Homemade Apple Yeast

by brothertuck in Cooking > Homebrew

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Homemade Apple Yeast

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I got a set of books from Amazon Kindle Library, 1 book of Edible History and 1 of Drinkable History. They explain the processes that were used long ago, by our ancestors, to make Vinegar, Cider, Beer, and Mead (Gonna Work on making some mead after the new year when I have some money to get a big jug of honey). Back after Halloween, I made a batch of this yeast, and made up a half gallon of cider, and a couple of loafs of bread from it. 
I decided to record my efforts at a new batch of yeast, some bread, and a jug of apple Cider, and post them as they get done.
It is Friday the 20th, 5 days before Christmas, the first loaf of bread will be ready tomorrow, the Cider will be ready for Christmas (although if I let it go longer, it will get stronger, and dryer tasting.) and the yeast will be ready the weekend between Christmas and New Year.
This is the first step of the process, making the yeast that I will be using and feeding to keep it going from now to the summer for new loaves of bread and new jugs of cider.

What I Used

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I used 3 apples from a bag of 8 apples.
Some store bought Apple Juice
A Knife and cutting board
An electric juicer
and 1, not 99, Red Balloon that didn't float away

Cut the Apples

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I cut the apples into a size that would fit in the feeder tube of my juicer.

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I juiced the 3 apples, and added enough store bought apple juice to the fresh juiced apple juice, to make about 2 cups of juice.
Adding the apple pulp and chopping the skin up into around 1 inch square/round/triangular/rhomboid/irregular shaped pieces of skin.
In total I ended up with about 3 cups of juice and pulp and skins in the jug.

The cork with the toothpick in it in the last picture, is what I used to poke small holes into the balloons to let the pressure escape as the yeast and cider ferment and age.

Now I Wait for Nature to Take It's Course

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It took about 10 days to a week for my last batch to be ready to be used, so I placed the jug with the holey balloon on it into my pantry next to the water heater to keep warm and will be upgrading picture as it progresses.
This is a picture of my last batch, and a picture of that batch, the fresh batch, and the cider I just made.
I have been using the last batch, taking what is needed and replenishing with fresh juice for each use. It has been going strong since Thanksgiving, and the book Drinkable History says it should be good for 6 months. I've made one jug of cider, and 2 loaves of bread so far, plus the bread and cider I just started today So if I make a new batch of yeast every month or 2, I should have a replenishing amount to make my bread and cider. My next project as I stated in the intro is to make up a batch of mead. I plan on making up at least a couple of gallons, and may use up yeast from 2 or maybe 3 batches of yeast, so I don't deplete any one completely.
I am also going to be entering this into both the brewing and baking  contests this year, so if you like what I did, give me a vote up.
Thanks

Weekend Progress

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Here's some pictures of how the yeast has progressed over the weekend.
The new batch of yeast is the middle jug in the pictures.
So far there has been little activity in the jug.
The first batch took 2 weeks before it had significant activity, so it's wait and see with this batch.

Just a note, for some reason I am not able to post comments or reply to them. Might be my system, it's getting old, so I appreciate your comments and tips even if I can't reply, but I'll keep trying.