DOCTOR HARVEY’S PLEASANT WATER-CIDER, WHEROF HE USED TO DRINK MUCH, MAKING IT HIS ORDINARY DRINK
Take one Bushel of Pippins, cut the into slices with the Parings and Cores; boil them in twelve Gallons of water, till the goodness of them be in the water; and that consumed about three Gallons. Then put it into an Hypocras-bag, made of Cotton; and when it is clear run out, and almost cold, sweeten it with five pound of Brown-sugar, and put a pint of Ale-yest to it, and set it a working two nights and days: Then skim off the yest clean, and put it into bottles, and let it stand two or three days, till the yest fall dead at the top: Then take it off clean with a knife, and fill it up a little within the neck (that is to say, that a little about a fingers breadth of the neck be empty, between the superficies of the Liquor, and the bottom of the stopple) and then stop them up and tye them, or else it will drive out the Corks. Within a fortnight you may drink it. It will keep five or six weeks.
The actual ingredients used and process followed
36 litres Bonza apples
The recipe calls for Pippins, but they were unavailable. Bonza apples are a small red/green fruit, that are relatively sweet, they were also on special
48 litres Water
3 kg Brown Sugar
1 Sachet of Safale S-04 ale yeast
Ingredients in this brew cost under $25, a very economical drink.
Many thanks to Leofric who assisted during this batch.
15/10/2000 Washed the apples and sliced them up. Cutting slivers from around the core proved easy, and prevented cut seeds from getting into the mixture. The apples were not peeled, and the cores were used in the pot along with all the slices.
Using 2 x 14 litre stainless steel pots, added about 5-6 litres of apples and 8 litres of water. This brought the level up to about 12 litres in the pot. The pots were heated to a rolling boil, stirring occasionally until the liquid was reduced by about a third. Once the apple pieces were mostly clear the liquid was strained into a vat. This process was repeated 3 times, using a total of 36 litres of apples and 48 litres of water.
Dissolved 3 kg of brown sugar in the mixture.
16/10/2000 Pitched 1 pack of Safale S-04 ale yeast. SG 1.040
22/10/2000 Skimmed the yeast floaties from the top of the vat. Primed 750 ml bottles with 1 tsp castor sugar and bottled. Filled 49 750 ml champagne bottles (36.75 litres total). Capped and wired the bottles
Note that all equipment is to be sterilised using high temperature or suitable sterilising solutions (sodium metabisulphite, as per instructions on the pack).
Using modern wine yeast, sterilisation chemicals and plastic fermentation vessels clearly does not follow traditional techniques, however they greatly decrease the potential for contamination by unwanted bacteria that may spoil the drink, or produce potentially harmful results.