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Hedonists

Cider question

It's my (36th) birthday today and the Duchess bought me a cider press Very Happy

Can anyone give me a rough idea of how many apples I'd need to make 5 litres of cider? I want to have a bash at making 'Natural Cider' with no added sugar or yeast.

I know this is a rather subjective question, as any specification may be dependent on sizes/weights/juiciness of different types of apple. But I was hoping someone might be brave enough to have a stab at something like:

"Five buckets full should do ya", or "You'll need at least 10 kilo lad", etc.

Any suggestions please?
cab

5 litres... That's what, just over a gallon? You need about 15-20lb of apples per gallon of juice, or so I found, give or take, but it depends on the apples.

Haven't made cider in years. Marvellous stuff. What do you have in mind?
Treacodactyl

Sounds about right, I have 17-18 pounds of apples for a gallon, the more mixed the better.
Hedonists

Cheers folks, thanks very much. Seems like roughly 20lbs it is then.

cab wrote:
Haven't made cider in years. Marvellous stuff. What do you have in mind?

What I have in mind is to get drunk Embarassed ...whilst also reassuring myself (as much as poss) that I'm not drinking something full of addittives, flavourings and other assorted chemicals. Plus I'd like to enjoy the fruits of my own labour.

I know of a nice PYO place around September time, though I'm a bit worried they may not have many varieties. I understand it's better to brew with a few different varieties. But at the moment that's about the sum of my cider knowledge. Although there are a few Downsizer forum posts on the subject that I have bookmarked.
cab

Keep your eye open for crab apple trees; I used to find that mixing eating apples with crab apples balanced out nicely. Just a few crab apples in a batch can balance things out nicely. And keep your eyes peeled for other wildling apples too, I've made some cracking cider in my teens out of wild apples.

I must get back into making cider and perry, you know.
cab

Oh, if you can get a good supplier of honey, a nice trick is to balance the starting gravity with honey. Some people add sugar, some people go with just the juice, but you can get a stronger product fast by adding some sugar, and I find that it stays more 'apply' if I do so. But adding honey makes it into a real old fashioned cyser, and that's one of the most divine beverages you'll ever drink. Bloody good stuff. Even better when you make a perry that way. How was it one ex-girlfriend described it... No, can't repeat that on the open forum...
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