Represto wrote:Jeeez. That's a good amount of cider. Did you get 5g x 15-17 from 50 bushels? Did that give you about 8-10 gallons of finished product?
I cannot answer that question on the grounds that it may incriminate me.
Represto wrote:
My concern is with the crushing. My crusher and press is just like the one in that PDF I posted. It's a manual crank jobby with no fly wheel...I'm going to have Pop-eye arms by the end of the season.
I have a box of old motors from sources like that. This one is ancient, cloth power cable even that I pulled off a very old scroll saw. Its only 1/4 HP i think. But it doesnt miss a beat, bog or slow at all while chewing through the apples. So it doesnt take much power.
Just after I had finished the tedious task of pressing this years spare apples using a twin screw juicer, I saw a UK documentary where a village cider club gets together to make their own cider.
They interview someone who says they have been doing it the same way for 400 years.... cut to the next shot ... apples being fed into the hopper of a garden shredder the same as the one I have in my shed. It was given to me and is all but useless for most things around here. I only kept it because it will shred sugar cane. It will need some modification to swallow apples, but not much. It would mean that, instead of only making a few bottles out of my spare apples, I could scrounge up enough to make cider to last the family the whole year.
Like you said, it's not really good for too much. On the box it says that it will mulch small branches and leaves. I don't know who needs to mulch leaves...but I digress. For the $100 it costs me, it was worth the gamble.
I found 5 gallon nylon paint strainer bags at Home Hardware for $3/bag...which is a lot cheaper than any of the proper 5 gallon 'cider press' bags. I'm pretty sure they are the exact same bag! http://www.homehardware.ca/en/rec/index ... t+strainer
I've also started to stock up on wooden bushel baskets. I have 10 so far, but think I should get at least another 10. Which brings me around to my next line of questioning...juice yields. My goal is to ferment in a 55 gallon drum. So, if your yield was 15-17 x 5 gallons from 50 bushels, I'm assuming that I could reach my goal with 25-30 bushels. I know it's a loaded question with a lot of variables, but would you say that I'm in the right ball park?
S-Cackalacky wrote:...distilling could be a religious experience - the wash, the vapor, and the holy spirit.
You're going to be a busy boy pressing 55 gallons through a 5 gallon bucket. Stock up on coffee and cola
A good press material will give the juice a pathway to escape. Hessian was the choice of all of the traditional cider makers I have seen in documentaries. If I didn't already have a wine press I would go traditional, using layers of wooden slats and hessian instead of a bucket. The press frame is exactly the same, but the juice only has to travel a short distance to escape the 'cake', you are not restricted by the size of your bucket and a breakage is unlikely to ruin your day. I used to work in a factory that made Ribena 40 years ago and that was the setup they were using to press black currants.
My press uses a basket made of hardwood slats and steel, that is approximately the same size as a 5 gallon bucket, with a screw-down pressing block. Princess Auto (the Canadian Harbour Freight) has a steel frame bottle jack press that I would like to use for a fruit press. It'd be easy enough to use a basket or flat stacks.
Ya, I'm expecting a few full days of pressing...and I'm sure I'm underestimating how much work is involved. I can't wait for my kids to get older so that they can help with the labour involved in all my projects!
S-Cackalacky wrote:...distilling could be a religious experience - the wash, the vapor, and the holy spirit.
Represto wrote:My press uses a basket made of hardwood slats and steel, that is approximately the same size as a 5 gallon bucket, with a screw-down pressing block. Princess Auto (the Canadian Harbour Freight) has a steel frame bottle jack press that I would like to use for a fruit press. It'd be easy enough to use a basket or flat stacks.
Ya, I'm expecting a few full days of pressing...and I'm sure I'm underestimating how much work is involved. I can't wait for my kids to get older so that they can help with the labour involved in all my projects!
Ya its tiring work, sore back, but a labor of love. I pressed 1400 lbs of apples solo last fall 5 gallons at a time. I think I could reasonably press 400-500lbs at a crack in a couple three hours before I needed a stiff drink and the couch. Picked apples probably a dozen differnet days, and pulled the grinder out 3 different times to get through it all. Cant wait for next month to roll around, hahaha, apples are looking good again this year.
Edit: Represto, that shredder should work excellent, let us know how it goes.
One thing I have found really helpful when pressing is having a couple of 1/2" blocks of rubber under the ram. Pieces of car tyre would work. It means you can crank the ram down and walk away for a while without losing pressure so quickly.
I put a few of varieties of my apples through a juicer to get an idea of yeild and whatnot. The apples are between 13-14 deg Brix with a pH of 3-4. Is this too acidic for EC-1118? It apparently has a very wide pH tolerance, but I would rather keep things optimal so I don't retard the fermentation. Should I adjust pH to something closer to 5.5 or should I just let 'er rip natural? Or should I use a more tolerant yeast? I'm not interested in doing a natural yeast fermentation this year.
S-Cackalacky wrote:...distilling could be a religious experience - the wash, the vapor, and the holy spirit.
I might have just hooked up a deal for a bin (20 bushels, 800 lbs) of apples for $60. Hot damn! They're all dessert apples with high Brix but low tannin. I'll combine those with the 10 bushels of crabs and tarts that I already have and I should have a pretty good mix.
S-Cackalacky wrote:...distilling could be a religious experience - the wash, the vapor, and the holy spirit.
Be careful with those crabs, Represto. With the variety I have, a hint is really nice, but I reckon much over 5% would be too much. Taste some samples.
Maybe do some different blends for variety. My Missus likes crab apple in her cider way more than I do.
AT the end of the apple season here, I saw bins of them for sale for around the same price, but didn't know I had a crusher in my shed. Maybe next year....
WOW, 800 lbs for 60 bucks? They cant even pick them for that much. Thats 28 bottles of apple brandy at a couple bucks a pop. Half bottles (375ml) sell for 30-40 from a lot of small micro's.
Thanks NZChris, I'll keep that in mind when I start to mix the juice.
The apples are not pretty enough for market. Juice apples. Given that this year is a huge crop, there's surplus of juice apples beyond what the market demands. So the price has bottomed out. I'm sure it'll fall even further at the end of the season.
S-Cackalacky wrote:...distilling could be a religious experience - the wash, the vapor, and the holy spirit.
8 bushels shredded and pressed so far. This gave me 50L of pure cider, which are happily bubbling away in the wine cellar @ a cool 58 deg C with EC-1118. I also reserved some of the pressed apple and mixed it with sugar water in separate 23L buckets (2/3 water to 1/3 apple mash). That too is happily bubbling away with EC-1118. I plan to press out the sugar mash as I'm sure the apple flavour has been imparted.
This weekend brings at least another 10 bushels to the press. Hopefully more!
The Princess Auto garden shredder is working wonders. It's very quick and outputs a fine shred. It's easy to clean and doesn't jam up too much...unless the apples are soft and mushy. My only complaint - and it's a big one - is that you need to chop the apples in half in order to fit it into the narrow opening of the shredder. However, even with the added step, it's still far better than using the hand cranked scratter mounted to the cider press. Even if I had motorized the cranked scratter, the shredder is much better. A good $100 investment.
How is your vintage?
S-Cackalacky wrote:...distilling could be a religious experience - the wash, the vapor, and the holy spirit.
I'm interested to know how the pressings turn out. They have always just gone straight into my compost.
I'm sure mine can be modified to take all but the biggest apples I'm likely to get. The documentary I saw didn't show the top, but I know they couldn't fit those sizes into the original hole. The chute at the bottom will have to opened up too, not a big job, then make sure the pusher still can't reach the blades and it should be sweet as long as I don't get mushy apples.
Represto wrote:8 bushels shredded and pressed so far. This gave me 50L of pure cider, which are happily bubbling away in the wine cellar @ a cool 58 deg C with EC-1118.
I held out on getting a big bin due to the sheer frightening amount of work it would entail to process it all. Perhaps when I have a bigger ratcheting or bladder press and a scratter that doesn't require me to cut every apple in half...but I digress.
When all was said and done, I had 5 x 23L carboys of pure cider. It tasted fantastic off the press! I reserved some of the pressed apple marc and let it soak in buckets with water. It sat for three days and then I filtered it and collected the 'juice'. This all went into a 200L barrel with 30kg of brown sugar, drill mixed with 50g of DAP, and then innoculated with 6 condom packs of EC-1118. It's happily bubbling away as I type.
A 23L batch of juice was left without a carboy, so it sat in a primary fermenting bucket with a loose lid for three days. I racked it off into a fresh carboy with an airlock, but noticed that it was looking quite flat and had a light vinegar funk to it. I racked it off anyways and added 10g of DAP and a condom pack of EC-1118. Hopefully my nose was lying to me and it will be just fine. I suppose it wouldn't be horrible to have a nice batch of apple cider vinegar....but....
S-Cackalacky wrote:...distilling could be a religious experience - the wash, the vapor, and the holy spirit.
kevin 82 wrote:I am attempting my first apple mash and it's fermenting nicely. I read on the forums that fruit produces more heads. When run a five gallon batch of corn whiskey I dump the first cup, with fruit should I double that just to be safe. I am running a five gallon pot still.
Thanks guys
I did that as well, first time this year. Let the raw, home pressed apple juice, extra water, yeast and sugar ferment one week. The when distilling I dropped only the first cup overboard. My hearts thereafter was good. Nice apple flavor too.
RummyDog, I really enjoyed the first half of your video, awesome job on the press. But I want to offer some advice on the last half.
The distilling. If you have read much here I'm sure you know where this is going. You really need to find better ways to seal your still. I haven't seen so much silicone since I resealed my 180 gallon aquarium. Kinda makes me worry about the cloudy distillate. It should always be clear until you get way down into tails.
You should also study about making your cuts, This is not a thing you do by temps or measuring or buy proof. Its feel, taste, and smell.
I could also tell by the video you seem to be a smart guy so this will all come together for ya!
Wish you luck and KEEP SAFE!
"yeah? yeah? the maple flavored kind?" A dog on you tube.
I've gone through the thread on making apple brandy, and for a 1st attempt, I'm gonna use the pure "frozen concentrate" recipe. The general consensus it that most all apple brandy comes out hot and nasty and must age (w/ a little oak) before it's a drinkable liquor, understood. But, has anyone added new concentrate to cut (proof) the alcohol to enhance the apple flavor? Also no one mentioned needing a food source for the little "pac-man" yeastie beasties? Any grain suggestions or is it not needed?
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