I have two huge apple trees in my back yard, both probably over a hundred years old. One Gravenstein and one un-identified. They produce immense quantities of apples. People from around town come and help themselves, I make all the applesauce, apple pie, apple butter, etc I can stand to eat or give away. I am left with a lot of apples. This year I decided to make some cider. Here are the steps I took:
2. Run apples through the Breville juicer since I don't have an apple press.
3. Remove as much froth as possible and pour juice into carboy, adding a tablespoon or so of bread yeast. Yes, I said bread yeast. This was an experiment.
I'll be honest, I had no idea what to expect. I've made cider from my trees before with various combinations of yeasts and things and it always came out fine but not spectacular. Light flavor, halfway between sweet and dry, not bad. I figured it couldn't hurt to try something even simpler, something that didn't involve sending off for yeast that I might not get around to using.
Result, not bad. Not really much different from the fancy yeasts I bought online. I drank one bottle with some friends who like cider and they said it was pretty good. I asked them not to lie, that I wouldn't be offended if they didn't like it and they stuck to their story.
So there's that.
I'm not 100% sure that these are the best apples for cider and that may be why the underwhelming results over the years. They make great pies, applesauce, and apple butter though.
I did find out that one of my friends thinks his grandparents may still have a cider press in one of their barns somewhere so next year we might try expanding the operation.
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