Scumble - "It's mostly apples."

[Mangetout]

@Ethilrist

Cider, however, can be as simple as a 4:1 water:apple juice ratio, so, 4 gallons of water per 1 gallon of juice. If you want it to be stronger, leave out half a gallon of water and replace it with 4 pounds of honey.

Weird. I’ve never heard of people diluting apple juice to make cider. I’d have thought that would result in a very poor brew.

[Mangetout]

@Filbert

I live in proper UK cider country, and also know quite a few UK hobby cider makers (hopefully trying it myself this year too)- they don’t add any water to the mix, it’s just pure juice, and they all use windfall apples.

Concur - in fact, the traditional cider varieties of apple aren’t ready for pressing until they fall.

You really don’t have to worry about a few bugs and stuff in there either- one traditional English recipe really does involve chucking a dead rat in there, which entirely dissolves. Other places let a toad swim through the juice (apparently they’d keep a pet toad on the orchard for the purpose), dating back from before anyone knew anything about what caused fermentation, when there were some really bizarre ideas about what would encourage it.

Apples usually ferment really vigorously almost from hour zero, with no added yeast starter - just from natural yeasts present on the fruit. I can’t help thinking the stories about the inclusion of rats or other weird stuff in the mix arose more along the lines of “Oh, that? ahem… Yeah, that’s meant to be there - I totally intended to include a dead rat. Yes, of course we’re still going to drink it…”

[DrFidelius]

@Mangetout

Concur - in fact, the traditional cider varieties of apple aren’t ready for pressing until they fall.
Apples usually ferment really vigorously almost from hour zero, with no added yeast starter - just from natural yeasts present on the fruit. I can’t help thinking the stories about the inclusion of rats or other weird stuff in the mix arose more along the lines of “Oh, that? ahem… Yeah, that’s meant to be there - I totally intended to include a dead rat. Yes, of course we’re still going to drink it….”

No. More like “of course it is still safe for *you *to drink.”

[Death_of_Rats]

Well, Apple Rat Scumble is the perfect accompaniment to Klatchian sheep’s eyeballs.

[Ranger_Jeff]

@DrFidelius

No. More like “of course it is still safe for *you *to drink.”

All things are relative, no?

[Cinnamon_Imp]

@Johnny_Q

I always suspected “water” from the Ankh River was involved in some way.

Not in Lancre, surely?

[BrainGlutton]

@Ethilrist

Cider, however, can be as simple as a 4:1 water:apple juice ratio, so, 4 gallons of water per 1 gallon of juice. If you want it to be stronger, leave out half a gallon of water and replace it with 4 pounds of honey.

I always thought cider was simply apple juice, not apple juice mixed with water.

[silenus]

Water? In cider?? Not from this cowboy! My cider is straight juices, lovingly fermented and occasionally augmented.

[Chronos]

Yeah, if anything, cider is stronger than juice, not weaker.