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How to Make Good Cider
the necessary use of water to wet the straw, which is equivalent to an addition of water to the juice: then, too, the straw always retains much of the juice. Small presses, which work without straw, yield a better article of cider. To judge of the quality of cider an apple will make, it is best to try an experiment, grinding a small quantity, letting the pomace stand half a day, stirring it occasionally, and then pressing it. The difference in the color and richness of flavor, and of sweetness, is quite remarkable. Sweet apples, though containing more sugar, are often watery and deficient in flavor, while many subacid, or even sour apples, contain as much sugar, and make a much richer cider. The juice, when first pressed, should be syrupy, clear, and the darker colored the better. Apples vary, also, greatly in the quantity of cider they will make; of many kinds, no more than eight bushels will make a barrel of cider, while some of the richer, finer kinds, it will take twelve bushels or more.
It is poor policy to grind and press at once. A bruised apple gains in sweetness, by some chemical change which takes place and so the pomace should lie several hours to sweeten in this way; and besides, it should be stirred up occasionally to let the air get to it, so as to impart a better color. The dark-red color is very desirable and cannot be gained in any other way, and at the same time there is a positive gain in the sweetness and richness of the cider.
As the juice runs from the press, it is best received directly into barrels, flowing through a straw strainer. The strainer is easily made by putting a tube through the bottom of a pail, which makes a funnel, and then stuffing the pail full of clean, sweet straw. Almost all the particles of apples, flies, etc., will be strained out, and a clear liquid alone will pass through. The barrels, large or small, are filled full, bunged up, and moved to a cool cellar, where the bungs should be removed and the cider left to ferment.
The fermentation goes on quite rapidly, and a considerable portion of scum overflows and is thus removed. When the active fermentation and frothing cease, and the bubbles crackle as they rise in the surface and break, the bung-hole should be closed by a large cork, through which a glass or leaden tube, bent twice at right angles, is thrust, which rises from the bung and dips below water in some convenient, small vessel, through which tube this gas will escape, but air cannot enter. When the fermentation is over, and no more bubbling at the end of this tube occurs, and the cider is clear, draw it off into clean, fumigated barrels, bung up tight, and keep in the coolest place.