Wild Apple Cider Recipe

I have always loved the idea of making cider completely from scratch from my own apples. I was put off this for a while because I thought you had to have specific cider apples that are different from the sweeter eating apples. But then I saw a recipe in the NZ Gardener magazine for apple cider that you could make with cooking apples (or by adding a few crabapples if you only had sweet eating apples). I had a good crop of apples this year so it was a great opportunity to try something new.

I have made cider previously but it was much more controlled with a pouch of juice of known sugar content and adding commercially available cider yeast. This recipe uses just the wild yeasts that are found on the apples for fermentation. It also came with the warning that it could be quite explosive – apparently the NZ Gardener editor had a bottle explode all over her lounge. With my previous forays into cider, the fermentation was always conducted in 2 stages: firstly let the yeast use up all the sugar and stop bubbling, then add just enough sugar to the bottles to give a nice fizz without risk of explosion. I was tempted to use this approach again but decided in the end to ‘do the wild thing’ – and the bottles are stored in the basement!

You don’t need any special equipment for this, just a 10L plastic bucket (preferably food grade), some cheesecloth, and some recycled plastic bottles.

1.5kg cooking apples
5.7 L water
1kg sugar
3 lemons – rind and juice

Freeze the apples for 3 days in sealed plastic bags.

Take out of the freezer, thaw enough to chop roughly, then blitz apples (including peel and core) in a blender. Add enough water as you blend to make apple pulp.

Put the apple pulp and the rest of the water into a bucket, cover with a clean tea towel, then leave for 7 days, stirring every morning and evening.

Strain the apple pulp through the cheese cloth or a mesh bag, reserving the juice. Compost the pulp.

Return the juice to the bucket, add sugar, grated lemon rind and strained lemon juice. Leave for 48 hours.

Strain and bottle in plastic bottles. Keep in a cool, dark place where explosions won’t be catastrophic!

Drink after one week as sparkling apple juice or leave to ferment fully. After a few months it will turn from cloudy to clear. Then your cider should be ready to enjoy.