not need maple syrup or honey. Adding those sugars might make apple wines but cider can stand on its own two feet any day against any apple wine... unless the wine is made by concentrating the juice by freezing (not cooking) and then collecting the first runnings of that juice. Doing so can double the SG (to about 1.090) without the need to add table sugar etc. But that makes for a rather expensive wine as you may be able to bottle only one gallon, say, even if you started with three.

Seems like the best way to go would be a mix of pressed apples (with some crab apples mixed to the batch) with apple cider then? And when you say apple cider, you're referring to apple cider vinegar right?

 

[CKuhns]

To answer the OPs question,
Yes you can use a blender. It is very slow and a lot of work if more than a gallon or so of juice is desired. You then will still likely have to press the "mush" and get the juice out of as much of the pulp as possible. For smaller volumes something like a pillow case or mesh bag or paint strainer bag works pretty well and then just squeeze the heck out of it. (All kinds of options to get the juice.)

Google home-made apple scratter (Pulper) there are a lot of options on the web. (Again you should press the pulp to get the juice.) You can find some good ideas for presses as well with a quick search.