What else ?

Over the last couple of weeks I've pillaged some "wild" apples from the tree's beside the local bypass. They've been mixed with some apples from the local PYO.

The first batch that was milled and pressed didn't have a very high gravity so I added 3lb of honey. I seem to recall that the gravity got to about 1050. It was just a bit of an experiment to see what it might turn out like. I didn't really want to add loads of extra sugar. Whether it'll taste cidery or whether the honey actually makes a difference I don't really know until it's finished.

Today I've pressed another 12 litres of apple pulp that were milled (milled ? chucked in a magimix) last week - the only additives being some campden tablet crushed and a couple of teaspoons of pectolase, the gravity is 1035 so I suspect that the extra time on the trees has helped a little.

Most don't seem to realise that eating apples are picked before they're at their ripest/highest sugar levels - whereas cider apples are often allowed to drop and then "machined" up for milling/pressing - obviously you'd want the highest sugar levels so you don't have to add much, if anything at all.

The juice from today, is going to have 2lb of blackberries in it as well. Basically following a recipe from the 1982 Boots "Book of Home Wine and Beer Making" though I'm not sure if I'll have any proper "Burgundy" yeast, I've got a few other types to choose from so I'll check the data on them and choose the best one.

Be interesting to see how it turns out.

TTFN!