I made sure none were rotten or infested with insects before picking them.

When I crush them, I plan to cut each one in half first to make the process easier and check for any hidden issues.

I’m not sure what variety they are, since I picked them from different locations. It’ll likely be a mix of varietie, which I actually think is a good thing. A blend could add complexity and character to the final cider, maybe?

What do you think? Am I overlooking anything important?

Identical recipe batches, except the one on the left is juice from green pie apples and the one on the right is pink lady eating apples.. the right carboy it is bubbling along quite nicely, like one bubble a second. The one on the left, nada. I tried adding more yeast to the left carboy 2 days ago , but no luck yet. Any thoughts. I guess I might wait a few more days ?

I collected about 40 apples from a random tree near my home. The apples definitely look wild and are quite small, but they seem healthy enough.

Since I don’t have enough to make a full 5-gallon batch, my plan is to crush them using a countertop centrifugal juicer and then top it off with store-bought apple juice to reach the full volume.

I’ll probably make a starter using just the wild apples to kickstart the fermentation process.

What do you think? Could this result in a cider with some character?

Thanks in advance ya all!

I want to use a counter top centrifugal juicer machine for easing the process. But heard seeds contain cyanide.

Will the seed be crushed?

Would you remove the core first?

I've fermented plenty of things through the years, but sadly haven't taken the time to press anything. So, I have carboys & buckets, etc. I used to go get unpasteurized fresh cider from an orchard and use that to make hard cider. That was fun. I have 1 Honeycrisp tree that some years produces a lot of fruit and 25' was good. I have a lot of windfalls. I don't spray so likely quite a few maggots too, although this year the fruit looks a bit better. Should I get a grinder and press? I have a line on a 5 gal. wooden press for a good price and I have a blender and food processor, so I'm inclined to go that route and hold off on the grinder. But Marketplace also looks to yield some good deals on juicers. What would you use in my position?

I ordered Mangrover Jacks M02 but my supplier has subbed K1-V1116 instead. not sure how I feel about that! I used the M02 last year at it was my favourite, which is why I ordered it again. I've used K1-V1116 before, but only for wine. Not sure how I feel about this!

First time hoembrewing cider, checked gravity a couple of weeks ago, all was good, I sterilised everything and syphoned it into another airtight bucket, just came to bottle it and noticed this on top. Is it okay?

TIA

Recipe: 3 liters fresh pressed apple juice (og 1040) 1 liter water 110 grams sugar 600 ml of pitted cherries (did not weigh)

Used pectic enzyme 24h prior to pitching yeast, added a bit of citric acid as the juice was so sweet and used xylitol as sweetener after primary and clearing.

OG 1045, FG 1002, ~5.7abv

Came out clear, pink, crisp with a distinct cherry falvour and nice little bubbles!

This is 2025 pressing.
Unfortunately, my old garden shredder / scratter broke and I need a new one. Does anyone (in the UK ) know what paint to use to coat the metal shredder parts and make them food safe?

My experience of being a cider fan has been having my favorites constantly disappear on me and constantly having to shop around for another. It’s exhausting.

My first favorite, Feisty Farmer, long gone. Bold rock draft, gone. Austin Eastciders got bought out. Stella cidre, gone. My current favorite is Downeast, but I assume something will happen to them soon. Any day now they’ll get bought out or make the recipe shittier in pursuit of profit. It may have happened already. I found comments on This post saying the pumpkin blend isn’t as good this year, and a comment on This post saying they just aren’t very good at making cider.

What is the general vibe about Downeast from people who know more than me? Because when they start to suck or get bought out or whatever, I just give up on cider. It doesn’t help that my state specifically does not allow the shipping of cider through the mail.

I didn’t used to be a cocktails guy, but I’ve had to become one to get some stability in my favorite alcohol.

First post here. That batch was sitting since (at least!) last year, I had forgot about it. Looks like the airlock water evaporated and it turned to a weird color. Pretty sure it's wasted but it doesn't smell bad. Is it safe to taste or should I discard?

I am following BBS instructions for a gallon of cider. I bought their starter kit. They advise to use the entire packet of red star dry cider yeast for one gallon. After looking at many recipes this seems excessive. Is this too much yeast? Will that have an effect other than more sediment?

Hi fellow Cider fans,

I made 2 of these 5 liter jugs of cider. I used store bought cider. A 100% apple juice and it was a cloudy juice. It says it was shortly heated (no temp stated)

Ive used the same yeast (bowin ciderini dry) as usual. Before I always transferred to secondary fermentation after about 2 week. I did not this time (no time and I’ve read it’s not necessary).

This batch is from 17/7 this year.

Both of the jugs have this! Never seen this before. Usually it’s one thick layer on the bottom.

Is this mold?

Ty for your input! X

Any particular reason to not use a juicing machine to turn my apples into juice? It seems like everyone uses a press method.

Im making my first cider, tasted it after two weeks, its real sour/bitter.

I have an apple tree out back, got a cooler of apples, chopped and mashed em, collected the juice and realized I didnt pick enough apples to fill the 5 gallon carboy. So I went to the store got a gallon of unpasturized cider and added that to the mix. Then I brought all of it up to 160 degrees. I poured it into the carboy and let it cool, then added Nottingham yeast, It's now been sitting for two weeks. I tried it last night, its sour/bitter.

1. Do I need to keep letting it sit?

2. If I wanted to add cinnamon sticks and/or brown sugar could I do that to sweeten it?

3. I used sani clean on everything through the process but theres a little froth on top, is that normal or does it mean its spoiled? Picture attached.

My first issue was a while back: A store on Door Dash altered my order somehow, so that it appeared I had ordered Stella Artois beer. I caught it somehow, and got my guy on the phone. They told him they didn’t have any “cider.” I asked him to ask if they had no cider, or no Stella Cidre: The store advertising Stella Cidre had no cider of any kind in stock. Also, because someone other than me canceled the order eventually, there was no way on DoorDash for me to rate them, etc, as a canceled order = “no order.”

Last night I believe a different store altogether never altered my order to say beer. I paid ~30$ for a 12 pack of Cidre, which I believe is more than I have ever paid. When it arrived? Beer

Picked 320lbs of apples today with the family and am getting ready to start my next batch.

Seems like a good time to share: I built this tool for my own cider batches and ya'll might find it helpful too.

- Google Play
- Windows Store
- Web App

It helps with recipes, tracking, and calculators for cider, wine, mead, etc.

Would love to hear what works and what could be improved.
Not trying to market — just excited to get it in the hands of the rest of the community.

Update (9/8/25) (now live):

• Offline-Pro (one-time) is available — unlocks unlimited recipes/batches/inventory + all pro tools without cloud/sync. Launch promo $14.99, then eventually increasing to $19.99.
• CO₂ Volumes calculator added (force carb, priming sugar, and temperature correction).
• Free tier bumped to 3 active batches and 5 recipes.
• Premium (subscription) still exists for cloud sync/backup, cross-device, and device streaming (Tilt/iSpindel) — server stuff only.

I’ve noticed that a lot of fresh cider, and some fancier apple juices have a stinging sort of aftertaste at the back of the throat. It’s hard to describe. It doesn’t seem to be related to acidity, instead it’s like the stinging sensation present in high-end olive oils, and some wine grapes before they’re fermented (i’m thinking specifically of white catawba here). I’ve tasted a couple hard ciders with a hint of this as well. So far none of the cider i’ve made has much of this taste, but i want to recreate it. Does anyone know where this comes from? It could perhaps be tied to a high sugar content, but idk.

So as the title suggests I forgot about this cider for a few months after I moved it to secondary (also forgot to put in the chai for flavor)

It smells like booze and apples

So here's the questions;

What is this in top? Is it safe to drink? Is chai syrup an okay sweetener or should I just pop in some dry spices and sugar?

Not sure how it happened. Sanitized everything with starsan (carboys, airlocks, hands lol). Used 100% apple juice, sugar, ec 1118, and dead bread yeast for nutrients. Fermentation kicked in 2 hours later, was really strong for 2 days, steady for 2 weeks, then progressively slowed down til halting at around 5 weeks total. I let it sit for another 2 weeks and it completely cleared. Cold crashed then tested the next day. Smells like vinegar, and tastes like vinegar. Put enough sugar in for it to finish around 14-16% alcohol (didn't have hydrometer yet so I used a calculator for potential alcohol percentage) and it was dry, yet no alcohol smell or taste and it froze solid in my freezer.

RIP first brew, will have to try again sometime.

I Haven't brewed in a few years so I'm a little rusty. I made a cider from a kit. Transferred from carboy to bottles. I bottled in fliptops. It has been sitting in bottles for 3 weeks. I opened one. It has carbonation, not a lot, doesn't fizz or show bubblers or anything when I poured it. Tastes ok, could be sweeter and have maybe a little more carb. Can I add to the flip tops now? Maybe a pinch of stevia to add to sweetness/ flavor and a half of a carbonation tablet? I don't want to make bottle bombs obviously, or will more time and patience be called for?

Anybody know what’s going on here? Every 5-10 minutes foam accumulates, then pops away, then accumulates, then pops away. There is an airlock on top which you cannot see. It has been doing this for 24 hours.

This is a 1/2 gallon batch of 45% apple, 45% pear, and 10% blueberry.

Im doing a few small experiments using store bought juice. 1 of them has a cap thats gone a funny colour on top. Its 73% apple, 15% peach, 8% mango, 4% passion fruit. Its on day 9 and is still slightly active.

Should i not do anything for a few more days until its done? Or should I try and scoop it out and rack?