• For 1 gallon / demijohn of wine…

1] Sterilise everything!  Use chemical or heat (the oven or boiling)

2] Blend 1 gallon of filtered water in a container with 1.5Kg of fruit (without stalks) – don’t be afraid to throw a bit more in if you want..

3] Add 1/2 teaspoon of pectic enzyme

*note – this is an enzyme that ‘eats’ the pectin that make jelly set and coagulates elements in the wine making it cloudy

4] Add a campden tablet

*note – used to inhibit the growth of most wild yeast and to eliminate chlorine from the water.

5] Leave for 12 – 24 hours

6] Add 1/4 teaspoon grape tanin

*note – tanin is found in the grape skin, the darker the grape (if you were using them the higher the tanin content); tanin is one of the four ingredients that must be balanced in a good wine (alcohol and sugar against acid and tannin).

7] 1/2 teaspoon of acid blend

*note – acid blend is roughly a mix of 50% tartaric acid, 30% malic acid and 20% citric acid – so can add the relevant amount of these quatities if you have them seperatly, but would like to see you add accurately 20% of 1/2 a teaspoon!

8] 1/2 teaspoon of yeast nutrient

*note – feed the yeast – it isn’t only sugar that a happy yeast makes.. include yeast nutrient – (essentially nitrogen, but can be a lot more besides.. but trust in the word ‘nutrient’)

9] Yeast

*note - are all yeasts created equal? – Bread, beer, wine, athelete’s foot… I digress! They all create CO2 but their qualities are as numerous as their applications.. A beer yeast can only tolerate a certain % alcohol volume before dying off, so should never be used for wine – unless thinking of a drinking friendly bottle of plonk? But seriously a wine yeast will turn fruit sugars into alcohol to around 12% alcohol.. there are many on the market and those that sell them are better at that than me at doing so, so will leave it upto you – wouldn’t get too hung up on it though..

10] Grape juice – ok so it doesn’t make it a true country glass and so is an optional extra – but available to buy and does improve, I believe, so add a cheeky one into the demijohn and ….

11] Place into a sterilised demijohn, of course add a bunk and air lock

12] Allow fermentation to happen…. zzz…..zzzz….zzzzz….zzzzzzz……zzzzz…..zzz…..z

13] Finished.. Rack off into a secondary demijohn

*Note this doesn’t have to be demijohns can be 2 litre bottles ‘converted’: of course the above measures need to be adapted but just so long as the bottle has a bung cut to size with a bendy air gap like you would find in a toilet (but a lot smaller!) – possibly using straws, then all good.  Remember to sterilise!

14] Wait 6 months!  Yep and then rack off into bottles…

15] The boring bit – if 6 months wasn’t enough- Now wait a year!!!!

*note – probably worth remembering the time it takes to mature.  Some longer than others, but like growing veg, do it in phases so there is always something coming through.. I am not at that phase yet but see that the principal is sound!

With apples and time a potent blend will be made…

But of course can do it with a bit more..

Traditionally cider was made by taking the juice of an apple (or unless you are a horse eating a rotten apple – many apples!) and allowing the yeasts that exist in the air around us to ferment into cider.. You can still do this.  My only suggestion would be to fill the vessel you are fermenting in almost to the top and use a vessel that only has a relatively small air hole – supposedly a half filled barrel is a sure way of getting vinegar and not cider…!

However can be done by pulping and crushing apples for their juice or using carton’ed apple juice

1] campden tablet to kill of the yeast

2] 1kg of sugar

3] Cider yeast quantity dependant on the vessel you are fermenting in…

Fermentation can take a few weeks

4] Rack off if you can – i.e put into another vessel with such care as to avoid moving only the liquid and none of the sediment – easier said than done!  A tip is to siphon – suck through a tube from the original (on a chair) that is placed higher than the destination (on the floor)… and as it enters your mouth, transfer to the destination and watch it flow through (capillary action): can be a bit messy if slow or suprised!  As it flows through, keep the tube down the source container only a little lower than the surface.  As you start to get down to the bottom (about 1/3), tilt the source container and continue…. You will start to get to the sediment and you have to sacrifice a bit of cider for a lot of sediment so don’t stop too late!

5] Mature – yes you have to wait about 1 year!  But if you have a tap at the bottom of your barrel you can test everynow and again for this…

Make some cider (for next year!), take it with you on your next glamping adventure with ‘Wild in Style’ and impress your friends with how you stayed in a yurt and sipped home made cider..