Lets get carried away with fruity goodness

[yakattack]

S-cac. I don't remember are you doing ag's? If you are get on that press now. It's perfect for squeezing the grains dry to get the most out of your ag as well.

Yak

[S-Cackalacky]

Yak, I've just barely got into doing AGs and I know even with the grain ferments a decent apple press would probably work much better than the ass press, but it's what I have at the moment. I don't have the time or money right now to get everything together to do a build. But yes, a lot of advantages to having a proper press.

I want to do more AGs, but I need to upgrade my equipment first which will also take some time and money. I'll be focusing on apple brandy this Fall and maybe a few rum runs until I can get my ducks in a row to start doing AGs again. Maybe even a few SF sugarheads.

[Jimbo]

[quote="S-Cackalacky"]
I want to do more AGs, but I need to upgrade my equipment first /quote]

naaa. simple is good SC. Buckets and Blankets is all you need. The only difference is holding 150-140 range for 60-90 minutes and an old blanket will do that.

[S-Cackalacky]

I want to do more AGs, but I need to upgrade my equipment first /quote]

naaa. simple is good SC. Buckets and Blankets is all you need. The only difference is holding 150-140 range for 60-90 minutes and an old blanket will do that.

Jimbo, did you read that AG SF thread I started a while back. It was kinda like being in the Army - I did it once, but don't think I want to do it again.

[Jimbo]

I want to do more AGs, but I need to upgrade my equipment first /quote]

naaa. simple is good SC. Buckets and Blankets is all you need. The only difference is holding 150-140 range for 60-90 minutes and an old blanket will do that.

Jimbo, did you read that AG SF thread I started a while back. It was kinda like being in the Army - I did it once, but don't think I want to do it again.

chuckle, uh oh,.... dont recall that. Ill go look for it. The first time with anything is clusterfucklenuts. Dont give up. After 3, 4 times you start to fall into a familiar pattern with what works. After a few more than that its autopilot.

[cranky]

One thing you cant see in my pictures is the bucket that the blades are in is actually a drywall compound bucket which had a much heavier bottom than the standard 5 gallon bucket.

One thing I've found with the method I'm using is that if you let the pulp sit for a few hours is bleeds a lot of juice and the remaining juice comes out easier. I think with a little patience the ass press would do a good job.

One of the orchards around me had so many people wanting the drops that they actually started selling them for 25 cents a pound. Most won't sell them because they can't legally use them so they may be suspicious of how you are going to use them.

[cranky]

With the 2 gallons of juice I pressed today I topped 50 gallons and I want to pick more just to try out some improvements to the everything-o-matic ( It slices, dices, chops and shred, not just fruits and vegetables but anything that happens to wander into the kitchen). I stopped at the trees again this afternoon to check on the sweets. To keep myself from picking any early I decided to try to clear an area under the antique tree so I can spread out a tarp and try to shake some more down. I got an area cleared out and if I can remember my tarps tomorrow I will see if I can shake some down but it is a very large tree and difficult to climb.

Yesterday my wife and I put up 9 jars of apple pie filling from the worm free apples from the antique tree, that I have been saving over the past couple weeks. This year the apples from that tree are perfect for pies and apple butter so I have been saving them for that. I now want to put back more pie filling because it turned out so good. I want to just put the pie filling on vanilla ice cream, no crust required.

[S-Cackalacky]

Cranky, the thought entered my mind that the windfalls could be gone before I can get to them. Maybe a lot of other people use them too. If it doesn't work out, I'll go to my fallback plan - store bought juice.

[cranky]

Cranky, the thought entered my mind that the windfalls could be gone before I can get to them. Maybe a lot of other people use them too. If it doesn't work out, I'll go to my fallback plan - store bought juice.

That's certainly a possibility,
but I don't know for sure how many people are actually making their own cider and brandy, however apple season is quickly drawing to a close, A lot depends on the apples, I'm surprised they are picking golden delicious, around here the golden delicious drops around Aug 1st. I missed most of the apples on a golden delicious because I didn't even realize it was there until I stopped to pick the tree next to it and it happened to still have a few left. Sadly it probably won't be there next year.

Have you looked on http://pickyourown.org/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow or http://fallingfruit.org/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow

There's always next year, I start thinking about next season as soon as this season ends.
My local Safeway currently has Safeway brand apple juice on sale for 98 cents a half gallon but only for a few more days. I was actually considering buying 10 or 15 gallons to compare the brandy to the hand pressed stuff but my wife has finally come around to my way of thinking in regards to the free range organic apples, she now likes the fact that they are pesticide free and organic.

[S-Cackalacky]

Cranky, I'm on the East coast (VA). The season here is apparently much later than yours. It usually doesn't hit its stride until early October. There were some apples being picked around mid September, but that's about as early as it gets. I'm not sure what comes in early here. I think I remember seeing a lot of Honeycrisp and some unfamiliar hybrids a few weeks ago.

That's a good price on the Safeway juice. The only thing I have near me is Food Lion and Walmart. I don't think there's a Safeway within 75 miles. Walmart sometimes has a good deal on two 96 oz jugs (1.5 gal) for $4.00. There's also a Sharp Shopper that sometimes has 1/2 gallons for $1.39.

Anyway, got my fingers crossed for the windfalls.

[Bushman]

Cranky, I'm on the East coast (VA). The season here is apparently much later than yours. It usually doesn't hit its stride until early October. There were some apples being picked around mid September, but that's about as early as it gets. I'm not sure what comes in early here. I think I remember seeing a lot of Honeycrisp and some unfamiliar hybrids a few weeks ago.

That's a good price on the Safeway juice. The only thing I have near me is Food Lion and Walmart. I don't think there's a Safeway within 75 miles. Walmart sometimes has a good deal on two 96 oz jugs (1.5 gal) for $4.00. There's also a Sharp Shopper that sometimes has 1/2 gallons for $1.39.

Anyway, got my fingers crossed for the windfalls.

S-C I don't think our seasons are that far off, this year in the PNW we had record days of sun and heat making all the crops to come on earlier than usual.

[Jimbo]

I haven't picked any apples yet but many are just about ready now. Some Golden's still on the trees but starting to look tired.

[cranky]

Cranky, I'm on the East coast (VA). The season here is apparently much later than yours. It usually doesn't hit its stride until early October. There were some apples being picked around mid September, but that's about as early as it gets. I'm not sure what comes in early here. I think I remember seeing a lot of Honeycrisp and some unfamiliar hybrids a few weeks ago.

I checked my notes from last year and this year they are a couple weeks early but the pinks that I found last year were ripe around the first week of August and until this year I didn't even know the golden delicious tree right next to it was an apple tree because by then it had already lost all it's apples. This year the pinks were dropping July 20th and the golden had already lost most of them but still had some.

Another thing is don't overlook apples just because you have never heard of the variety, There are thousands of varieties out there. If you know what they are, look them up on http://www.orangepippin.com/apples" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow it's a great resource. I use Orange pippin to check varieties frequently, when Lowe's had apple trees last year for 75% off I made a list of what they had and looked them up. I wound up buying a Hazen which shouldn't have wound up in this region since it was developed for colder climates but it produced nice large fruit with good flavor, coincidentally right at the time everything says a Hazen should produce. This year they have Macoun apple trees which is another one that shouldn't be in this region and if they still have them at 75% off I will buy one of those even though I have nowhere to put it. My understanding is the Macoun is pretty common on the east coast and makes a very good cider. I work with a guy who talks about the cider from that tree frequently and I surprised to see them here.

My point is, if you can, research the trees that will be there before you go. Another place to buy apples might be any Hispanic grocery stores that may be around. Around here that is the place to buy the cheapest fruit.

[S-Cackalacky]

Thanks for that Cranky. I'll take a look at the link.

Odd thing here - I was driving up I-81 going into Winchester, VA and saw apple trees loaded with fruit in the median strip. Would be easy pickin's if not for the potential traffic ticket for stopping on the interstate.

[cranky]

Yesterday I cleared out an area to place tarps under the big tree to try to shake some apples out of it. Today we had a cold front move in and we are in the midst of a big storm with 40MPH gusts, I guess the wet season finally got here. I'm worried that I am going to lose everything off the remaining trees tonight but they are somewhat protected from the wind and survived the storms last year so I am hopeful they will again this year.

I peeled, cored and chopped the sweet apples I picked Monday but I didn't grind them since I don't want the juice to start fermenting on it's own so I plan on grinding them tomorrow immediately before pressing. My intention was to press these for my wife's juice but this afternoon she told me she wants me to condense it and make iced apple wine from it, So now I need to find fermenting space for that too., Guess I need to get around to making a run or two. I can move the low wines I have from their carboy to bottles or jars and the pear has been ready to run for a while now, so maybe I can find the time to go ahead and run that as well.

[cranky]

Thanks for that Cranky. I'll take a look at the link.

Odd thing here - I was driving up I-81 going into Winchester, VA and saw apple trees loaded with fruit in the median strip. Would be easy pickin's if not for the potential traffic ticket for stopping on the interstate.

In my younger days I would have gone for that but as I have gotten older I have gotten more cautious. I actually carry handled plastic bags in my car that I can discreetly carry in my pocket then fill with apples and get out fast if I need to. I've picked 8o pounds of apples in 10 minutes and lugged those bags back out of a place that was off limits before anybody had a chance to realize I was there.

[cranky]

One other thing, while clearing blackberries yesterday I found a big branch broken off one of the apple trees in a winter storm we had 2 or 3 (or 4) years ago. I took the branch to cut into strips and use for aging.

[S-Cackalacky]

I've thought about asking some of the orchard owners about cutting some deadwood. There's a distillery over the other side of the Blueridge that uses applewood for smoking their barley malt and for aging. They make a pretty decent single malt.

I just recently got a nice supply of cherry wood from a small tree that was cleared from the woods behind my house. It was a trunk about 6 feet long and 5 inches in diameter. I cut it into sticks and ended up with about 2 gallons of 3/4" X 3/4" X 5" sticks. I did a little forced-seasoning on it - soaked in water for a couple of weeks, dried outside for a couple of weeks, and repeated the cycle 2 more times. I stopped when the water was without color. I haven't used any of it yet - still needs to be toasted. Thinking of trying a bit of it with the apple brandy.

[S-Cackalacky]

Thanks for that Cranky. I'll take a look at the link.

Odd thing here - I was driving up I-81 going into Winchester, VA and saw apple trees loaded with fruit in the median strip. Would be easy pickin's if not for the potential traffic ticket for stopping on the interstate.

In my younger days I would have gone for that but as I have gotten older I have gotten more cautious. I actually carry handled plastic bags in my car that I can discreetly carry in my pocket then fill with apples and get out fast if I need to. I've picked 8o pounds of apples in 10 minutes and lugged those bags back out of a place that was off limits before anybody had a chance to realize I was there.

I wouldn't say age has made me any more cautious so much as it has diminished my ability to successfully escape the situation.

[cranky]

I wouldn't say age has made me any more cautious so much as it has diminished my ability to successfully escape the situation.

That's both funny and true

[Bushman]

One other thing, while clearing blackberries yesterday I found a big branch broken off one of the apple trees in a winter storm we had 2 or 3 (or 4) years ago. I took the branch to cut into strips and use for aging.

It will need to be a big branch to get any heartwood. I found that most of the down fruit trees I use for aging I get the best wood from the trunk. Currently for the last few years I've been getting mine from a plumb tree trunk. It has worked well in my solarice method, as I use it save my barrels by first starting them in 4 and 3 gallon Ball Jars with wood before transfering to barrels. On another note my wife ordered a new barrel for me as my 2 current ones have just about been used to the limit and they are too small to re-char.

[S-Cackalacky]

One other thing, while clearing blackberries yesterday I found a big branch broken off one of the apple trees in a winter storm we had 2 or 3 (or 4) years ago. I took the branch to cut into strips and use for aging.

It will need to be a big branch to get any heartwood. I found that most of the down fruit trees I use for aging I get the best wood from the trunk. Currently for the last few years I've been getting mine from a plumb tree trunk. It has worked well in my solarice method, as I use it save my barrels by first starting them in 4 and 3 gallon Ball Jars with wood before transfering to barrels. On another note my wife ordered a new barrel for me as my 2 current ones have just about been used to the limit and they are too small to re-char.

I wonder how important that "heartwood" thing is for wood used as sticks or chips for aging. We seem to project the requirements for making a leak proof barrel onto what we use for aging in a glass jug.

[bearriver]

Cack, there is heartwood and sapwood. Sapwood is full of pitch, which is something you don't want in your drink. This is because it is still alive when the tree was cut or dying. The heartwood is dead tissue, even in a live tree. This explains the common color difference between the two layers and why the heartwood doesn't carry much pitch. The tree moves that sap into the outside layers that are still living so it can assist in transporting nutrients and repair tissue damages.

If you ever have to burn green wood, first knock the sapwood off. The heartwood is dead, therefore it is dry enough to burn outright. I've been there myself on tough times. It's better than burning furniture to keep the family warm.

[S-Cackalacky]

Bear, I know the difference between the two. I would think that the same goes for aging as goes for firewood - that is, if you properly season it, it's all good. The purpose of seasoning is to basically leach out the lignin (sap), right? I was thinking that the reason for not using it in barrel making is because it might have an undesirable texture or more open grain that might promote leaking. The same consideration might not hold true for aging in glass.

There are many considerations that go into the preparation of wood for barrel making that are necessary for maintaining the structural integrity of the barrel. Some of those same requirements may not be necessary when making sticks or chips for aging in glass. All I'm saying is that we seem to project all the requirements for a piece of wood for barrel making onto a piece of wood that will float around in a glass jar of spirits. Maybe we just need to get over the barrel paradigm if we're not using a barrel.

[Jimbo]

Best way to find out is to do an experiment. SC, age up some hooch, side by side sap and heartwood on the same hooch run and let us know your findings. I have lots of cherry and peach branches, not big enough to give much heartwood. Be nice to know if I can age with em or just chop em up for the smoker.

[S-Cackalacky]

The cherry wood I wrote about in an earlier post most likely has some sapwood. When I cut it into sticks, I basically cut away the bark on the table saw to square it up and then cut it into sticks, so some of what was part of the four corners probably has sapwood. Don't know about a side by side, but I'll definitely report back on the quality of the end product. It'll most likely be used for some of the apple brandy.

[Bushman]

Would be interesting to find out through experiments as I have been relying on what I have read.

[S-Cackalacky]

I tend NOT to take things at face value. I certainly don't want to imply that what I've said about sapwood should be taken as such. I'm just trying to say that NOT using sapwood may be based on false assumptions. We base a lot of what we do on peer review and consensus. Neither of those is convincing to me - unless there's some science to back it up. We make the assumption that sapwood will foul our aged spirits - based on what, the information imparted by coopers (i.e., people who make barrels)? Ask yourself, what is a cooper concerned with - the structural integrity of a wooden container? The whole question of which to use - red oak/white oak, sapwood/heartwood, no end grain, and probably other considerations that go to the structural integrity of a barrel. The whole idea of white oak being the wood that we prefer for aging our spirits is likely because the wooden barrel has been made of white oak for hundreds of years. Maybe it was just a happy happenstance that wooden (white oak) barrels were the container of choice for hundreds of years - not some eureka moment discovered by a cooper somewhere along the way. I would suggest that early experimentation in cooperage was more to do with finding materials and methods to prevent the contents of the barrel from leaking out - not necessarily anything to do with the flavoring of spirits. If red oak had been more preferred for making barrels, our taste preference might be much different today.

I'm rambling on and taking this thread off topic. I have some applewood, cherrywood, and pecan smoking chips that, I'm sure, probably have sapwood in them. When I get a chance I'll use them in some small samples to get some idea of flavors. I don't have the most discernible palate when it comes to likker, but I'll do the best I can. I would also suggest that Bushman and Jimbo engage in some experimentation as well. I'm sure they are both much more prolific distillers than I am and could probably detect off flavors more readily than I can.

[S-Cackalacky]

More to the topic - I found another source for windfall (dropped) apples today. Stopped at an orchard stand and talked to the owner. He says I can pickup whatever amount I want for $25. That'll get me any amount from a bushel up to a pickup bed (carload). The other place charges $4 per bushel, so for the 8 five gallon buckets (4 bushels), it would be cheaper at $16. Nice to know there's more than one choice. I may be going out tomorrow.

[cranky]

My branch is big enough to get at least a few sticks of heartwood and I may just try to do a side by side comparison of heart and sap wood. I think another consideration is time of year the wood was taken. If it was spring or summer the sap was flowing but if it was taken in the winter while the tree was dormant the sap shouldn't have been flowing. I remember the storm that broke this branch so I know the tree was dormant at the time it broke.

Today I pressed another gallon of juice from some apples someone at work brought me and another gallon from the sweet apples I picked last Monday. So I'm now up to 53 gallons. I also stopped on my way home today to try jimbo's method of climbing and shaking the tree. That went pretty well in spite of the the storm last night knocking some of the apples off the tree. I only got a little over half a bucket of them but it will be enough to test the new bearing block for the grinder. I also stopped at the sweets and picked another 100+ so I will have those to continue working on.

So here are the pictures of today's progress.

This first one is the bottom of the grinding bucket before I added the centering block.

This morning in my garage I noticed a piece of oak from an old chair and grabbed it to make the block out of. So I cut it to fit the bucket.

drilled holes to mount it on the top side of the bottom bucket and mounted it but forgot to take a picture of it mounted, but I think you probably get the idea.

Then I drilled the end of the chopper so the rod can protrude and polished the end so it doesn't eat through the wood too quickly.

and put everything back together. Giving it a quick dry run it seems that it will work very well. I may also add a top centering block but haven't really decided at this point. Tomorrow I plan on giving it another test run with the apples I shook from the tree today and see how it goes.