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Some starting points for beginners:
Quick and diry guide to fermenting fruit - cider and wine
So it begins, this year about month earlier. Tomorrow I will get it juiced and expect ~100 l of juice. It was little bit unexpected to do it today but somehow I managed to do it, in 4 weeks I should have something finished if I won't drink it partially fermented.
After giving away some juice, we decided to make 50l of simple cider and two test batches with hops (Summit) and spices (cinnamon, allspice, pepper and cloves). Because of weather we had to, fortunately, leave it in little inconvenient space so most of it will end up in bottles and nobody will bother to go there and drink it
Getting bottles ready for filling next week.
So all juiced, it could be better it has 11% sugars (2% less then last time we did it). Still better than last year when we didn't have any apples.
Can you add more refined sugar to it if you wanted to get a stronger brew?
Yes but I don't want to.
I too did the juicing station run last week. First attempt at cider forthcoming. I'll try a malted cider with 1/6 of the malt I use for beer. That should provide the yeast with healthy nutrition.
Don't overcomplicate it, do it the simplest way possible and then try it with malt, spices...
It has more nutrients than wort so I wouldn't bother with it for first try. Two years ago we experimented with yeast and it was so similar that we agreed to use the cheapest we could find. This year we will add hops, my friend wasn't excited about spices.
Couldn't help myself, a little bit of malt went in along with a helping of dark syrup, to the effect of 2 ml syrup per litre of ol' scrumpadillo. Very lively fermentation already on day 6 (at 16 °C). Wishing you the best of luck with yours :)
Already in bottles and keg. I had to add some sugar because it overfeemented (at 20°C)
The experiments with hops and spices are interesting but I am looking forward to oak chips that I will add to next batch.
I will bottle it in brewery (at work), so under CO2 and without sediment. This will probably be the best cider I made so far.
mmmmmm envious. I need an apple source.
This year it falls unripe from trees, so lots of people were like "come get it, I don't want to deal with rotting apples in my garden". I feel little bit like community cleaning guy.
Envy. I need to get a carboy and dive back in. I miss having heaps of cyser lying around.
Sweet. Are you planning on using any spices or just the apple juice?
Also sorry I tried to post it through mastodon and the post looks weird.
Maybe, I do it with friend and don't know if he will like it. Last time we did it we experimented with yeasts (ale, wine, wild). Maybe this time we will add some spices.
What would you suggest- cinnamon, pepper, herbs?
In addition to everything else suggested here already, I would say maybe cloves or tonka beans, if they suit your palate. Careful though, they might be overpowering. Maybe a vanilla pod or two, depending on the quantity.
Evan Williams has a seasonal one w/ cinnamon, allspice, and nutmeg that's pretty good. Cinnamon is the most forward but by no means overpowering.
Tasted some hopped cider earlier, could be a fun experiment.
I can get some leftover from work.
Yeah if you like hops. I'm not a fan but I do like the ones with spruce tips. Tastes like Christmas.