Gretchen and I pressed 3½ bushels of the apples from our orchard today. It was a mix of a half-dozen varieties of which we are uncertain, though one is definitely Cortland and another is probably Macintosh.
Gretchen picked the apples Monday and Tuesday and they have sat in the garage all week. I find that letting the apples sit for a week softens them, which makes them easier to press, which produces more juice, and forces them to ripen more, producing more sugar. Some rot, but the improved yield more than makes up for the ones we have to toss.
We got 8¼ gallons of juice. I put 6 gallons in a cleaned and sanitized food grade plastic bucket along with six crushed Campden tablets. We pasteurized the rest, sealing two in clean gallon jugs. The remaining quart is the refrigerator. We will probably drink it for breakfast.
Sunday Morning (9/25) After letting the cider settle overnight and giving time for the SO₂ from the Campden tablets time to dissipate, I siphoned the apple juice into a clean, sanitized 6½ gallon carboy and pitched two vials of White Labs WLP775 English Cider Yeast, affixed a one-piece airlock, and set it out at room temperature (68 °F) to ferment.
Technically this is wine making, not brewing. I made a must, not a wort. What I left in the bucket were lees, not trub. Though this is wine making, brewing informs what I do. If I slip up and use the wrong term, please forgive me.
The must gravity was 1.048 SG. If you primarily brew, you might think, “Well, if I knew the yeast attenuation I could estimate the final gravity and find the likely level of alcohol.” This is another case where wine making differs from brewing. Cider almost always fully attenuates. That is, the final gravity will likely be 1.000 or even 0.998 SG. The latter would be an apparent attenuation of more than 100%. This is possible because the alcohol affects the attenuation measurement. The real attenuation is less (about 82%). What does this mean? The final gravity of 1.000 SG is what scientists call a trivial answer. You can go ahead and solve for the alcohol directly from the first reading. In fact, if you have a “triple scale” hydrometer, it probably has a “potential alcohol” scale right on it. In this case, the 1.048 SG implies a potential alcohol of 6.3% ABV. I can live with that.
Sunday Night (9/25) The cider is beginning to ferment. CO₂ is evolving at a rate of about one bubble per second.
Tuesday Evening (9/27) In the past two days, the cider has gone from still, to having a half-inch of foam, to having three inches of full-blown kräusen, and back to still. The air lock is still chugging away, bubbling about once a second. The starting and ambient temperatures are 68 °F, though the fermometer indicates the temperature of the must got as high as 72 °F.
Friday Evening (11/11/11) Racked to secondary. Gravity is 1.000 SG. Very tasty. Very light colored. Nice aroma. I think I’m going to leave this one a dry still cider.
Sunday Morning (9/2/12) Kegged. Gravity is 0.998 SG. Bottled half before I ran out of CO₂. Still good. Surprisingly flavorful. Still, tart, and dry.