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Last summer I rested in a village near Ryazan. Here, relatives have a large apple orchard planted by my grandfather after the war. They even make marmalade out of these apples. It was there that I tasted real, my cider for the first time.
In fact, the inhabitants of the countryside love and appreciate apple kvass (or cider). In the city, they are skeptical about him. It is understandable – the products that are on the shelves of the store are far in taste and aroma from real cider, made by hand.
The story of my subscriber Andrey.
Why I decided to make alcohol myself
Last year, the apple trees in my garden fell off the chain – I have not seen such a harvest since buying a summer cottage! Lots of carrion, even more good apples on the branches.
Having handed it out to friends and relatives, dried it, put on plenty of jam and caught up with juice, I realized that fresh ideas were needed. Either I them or they me.
Looking through the cookbook of drinks, reading reviews on the Internet, a brilliant idea came to my mind: what if we make apple wine or simply cider.
What ingredients are required
There is more than one way to make cider. I used the simplest and most reliable.
Ingredients Required:
- apples – 20 kg;
- sugar – 3 kg.
Cider captivates with its simple composition
There are advisers who recommend using cake or cleaning for raw materials. You can, of course, save money – make cider from waste, and cutlets from bread. But be sure, the quality of the raw materials will not be slow to affect the taste of the finished kvass.
You can also take carrion, but carefully process it, cleaning the barrels, removing leaves and tails. But the cores with bones can be left. You can’t take rotten, and not just hit, apples – they will spoil the whole drink.
Tart apples are ideal for cider. I took what is – Antonovka and Grushovka. Sufficiently sour Antonovka harmoniously combines with sweet and sour Grushovka.
The perfect taste will give a mixture of one part sour and two parts sweet varieties of apples. If desired, and the presence of pears, it is allowed to mix apple and pear juices, and also to prepare cider only from pears.
The cooking process
I wiped the apples dry with a rag. They cannot be washed. The fact is that there are healthy yeasts on the surface of the apple, which will make the juice ferment. 2-3 days apples just lay in a warm room.
I mashed the apples with a food processor. At this stage, gradually stir in the sugar. The must should not be cloying. You can not add sugar at all – it’s a matter of taste. For grinding, you can use a meat grinder.
I used three-liter cans from purchased juice, which I filled 2/3 of the volume with apple slurry. Free space is needed for the processes of foam formation and the release of carbon dioxide.
Important! Banks should be thoroughly washed, wiped dry with a towel.
He covered the jars with gauze and put them in the kitchen in a dark place – under the table. Every day he stirred, upsetting the upper dense layer. The smell of fermentation appeared already on the first day, after 10-12 hours. The liquid foamed, hissed – it means that the process has begun.
After 3 days, with the help of gauze, squeezed the juice from the pulp and poured it back into clean jars.
Important! It is very difficult to squeeze out the foaming mixture with gauze. My advice is to use a juicer or press.
I put on a medical glove around the neck, secured it with elastic bands, somewhere with tape and put it in a dark, warm place.
Process started
Why exactly a medical glove, and not an economic one? Everything is simple. Households smell like rubber, which is why the smell of cider may not change for the better.
At the end of the fourth week, very carefully, without shaking the sediment, he poured the almost ready cider into jars.
It is very easy to understand by the glove whether the fermentation is over. She just falls down.
Do I need to pierce the glove to release excess gas or not? In the event that the must is 1-2 liters in volume, and the glove is large enough, it is not necessary to pierce it.
When a large volume of wort is prepared, a small glove can fly off, tear, if it is inflated too much.
And then you have to change the glove, and, possibly, the wallpaper in the room. To prevent this from happening, I made small holes in my fingers with a syringe. Excess gas escapes, but air does not get inside.
Again, the sediment was drained through cheesecloth, folded in 3-4 layers. Now, according to the recipe, the drink should ripen within 3 months in a cool place, for example, in the refrigerator. After a few days, as soon as the liquid becomes clear, the cider is ready.
What result did I get
Tasting with friends was active. My apple kvass satisfied even gourmets.
It turned out pleasant, fragrant, refreshing. It feels like 12 degrees, like a light wine. In the light – amber, almost transparent. I advise you to store it in the cold, otherwise the cider may ferment into apple cider vinegar.
The drink has a rich color, taste and aroma.
In the process of preparation, I thought more than once – isn’t it easier and cheaper to buy ready-made cider? I did the math and this is what I got:
A little less than 20 liters of cider came out of 10 kg of apples. My apples are free, but if you buy at 60-70 rubles per kilogram, then cooking yourself is absolutely unprofitable. The price for 1 kg of sugar is different, but on average about 50 rubles.
That is, cider of my own production cost me 7 rubles 50 kopecks per 0,5 liter, while in the store such a bottle will cost about 70 rubles.
Do you have any cider making tricks of your own? What recipes do you use? What else can you do with apples besides alcohol, jam, juice and puree?