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A few years ago I had to go on a diet. But the obvious advantage was, you know what? Since alcohol also fell into distribution, quantity had to be replaced by quality, I woke up with a keen interest in the process of creating alcohol.
Since then, I have learned to make good liqueurs, I tried Calvados. And finally, he took up apple cider.
This story was sent by our subscriber Oleg G.
Why I decided to make alcohol myself
Calling this year an apple year means saying nothing. With each week, the branches of the apple trees leaned more and more, and one fine day I found that I could not drive to the dacha: the entrance was blocked by branches almost lying on the ground. I had to ruthlessly cut them down, the props no longer helped.
On this young apple tree, I planted two varieties, and both succeeded.
The wife declared an uncompromising struggle with the harvest: it was distributed to neighbors, friends, acquaintances, colleagues; jams, compotes, jams, jams were cooked … One fine day she gave up and said in despair: “Don’t bring them home anymore!”
I had enough for a week. I couldn’t watch the carpet of juicy apples lying on the ground. The following weekend, having borrowed a Belarusian juicer from my brother, we started a large-scale harvesting of juice.
Daily rate of juice harvesting
I must say, the juicer is a beast! In a few hours, they rolled up 15 liters of juice! At first they simply squeezed juice from apples. Then they began to divide by varieties. Then mixed in different proportions with pumpkin.
And then came the turn for apple cider. Experiment, so experiment!
What ingredients are required
To be honest, this was my second attempt. The first one failed miserably when, a couple of years ago, having suffered a lot, I squeezed 3 liters on a tiny juicer specifically for this purpose. apple juice.
Apparently, I did not add sugar: a month after the start of fermentation, it was discovered that the juice, having successfully skipped the stage of wine formation, turned into vinegar.
What we needed for cider:
- juicer beast;
- a couple of buckets of apples;
- a little sugar;
- a pair of rubber gloves;
- cover with water seal;
- ten liter glass bottle.
This time I decided not to feel sorry for sugar, but to pour, “how much it takes.”
I did not have time to collect from the trees: every weekend apples lay in a carpet under the trees.
The cooking process
It just so happened that in our country house we have apple trees of early autumn varieties. Almost not stored, fall off at once. It rained in September. The raw materials for harvesting cider were collected under the trees and required rapid processing.
Some write that they deliberately use unwashed apples for cider. Of course, we washed, cut off some of the beaten barrels, but we didn’t bother much.
The raw material for the cider was anise, about 60%, and green apples of an unknown variety. The juice turned out sweet, with a slight sourness. After squeezing out 9 liters, he poured it into three three-liter jars:
- the first jar is just juice;
- the second jar – juice + 2 tablespoons of sugar;
- third jar – juice + 5 raisins.
I don’t have a closet, so I just wrapped the jars with a thick black cloth. Haven’t got a water seal yet. Rubber gloves of different colors were used (it is necessary to keep the purity of the experiment).
That’s such a sadness with the first jar
The next day, fermentation began. Two gloves waved affably to anyone who looked into the experimental corner. One glove was embarrassing with inaction, on that jar where there was just juice.
I added a little juice of unwashed apples to enhance fermentation. To no avail. Upon closer examination, it turned out that there was a hole in the glove.
After 6 days, a dense sediment was observed at the bottom of the jars. I drained the liquid through the top of the tube, filtered, combined everything in a large ten-liter bottle, adding 150 grams of sugar. Of the 9 liters left 7,5.
First I put on a glove (after all, a good indicator of fermentation), just for a couple of days. Then I bought a water seal, wrapped it again and left it to ferment for 55 days. During these two months, he anxiously monitored the “well-being of the offspring”: he counted the bubbles, like a pulse, and calmed down, noticing that the process was underway.
The long-awaited moment has come. There is sediment in the bottle again. Fermentation slowed down to 1 bubble per minute.
He removed the upper part from the sediment through a tube – 3 liters, and left it to ferment, returning it to a dark place. The process is very slow, the upper part continues to lighten up, but the sediment is again visible at the bottom.
The rest, freed from sediment and filtered (about three more liters), was also bottled.
We had a tasting the same day!
What result did I get
A young two-month-old cider is very good. Fresh, with light bubbles, moderately sweet, with a pronounced taste and aroma of apples. The color is similar to beer or kvass, but a little lighter. It is drunk very easily, but the degree is noticeable.
The product yield is as follows: 9 liters of cider came out of 180 liters of juice and 150 grams of sugar (2 g + 6 tablespoons).
The result inspired me so much that I immediately ordered a juicer, and next year I plan to expand the work of my home experimental laboratory: a plum and a pear are waiting for their turn.
Only here there are big doubts whether the plum is suitable for cider. Her taste is too bright and tart, and the juice is thick and viscous. What do you think?