THE processes of cider-making are discussed and explained by the
present writer in Thomas’s “Book of the Apple,” one of the volumes
in the series of “Handbooks of Practical Gardening.” The following
short summary must here suffice. The apples, properly selected and
properly ripened by being thinly piled on boards or straw in an airy,
sunny place, should be torn and crushed in a cider mill, and the juice
pressed out by means of a screw-press. This crude juice should then be
carefully strained through a fine-meshed filter, in order to remove
any cellular tissue or other matter in suspension. The expressed apple
juice, having been freed by filtration from undissolved solids, is next
to be subjected to the process of fermentation, that is, the conversion
of its sugar into alcohol. For this purpose, it should be exposed
to the air in large open vats, or in casks with the bung-hole left
open. All the apple juice that is to be fermented in one vat or cask
should be placed in it within twelve hours from the time of placing
any therein. The specific gravity should be taken daily by means of a
brewer’s hydrometer, about six-sevenths of the total solids consisting
of sugar. Approximately, the sugar gives about half its weight of
alcohol, and it has been found that each decrease of one-hundredth in
the specific gravity of the fluid during fermentation corresponds to
the conversion of two per cent. of sugar into one per cent. of alcohol.
The scum which rises to the surface of the liquid must be skimmed off
two or three times daily, and, as soon as this frothy crust ceases to
rise, the cider still in process of active fermentation is to be drawn
off with great care by means of a rubber syphon or pump and hose into
perfectly clean casks. It is well to rinse out the casks with water of
about the same temperature as that of the cider which is to fill them,
as a sudden drop of heat is very injurious. The casks of cider should
be kept at a steady temperature of about 50° F.
If the open vat system of “purging” is unavailable, then the cider is
to be placed in casks with the bung-holes left open, the cask being
kept full to the brim by frequent additions of clear old cider. The
scum in this case overflows at the bung-holes until the purging process
is complete. Subsequently the cork is to be inserted, a bent glass tube
being passed through its centre, ending outwardly in a basin of water.
The excess of carbonic acid gas is thus enabled to escape. As soon as
the conversion of sugar into alcohol is almost complete, the cider
should be carefully filtered at a low temperature by means of a Filtre
Rapide or other suitable strainer (which must not consist of charcoal,
sand, or clay), and stored in clean air-tight casks in a cool place,
being previously pasteurized if the process be thought desirable or
worth while. The cider must then be left for a time in order to ripen,
that is, to develop bouquet and vinosity. If intended for bottling,
that process may be performed in the following spring, or preferably in
the following autumn. All antiseptics, preservatives, and artificial
flavouring agents should be avoided as suggestions of the devil.
Scrupulous cleanliness of fruit, filters, presses, mills, vats and
casks should make the two first-named possible additions unnecessary,
and careful selection of fruit should make the idea of artificial
flavouring an obvious absurdity.