[grendel]

now we have just picked the apples from our tree and were interested in making some cider - I dont have a  lot of equipment - no cider press, just a few demijohns I have used in the past for ginger beer (no bungs or bubblers etc). I do have youngs sterilising solution, and bottles and caps. as well as dried yeast (bread sort)
does anyone have an easy recipe that I can use without all the fancy doo dabs, someone I know mentioned just adding the chopped up apple to a bucket of water until it started fermenting, then decanting into demi johns and adding sugar?
any input helpful, but I'm not really wanting to spend a lot on this.
Grendel

[arugula]

You could make a simple press, there are many YouTube films abou this or other websites with instructions. Alternatively, I've heard of starting with chopped apples in a bucket too, similar to starting off any fruit, flower or berry wine.

[Alastair-I]

I've seen pictures of apple juice squeezed from a pillowcase between two chopping boards using spring clamps.

Rough chop, put into a sterilised pillowcase and then you need to get some weight on to squeeze out the juice.  Don't add water!  If all else fails, you could try putting the pillow case in a collander with a plate on-top and load up with weight.

[ilan]

why waste time and effort  either spend a few quid and get a couple of fermentation locks and a good yeast or put the apples on the compost heap

[stompy]

why waste time and effort  either spend a few quid and get a couple of fermentation locks and a good yeast or put the apples on the compost heap

Hmmm, thats helpful!

Grendel, i wouldn't add water and sugar, this just in my opinion makes an insipid not very flavourful alcoholic drink.

Personally i would, with the equipment you have chop the apples as finely as you can get a pillow case and fill it haf full with the chopped apple, then begin to twist the case at the top until the bottom bit begins to compress.
Once ths begins to happen keep compressing it then allow 30 seconds or so and twist a bit more, continuie this until you have extracted as much juice as you can and then repeat untill all the apple has been used. (it will hurt your hands and fore arms) 

Now add the juice to the demijons and add your yeast and stuff the top of the demijon with a cotton wool ball or something else porous.
If they are not cider apples you will need to add malic acid or you'll just end up with a poor mans version of cider, i did this once and ended pooring it down the sink as it really wasn't that pleasent.

You need to have malic fermentation to create a "good" cider.
Google Malic fermentation 

Andy

[compo]

 We do our cider in an old free standing creda spin dryer. Chop apples as much as you can, put in muslin bag, spin for 10 mins or so, lots of apple juice! Pick one up on fleabay or freecycle quite cheaply. We wouldnt go back to a press.

[thedadtony]

I made my press out of 4x2 and stuff i had in my garage,cost me about £15,plus a 6 ton bottle jack,from 6 stones of apples i get 5 gallons of juice,i mix baking apples with the eaters,usually 10% and it tastes fine.

[savbo]

you might want to contact your local council greenspace team or allotments group to see if they have access to an apple press you could borrow... quite a few councils around manchester have done this as part of their growing initiatives.

we reckon on getting about a litre or two of juice from 100 apples, so you're not going to get v hammered unless it's a big tree!

I've never done cider but I've heard you can just leave the juice in a covered bucket and the natural yeast from the apple will ferment it - would people recommend a commercial yeast as a better bet?

sav

[thedadtony]

I tried a natural/wild yeast experiment once it was undrinkable Savbo , a horrible metallic chemical taste,I always use cider or wine yeasts,no more experiments.

[Alastair-I]

I've never done cider but I've heard you can just leave the juice in a covered bucket and the natural yeast from the apple will ferment it - would people recommend a commercial yeast as a better bet?

Last year I filled two demijohns with freshly pressed apple juice and left it to the wild yeasts.  It worked well.  This year I'm hoping for a bigger batch and I will give it a helping hand with a sachet of Young's cider yeast.

[ilan]

virtualy all the commercial brewers use a cultured yeast many go to great lengths to use a known, If you rely on wild yeasts you roll the dice. bread yeasts are nearly as bad tending to give a lot of gas and a low alcohol   with lots of by products If you compound the problem by not using a fermentation lock you will most likely end up with vinigar or worse If you are going to invest time and energy into trying to make something drinkable then its worth taking a bit of care and giving yourself the best chance