Still Apple Cider

You will need

• Mixed apples (sharp + sweet), or add a few crab applesabout 7 kg to press ~4.5 L juice
• Campden tablet1
• Pectic enzymeper dose
• Cider yeast (or leave to wild ferment)1 sachet

Picking it at the right moment

• Apple

  Ripe when the fruit parts from the tree with a gentle upward twist rather than a pull, and the pips inside have turned brown.

• Crab apple

  Ready when they have coloured up and the first windfalls drop; press one — it should give slightly. Hard green crabs are unripe.

Method

1. 1

   Sanitise. The new idea: this is not a 'wine' of fruit + sugar + water — it is PRESSED JUICE fermented as it is. What you press is what you drink, so the blend of apples is the recipe. Aim for a mix of sharp and sweet; a few crab apples add acid and aroma.

2. 2

   Wash the apples, cut out any brown rot, crush or scrat them to a pulp, and press. You are aiming for around 4.5 L of juice — apples give roughly 60-65% of their weight as juice.

3. 3

   Add pectic enzyme and one campden tablet; wait 24 hours.

4. 4

   Take a gravity reading — apple juice usually lands near 1.045-1.055 all by itself, which makes a session-strength cider around 5-6% without any added sugar. That reading IS your recipe; do not sugar it up unless you want a stronger drink.

5. 5

   Pitch cider yeast (or trust the wild yeasts if the fruit is clean and unsprayed). Ferment cool and slow for a rounder result.

6. 6

   Rack when dry, and again after a month. Bottle still, or prime lightly in pressure-rated bottles for a sparkle.

7. 7

   Drink young and fresh, or keep a few months to mellow.