Tuesday, May 20, 2008

Hard Cider project

This is not a recipe; this is the beginning of a recipe. The hope is to cull info from the web and produce a hard cider; "Hail Eris!" "Wholly Mother" "Golden Apple" or something like that.

5 bags of different apples
10 qt stock pot with a hole in the side at the bottom.
3 qt stock pot
3 qt stock pot lid
blender (bigger volume the better)
2 25 lbs dumb-bells
cheese cloth
apple corer
fermenting bucket
grolsch style bottles
air lock
bottle wand thingy
brewers yeast
big ass tub

Core a crap ton of apples (no stems or seeds). Blend them with the skins on to paste; to let the juice out. Pour the result into cheese cloth and wrap them up so that the apple sauce can't get out. Put them in the 10 qt stock pot. Put the cheese cloth wrapped sauce in the 10 qt stock pot. Put the 3 qt stock pot lid on top of them. Put both 25 lb dumb bells on top of the 3 qt lid. Put the 3 qt stock pot under the hole in the 10 qt stock pot to collect the juice. Congrads you've made a make shift cider press. Put the juice and some water into a sterilized fermenters bucket with a packet of brewer's yeast. Put the lid of the fermenters bucket on with the air lock in. Fermenting ought to really start in 12 hours or so. Put the bucket some where cool and dry. Wait until the bubbles from the air lock slow to a minute between bubbles. That was your primary fermentation. Let it sit so that it can clear. Gently move it to an elevated position so you can siphon it into bottles. Leave head room so that the minimal living yeast don't carbonate further and break the bottle. Leave the bottles alone. Don't drink them yet. Let them sit. I swear. Like a couple weeks so that they can carbonate and mellow. Keep them somewhere dark and in the big ass tub so that if a bottle breaks the cider doesn't get everywhere.

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