The deep joy of cider
The heat of autumn is different from the heat of summer.
One ripens apples, the other turns them to cider.
Jane Hirshfield
I love to make cider and I love to drink it even more. BUT, it has to be real cider, properly dry, and naturally frizzante. All of that leaves me with a dilemma; it’s hard to buy such a product in the barren ciderless wastelands of the East Midlands. The only answer is to make your own. Here’s how:
Pick apples
If you don’t have access to proper cider apples (which I don’t), you can make do with:
Sweet apples: think Gala or Braeburn thoughts
Tart apples: maybe Bramleys
Bitter crab apples: take a look in your local hedgerows
To wash or not to wash?
If you make cider commercially, definitely do wash. You can add yeast later to give a reproducible product.
If you’re making kitchen-table cider, take a chance and don’t wash your apples. Let the natural yeast survive and proliferate.
Scrat the apples
Here’s a photo of Tony doing the hard work of scratting, or grating, the apples:
Tony scratting apples
Press the pulp
To press the pulp:
Shovel the pulp into a cheesecloth bag and wrap it tight so that none escapes.
Put the cheesecloth full of pulp into the press and put spacers on top.
Wind the press and catch the juice in a large container.
For equipment: Vigo