Perry & Cider Making

Traditional Country Cider

Cider the way the pro's make it!

For the best old style & very strong country cider, a mixture of different varieties of apples is best. Those usually chosen are non-keepers, small sour or windfall, with, if desired, a few crab-apples. An odd rotten apple in a large number is permissible, but otherwise they should be sound. Alternatively, a cider factory might sell you newly pressed apple juice. For those who cannot find a cider factory, you will need a fruit press.

The juice should be put into a plastic cask, the larger the better as fermentation goes on longer in a greater quantity of juice, thus producing a high alcohol content. The cask should stand in a cool place either on its side or end, wherever the bung hole is uppermost. Never bung up the hole while fermentation is still going on. After about forty eight hours the apple juice will start to ferment and white froth will bubble up through the bung hole. This will continue for about three weeks when fermentation has almost stopped, some juice should be siphoned out of the cask with a short length of sterile clear plastic pipe. The amount of juice removed should be sufficient to dissolve the required quantity of sugar.

Add 2 to 4 lb of sugar (depending on how sweet you want the cider) per gallon in the cask to the juice you have removed, and dissolved over heat. When quite dissolved, allow to cool, then return to the cask. Owing to the addition of the sugar all the sweetened juice will not go back in at once. During fermentation, which will go on for about two weeks, the quantity of liquid in the cask reduces so that you can add the surplus gradually (as space permits). When fermentation has nearly finished, if all the 'juice and sugar mixture' is not in the cask, siphon out enough juice to allow this to go in. Bottle what you take out and use to keep the cask full while the cider is maturing -- as the quantity reduces during this process. Developing airspace in the cask will otherwise allow bacilli to breed and turn the cider acid.

When the juice has completely ceased to bubble up bung the cask up tightly and leave for eight months. Cider is usually made in October - November, and should be left as long as possible -- up to two years before opening it, but at least until the following year when 'the cuckoo sings'. Then the cask may be tapped, or the cider bottled down with care.

Innocent to taste but powerful - up to 15% alcohol can be achieved!