How to Make Cider

Well, since moving to Bulgaria, this is the third year that we have made cider from our own apples! I can say with certainty that this is the best cider I’ve ever had, and so easy to make. Autumn here brings with it an abundance of apples. We bottle most of these for winter pie fillings and apple sauce. This year we also tried apple butter. But there are still plenty of apples left. Here’s how to make cider using traditional methods.

What you will need

• Chopping board
• Sharp knife
• Clean plank of wood (See below)
• A strong bucket
• sterilised demijohns
• A sieve and maybe a funnel
• apple press (some people use a juicer)
• apples
• Maybe some brown sugar

How to make cider

1. First of all collect your apples. There is no need to peel them, but remove any bad bits. We have both red and green apples and we did a mix. You can add sugar for sweetness or honey later. We did not wash ours as we wanted to preserve the natural yeast and the trees had not been sprayed.
   

2. Then cut the apples into chunks. The recipe said into quarters, but we find that cutting them up more finely than this makes the next step easier.

3. Fill a strong bucket a quarter to half full with the chopped apples (more than this makes the next step difficult).

4. ‘Bash’ them with a suitable implement — we used a clean plank of wood. (See image).
The bucket needs to be a strong one or it will crack.

5. Next, put the semi crushed apples 🍏 🍎 into an apple press (readily available here as everyone uses them). Turning the handle slowly releases the juice. About 15 lbs of fruit gets us about a gallon of juice.  

6. After pressing the apples, wait an hour or two, and then you will find that more juice will have been released.

7. Pour all of the juice into sterilised demijohns. Using a sieve and funnel will catch any rogue pips etc. Then place the jars in a warm place, and that’s it!

if you wish, you can add sugar for a sweeter cider. The recommendation is one cup per gallon of cider. However, because apples differ so widely in sweetness, we taste it first. You can always add more later.

Lift the lids on the demijohns at least twice a day for a few seconds. This is to release the pressure in the jars. The whole fermentation process takes between 3 and 5 weeks to turn the apple juice into cider 😊. That, at least, is in our region, where there is ample yeast on the fruit to make the cider ferment. This is because we are in a wine growing region, and everyone ferments.

Once the cider starts to ferment, taste it. If it is too tart, then add more sugar to taste and leave it a little longer. Once it has stopped fermenting you can strain it into a clean demijohn to remove any sediment.

If you wish to bottle it, then use bottles with the swing tops as it can be a bit bubbly. Remember to sterilise them beforehand.

The remaining ‘apple cake’ from the apple press can be used to make apple cider vinegar, although people here use them to make something stronger!

How to make mulled cider

1. In a large pan put the cider.
   Add a cinnamon stick or two and other spices such a star anise and cloves You can also add slices of fruit.
2. Heat very gently – do not boil, or you will lose all of the alcohol!
3. Once it has simmered for at least 10 minutes to infuse the spices pour it into a glass and add a teaspoon full of local honey. 😊