If you have access to a lot of free apples, you can easily make cider from them.  Any apples will do, but they should be as ripe as possible.  This project page shows you a simple method that does not require any special equipment.

The first thing is to get some apples.  You will need quite a lot of large containers, because you need to collect about 4 to 5 times the volume of apples compared to the volume of juice you want to make into cider.  The container shown here is a 5 gallon (22 liter) fermentation bin.  

A sheet or blanket is also handy. Put your sheet under the tree, climb up the tree and shake it.  Lots fall off.  The advantage of this method is that generally the ripest apples tend to fall off, and seriously under-ripe apples stay on.  When you put them into the bucket, pick the apples up by hand, so you don't get all the twigs, leaves, earwigs etc.

Containers for apples: You need a lot of apples.  Here are about 20-22 gallons of apples, which made about 4 and a half gallons of juice.

I don't peel them, but if you do, the juice is slightly less bitter. Some people core them, but hey - that's a bit too much effort, when it works anyway.  You could use cooking apples, but the resulting cider will be a bit sour.  Adding precipitated chalk will reduce sourness of cooking apples.  It is simply that it reacts with some of the acid and that neutralises it.

To release the juice, you have to smash up the apples, then press them.  A long piece of timber is good for this (untreated with any sort of preservative!)

Here, a press was made from 4" x 3" (12cm x 9cm) timber bolted together.  This forms a strong frame in which a tub can be placed.

The mashed apple pulp is put inside a nylon mesh, and put into a plastic box, with a single small hole drilled into it (to let out the juice).  The cheapest available was this red mesh, an offcut from the fabric section in a shop.

A board was placed on top of the mesh containing the apple pulp, and a car jack placed between the board and the frame to apply pressure.

This step is not essential, but is advisable if your apples are already quite mouldy or have lots of soft brown bits. 

Here sodium metabisulphite is being added.  Any brew store can provide it.  If you don't have a local favorite, Northern Brewer[1] and Williams Brewing[2] are some big Internet suppliers.  This realeases sulphur dioxide, which will kill or seriously retard any dodgy moulds, yeasts or bacteria which otherwise can spoil the juice.  The bacteria that causes vinegar to form is common and will be found on the skins of apples.  The sulphur dioxide also nukes this bacteria.

Do not add your yeast for about 24 hours after sterilisation or it may be killed as well!  After the 24 hrs, when the yeast is added to the sterilized liquid, it outbreeds everything and takes over.

It is possible to get vinegar bacteria back in again later if you do not cover the liquid, as tiny fruit flies (Drusophlis I think the are called) will appear as if by magic ,attracted by the smell of the fermentation, and they carry the bacteria, so keep the lid on.  Hope that makes sense.  The method I have here is the simplest.  It is possible to be much stricter on hygiene,  but unless you intend to keep the finished product for a long time, it isn't really necessary to go over the top with this.

Any wine or beer grade yeast is good for this.  You can add it straight into the juice, but if you have used sulphur dixide to sterilise your juice, you should allow 24 hours before adding the yeast.  The wine yeast you add will quickly crowd out any traces of other natural yeasts.  It will use up the oxygen in the juice to breed, and will start turning the natural sugars into alcohol.

You can use a hydrometer to measure the specific gravity of the juice before and after adding the yeast, but its not essential.  It is mainly just to see how strong it will be. 

Most fruit does have a little natural yeast on the skin, and it may or may not work for fermenting.  Personally I wouldn't recommend hoping naturally occuring yeasts will be reliable varieties.  That's a risk, but not only that - fruit also often feature other bacterial spoilage organisms that can turn alcohol into vinegar.  The process of sterilising the juice is really to kill of all unknown organisms, and then the added known yeast variety will do its magic in a reliable way. 

If you are interested in using naturally occuring yeast for fermentation, you might want to check out Sandor Katz's book "Wild Fermentation"[3] It offers a lot of amazing information about making fermented foods/drinks utilizing naturally occurring yeasts. His website[4] also has a great discussion forum for wild fermenters.

The fermentation was in a 5 gallon fermentation bin with a closed cover, but it has a small (1/4 inch) hole in the top, covered with gaffer tape.  The escaping gas pushes out the edges of the tape.  It's a crude fermentation lock, but you can use proper wine making ones if you have them.  For short fermentations like cider and beer, keeping it reasonably closely covered is usually OK.   You can ferment in any "clean" container with a wide opening and a loose lid. You can get "food grade" plastic containers that are made of FDA approved polymers and processes from a local wine/beer making shop.  Some use the 40 gallon plastic garbage can size for wine making.

You can also add strawberries or raspberries after the primary fermentation is down to at least 2 minutes between bubbles. Adding it at this point in the process retains the aroma, color and flavor of the berry.  Just make sure your berry mixture is sterilized.

After a week or so, the yeast in your cider will have turned all the sugar into alcohol.  At this point you can check to see how sour the apples were.  If the apples were not completely ripe, or you only had wild apples the juice can be very sharp. This can be so sharp you can't drink it.  You can make this less so by adding calcium carbonate (aka precipitated chalk). This will react with the acids in your cider and neutralise them.  You may need to add several ounces per gallon, but do this in stages because when you add it, the reaction of acid and carbonate will release carbon dioxide, so it will fizz.

Make sure you don't bottle too soon or you could end up with an explosion.  If you have too much pressure, and/or weak bottles they will explode. It's best to take that possibility into account.  Always use proper champagne or beer bottles, and don't leave them near anything that you wouldn't want soaked in cider, just in case!  Most explosions happen because fermentation has not finished. The Hydrometer can be used to see the potential for alcohol. Use it before bottling if you want to be really safe: float the Hydrometer, take a reading of the specific gravity then take another reading three days later. If the reading is the same its safe to assume fermentation has finished. If the reading has changed then take another reading in another three days. Repeat if needed.

After you have left your cider for a few weeks, about a week after fermentation had stopped, it will clear as the yeast settles, and it will be ready for bottling.  It may not be completely clear, but that doesn't really matter because it can clear in the bottle.

For every gallon of cider you will need 6 average wine bottles or 9 average beer bottles.

For each wine size bottle, you will need to prime the bottles by adding just over half a teaspoon of sugar to each. This will restart the fermentation, but because it happens in a sealed bottle, the carbon dioxide released gets dissolved into the cider and creates pressure. The cider is "bottle conditioned" to get the sparkle. In other words it has a trace of live yeast which is fed a controlled small amount of sugar which it makes CO2 with to pressurize the bottle.  When the bottle is opened later, the pressure is released, allowing the gas to escape, which creates the sparkle.

You should use bottle designed to stand pressure such as bottles made for sparkling wine.  Seal your bottles with corks and champagne wire cages.  You can use beer bottles with crown corks, but this needs a special tool.

I suggest from experience that 2 weeks is the minimum you should allow it to sit before bottling, just to make sure the fine sediment of yeast and odd other particles is settled, and you can pour off the clear cider.  Leaving it longer will mean not only will the yeast actually die (and therefore shouldn't give anyone a stomach upset if they drink too much live yeast), but also there are subtle chemical reactions which occur that can make the wine taste better.

I think leaving it for 6 months is probably overkill, and also requires some impressive restraint, but probably would mean it was at peak condition, and has become a folk saying as it is based on a reliable reason.

So in short a week in the warm (to get the fizz, followed by a month or so in the cold (to settle it) is probably about right.

For the first 3-5 days after bottling with, you should keep your bottles in a warm place.  This will encourage the yeast to ferment the sugar, to will make the cider fizzy.  After that, you should store the bottles in a cold place for about 2 weeks to allow the cider to settle and clear.

Cheap and cheery, but actually rather tasty, and very satisfying to make...