SC - Apples for Cider

[Catherine Keegan]

>The first time I tried for cider I started with fresh apples. I don't
>have a press, so I put them in the blender with some water. And had
>to keep adding water to get them chopped up. It was pretty weak. And
>worse it started growing white stuff. Out it went.


Yes, you pretty much have to press the juice, or buy preservative-free juice.

>The next time I started with apple juice. I was brewing it for an
>event several weeks in the future. It looked like it was doing ok,
>but got to tasting vinegary.

Almost undoubtedly exposed to air - vinegar bacteria drift around all the 
time, just hoping for something mildly alcoholic to colonize.

>Since I had transferred this into some
>Grosch bottles (the ones with the spring-clamp ceramic tops with
>red 'O' rings), I put them in the refrigerator to slow/stop the
>fermentation.

Oh dear.  Refrigeration will slow yeast, but certainly won't stop it (same 
for vinegar bacteria).  I have a plastic jug in my fridge with a mix of 
pear juice (which was pasteurized) and apple juice (which wasn't).  I put 
it there in December and occasionally had a glass of the stuff.  Recently, 
it began to ferment, all on its own, and is now going rather strongly, 
despite being held at about 34 degrees F...

Slow fermentation is actually good for cider, so putting it into the fridge 
wasn't a mistake.  Capping the bottles while fermentation was going, now 
THAT was a mistake!  You're lucky, at least none of them exploded.

Get yourself a one-gallon glass jug, sterilize it, make a yeast starter, 
mix the yeast starter with some fresh apple juice in the jug, put a 
fermentation lock on the jug (or a balloon, it's fun to watch it blow up), 
put it in the fridge and forget about it for a few months.  When it goes 
clear, bottle it and refrigerate it for another few months.  Should be 
drinkable.

Good Luck,
Colin