Never done a fruit fermentation except for a little wine many years ago. With the store bought juice it's got to be the easiest thing in the world to do, but maybe I should hold back on saying that until AFTER it ferments.Red Rim wrote:Holy smokes Cackalacky! You usually have all the good answers, not all the good questions.
Yes cinnamon sticks in the thumper would work.
I was also thinking about putting store bought hard cider in there as well.
I typically drink it unaged however, like all distillations, it gets better with time.
As for this falls apples, I wouldn't pay a dime for them. Somebody you know has apple trees so loaded up that the branches are breaking and just let them rot away. Find them!
I am not very picky about the ones I use, the ones on the ground are breaking down already. That makes them perfect.
I think I'll just go with a little of the wash in the thumper. I want to keep it to a bare bones kind of product just to see how it taste in its simplest form. Maybe do some experimenting with flavors down the road a bit.
As usual I forgot to get an OG this morning before pitching the yeast. I expect it's pretty low since I followed the advice here and didn't add any sugar. Maybe with the deep heads cut that Jimbo recommends, I'll at least get a good sampling of the product.
I didn't think about asking for windfalls or culls, but I'll keep that in mind. I was hoping to find a processing plant that will sell the juice fresh from the press, but I'm not so sure that's possible. But then, there's always Costco.
Thanks everyone for all the good info in this thread.