grayfingers
Cave Dweller 
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Post by grayfingers on Dec 12, 2013 12:29:18 GMT -5
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Post by wireholic on Dec 12, 2013 12:39:15 GMT -5
Wish I knew some home brewers in my area! I made redneck wineglasses for christmas gifts & bought some shine at the liquer store to go with them. Felt really strange - getting moonshine from a store! I'm used to going to Pappa Smith's barn to get that LOL
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Dec 12, 2013 12:43:39 GMT -5
Hey Uncle Bill!! I am on my way. Make mine sparkling please!
5998
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panamark
fully equipped rock polisher
Member since September 2012
Posts: 1,343
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Post by panamark on Dec 12, 2013 13:29:50 GMT -5
Well Bill, I really enjoy hard cider (much more than beer) and your pictures pretty much got me fully motivated to make my own. We have too many apples to use, so I feed the deer a lot. No more :-) I have been looking for plans to build an apple press, but haven't found any good plans yet. One of my friends says his friend uses a clean, dedicated small wood chipper to shred the apples before pressing. Another uses a clean garbage disposal unit. Anyway, next year I might hit you up for some advice. Tip up a bottle for me would ya?
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Hard Cider
Dec 12, 2013 13:31:29 GMT -5
via mobile
Post by orrum on Dec 12, 2013 13:31:29 GMT -5
Do you sulfate it to stop the fermentation?
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grayfingers
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Member since November 2007
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Post by grayfingers on Dec 12, 2013 14:27:25 GMT -5
Mark, I shall. I used a meat grinder, and then switched to a food processor. I hope to build a scratter to speed up the grinding part.
orrum, I try to brew without any more chemicals than is absolutely necessary. The only sulfites I use is campden tablets (potassium metabisulfite) at 1/2 recommended dose, added to the juice 24 hours before pitching the yeast. It is to kill off any bacteria and wild yeasts. My wife has an intolerance to sulfates, can't handle white wine at all.
I use no stabilizers in my wines or ciders, I wait until fermentation is complete (yeast has converted all sugars to alcohol) before bottling. To get sparkling cider one has to have active yeast in the brew at bottling. A small amount of corn sugar is added at bottling, the yeast eats it and carbonates the bottle in about 2-3 weeks. One has to be careful in dialing in the right amounts, or one has "bottle bombs".
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panamark
fully equipped rock polisher
Member since September 2012
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Post by panamark on Dec 12, 2013 16:33:49 GMT -5
James jamesp, just wondering how you would go about building yourself an apple press?   I am sure it would be big, ha ha. |
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grizman
freely admits to licking rocks
Member since July 2011
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Post by grizman on Dec 12, 2013 16:41:35 GMT -5
Oh yaw, Bottle Bombs! Been there--Done that! At the time I lived in the bottom of a four-plex with an old maid school teacher above me. She was less than impressed with the wine odor rising through her floors! It may have been worse if I lived above her...but I really don't know how!? The irony??? The brewer below her was also a school teacher, Ooooops!
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jamesp
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Member since October 2012
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Post by jamesp on Dec 12, 2013 17:39:44 GMT -5
James jamesp, just wondering how you would go about building yourself an apple press? I am sure it would be big, ha ha. Mark. The most popular is the one on the left side of Bill's cooler. That looks like an item to buy instead of building. If i was to build one it would have an 10 foot long steel pipe handle with me hanging off of it. and a fulcrum point about 2 feet up form the press side. So i could do them fast. Calculating  I like a stainless basket  Would also consider a citrus press. I have 2 cousins w/ orange groves i steal from. They use them in rum mostly. They put the orange mash in ice trays and freeze them. man those taste good  |
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grayfingers
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Member since November 2007
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Post by grayfingers on Dec 12, 2013 19:01:03 GMT -5
Hey Uncle Bill!! I am on my way. Make mine sparkling please! Here it is, virtually that is. Been a few days since I had a sparkler, it's past 5. . .  |
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grayfingers
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Posts: 4,575
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Post by grayfingers on Dec 12, 2013 19:17:06 GMT -5
James, those stainless presses are nice, very spendy though. I am sure you could pull off one even better than this.
I first learned how to make cider from this Canadian. Anyone can easily make cider at home. If you can get fresh pressed, it is best but the juice is good too.
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grayfingers
Cave Dweller
Member since November 2007
Posts: 4,575
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Post by grayfingers on Dec 12, 2013 19:55:44 GMT -5
Wish I knew some home brewers in my area! I made redneck wineglasses for christmas gifts & bought some shine at the liquer store to go with them. Felt really strange - getting moonshine from a store! I'm used to going to Pappa Smith's barn to get that LOL Up here in the north, we don't see any shine. Back in the early '80s I did get a couple quarts from a friend that was passing through, Me and a couple buddies went winter camping and drank a bunch. . . we was howlin' at the moon, all-right. Made complete fools of ourselves. . . one of my favorite memories from my mis-spent youth that I would love to have the chance to do all over again. |
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jamesp
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Member since October 2012
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Post by jamesp on Dec 12, 2013 20:50:22 GMT -5
Ellijay and Blue Ridge Georgia is apple country for us Bill . Seventy miles north of Atlanta. A day trip destination for many years.
That is a all a big mountain tradition and part of our history. The apple farmers wrestle w/bears real bad.
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quartz
Cave Dweller
breakin' rocks in the hot sun
Member since February 2010
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Post by quartz on Dec 12, 2013 22:11:27 GMT -5
That sure brings back memories, good ones. I spent 15 months at Aberdeen Proving Grounds, MD when in Uncle Sam's Army. There were cider stands everywhere in late fall, and some of them had the "good stuff" under the counter. Everyone found their stand, who had the cider that they liked best.
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jamesp
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Posts: 36,612
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Post by jamesp on Dec 15, 2013 21:56:22 GMT -5
Have you drank it all.
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jamesp
Cave Dweller
Member since October 2012
Posts: 36,612
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Post by jamesp on Dec 15, 2013 22:02:03 GMT -5
Hey Uncle Bill!! I am on my way. Make mine sparkling please! Here it is, virtually that is. Been a few days since I had a sparkler, it's past 5. . . Where is Bill?  |
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grayfingers
Cave Dweller
Member since November 2007
Posts: 4,575
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Post by grayfingers on Dec 15, 2013 22:18:01 GMT -5
Funny you ask, I just finished a sourdough flapjack dinner and am having my evening cider. An apple a day.
That looks like a college boy. . .
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Dec 16, 2013 0:38:51 GMT -5
Bill, what yeast do you use?
Please accept apology if you already answered this. I musta missed it.
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Post by Woodyrock on Dec 16, 2013 2:00:39 GMT -5
Waal now, there is apple juice, the store stuff. Then there is cider which gets better as it ages...fresh it is just apple juice of course. Now, hard cider to home ran about 100 proof...sometimes run though a still, or like my grandfather did my freezing. Take yourself about fifty gallons on well worked up cider, let it freeze, run through a sieve. Throw away the ice part and bottle the liquid. Now, that is hard cider.
Woody
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grayfingers
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Member since November 2007
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Post by grayfingers on Dec 16, 2013 8:25:47 GMT -5
Scott, I am using Nottingham ale yeast. If brewed on the cood end, (65 F) one gets a smooth well-flavored cider that will finish out at 8% ABV if enough sugars for the yeast to take it that high. Wine yeast works good too, but will go up to between 11% and 18% ABV. At that point it is really apple wine (very dry) and seems to lose the flavors of the "beer cider". I am going to use a wine yeast called Cote des Blancs on the next batch. it is for fruity wine, will go up to the lower end of the range for alcohol. If one wants to make hi-test, use Premier Cuvee. It won't pickle itself until 18%.
I am pretty happy with the 8% cider, as I also have 4 kinds of wine brewing.
Woodyrock, I believe what you are describing is Applejack. Freezing is legal distilling. Back in the day they brewed cider in a big barrel out back. In the winter with the cider frozen they would drive a pipe into the center and siphon off the alcohol. I might try it, if I can bring myself to sacrifice a gallon, it tastes awfully good as is, and after one bottle one is buzzed, two bottles one is inebriated.
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I am sure it would be big, ha ha.
