Lets get carried away with fruity goodness

Discussions of fruits, veggies and grains other then just mashing

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cranky
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Re: Lets get carried away with fruity goodness

Post by cranky »

Shine0n wrote:Cranky, you know you put that beside an airline bottle. lol
OK you caught me :lol: but the berries are larger than I have ever seen them.

Apple season should be starting any day now. I need to get over the early apples and see how they are doing. The other day I drove past a tree I watch but never pick that is also early and the branches were literally dragging the ground from the weight of all the apples.
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Re: Lets get carried away with fruity goodness

Post by distiller_dresden »

Envy envy envy!

Keep doing you Cranky, I love living vicariously through your pastoral life there with all the fruits.

I've 'used' my Japanese maples and yet horde them, even some which are 4x used, convinced they have life yet to give lol. I got some sugar maple chunked from tree service guy who was up and down the street, he'd been saving it in his garage for a year in a 35 gal plastic garbage can. I'm not sure/aware if it's 'seasoned' or not, but I've toasted some for 2 two hour 400F sessions in the oven and the whole house was of course 'wood smoke' for a few hours, but it then changed to 'somebody made maple syrup in here' for the next two days. I've used them, no off flavors or numbness or anything weird in my liquor, a rum and a brandy. Only thing I've noticed when I do my 'boil water' trick, which I do for every wood anything to soak it before I put into my 120 proof, every wood leaches a color into the water, this leaches a golden yellow; it's pretty! Also, when I do a tasting - I take two tblsp of my 120 rum say from the aging and then a tbslp of water, to proof down to 80. After, rinsing the glass, if I place just a bit, few oz of water, it has that same but diluted gold color.

Mean anything? Without those, and without Japanese maple, with just oak, I've noticed something similar, a greenish tint/sheen to the water doing the same thing, like 'tea' green. Just the 'tannins' or whatever flavor components are in the wood? The JM has a kind of red/garnet water color tint doing the same.
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Re: Lets get carried away with fruity goodness

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distiller_dresden wrote:Envy envy envy!

Keep doing you Cranky, I love living vicariously through your pastoral life there with all the fruits.

I've 'used' my Japanese maples and yet horde them, even some which are 4x used, convinced they have life yet to give lol. I got some sugar maple chunked from tree service guy who was up and down the street, he'd been saving it in his garage for a year in a 35 gal plastic garbage can. I'm not sure/aware if it's 'seasoned' or not, but I've toasted some for 2 two hour 400F sessions in the oven and the whole house was of course 'wood smoke' for a few hours, but it then changed to 'somebody made maple syrup in here' for the next two days. I've used them, no off flavors or numbness or anything weird in my liquor, a rum and a brandy. Only thing I've noticed when I do my 'boil water' trick, which I do for every wood anything to soak it before I put into my 120 proof, every wood leaches a color into the water, this leaches a golden yellow; it's pretty! Also, when I do a tasting - I take two tblsp of my 120 rum say from the aging and then a tbslp of water, to proof down to 80. After, rinsing the glass, if I place just a bit, few oz of water, it has that same but diluted gold color.

Mean anything? Without those, and without Japanese maple, with just oak, I've noticed something similar, a greenish tint/sheen to the water doing the same thing, like 'tea' green. Just the 'tannins' or whatever flavor components are in the wood? The JM has a kind of red/garnet water color tint doing the same.
I don't know that it really means anything other than that's just the natural color of the wood. I understand cherry will be red which would be nice. I have some cherry but don't know specifically what variety it is and there have been reports of issues associated with certain cherry trees that are not good so I haven't trued to use them. I was actually thinking about cutting the cherry wood into barrel staves and making my own barrel but because of the issues have scrapped that plan.
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Re: Lets get carried away with fruity goodness

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I didn't take any pictures but yesterday I drove by the transparent apple and it is ready to pick, right on time in spite of the late blooming. I have to confess that I am not really ready for another apple season :roll: I never got my press rebuilt and upsized and time has been incredibly short lately. I'm hoping to make a little time tomorrow to stop and pick, maybe Sunday too. I'm guessing it has more apples than last year and the back yard tree probably does too. I hope to get the chopper set up on my weekend but we have plans so it may not happen. The transparents can go about 2 weeks after picking without issues so pressing may just have to wait a week. I expect we are 2 weeks out from the backyard tree being ready as well as the Vista Bella. We'll just have to see what happens.
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Re: Lets get carried away with fruity goodness

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I got some devastating news today :cry: I drove by the park where the Antique and Karen's Delight are and it is now a construction site with ground clearing equipment already I figure I don't have much time left to try to get some emergency cuttings and maybe try to clone them if I can figure that out. I'm seriously depressed as a result.
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Re: Lets get carried away with fruity goodness

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Those BASTARDS! I believe in you Cranky, you're the most stubborn, resourceful person I haven't met but know of. I can't wait for photos of your success!
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Re: Lets get carried away with fruity goodness

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The world has been a very busy place for me this past week. I have been doing a ton of research on rooting apple cuttings. Apparently there are many ways to do it, so I have been trying to get around to doing all of them. I stopped at the thicket Sunday to see what I could save and found the Antique was already gone as well as a sibling to the KD but the KD was still standing.
KD 08 JUL 18 #12 - C.jpg
KD 08 JUL 18 #10 - C.jpg
The whole area that is dirt there was trees and blackberries 2 weeks ago. Here is one standing at the KD facing what was woods on Sunday.
KD 08 JUL 18 #5 - C.jpg
Those trees are gone today.

I was greatly upset but didn't have much time so I took my clippers and went to work getting an arm load of cuttings to see if I could manage to save something. When I got home I trimmed them up, got them in wrapped in damp paper towels in zip lock bags. I then went out to spend an hour picking the transparent then go to the hardware store to get some rooting compound. When I got home I went through one of the many rooting processes I have seen on the internet but I only had enough sand to do about 30 starts. The rest of the cuttings went into vases and the refrigerator with the intention of getting some more sand and potting soil on Monday. I also continued researching what to do. I found an interesting video that talked about starting trees from root cuttings, so I started thinking if it was still there Monday I would go out and get some root cuttings to grow trees from.

Monday on my way home from work I drove by and saw the track hoe working its way through the existing trees. I thought about trying to flag the operator down and offering him $100 to dig it up and load it in the back of my truck but I didn't.

After the workers went home I drove by again and the KD was still standing so I went back with a shovel and clippers to see if I could get some root cuttings with the idea that maybe I would meet them in the morning as they were starting work and see if I could get the whole tree. That's when I found out something about how miraculous and determined this tree has been to live. I also found out this tree has been living on borrowed time for probably 30+ years.

The trunk has always been at a 45 degree angle which was something I figured happened while it was young. I followed the trunk down into the various low growth covering the lower part of the tree. That's when I discovered that where the trunk met the ground it made a 90 degree angle and continued another 10-12 feet to where the trunk broke when the tree apparently fell over many many years ago. The lower half of the trunk is unbroken but the upper half was broken, jagged and moldy. The tree should have died when that happened but this tree is a survivor. It found a direction to go and continued growing fighting it's way to survive. I came along and killed the strangler vine that had attacked it and cleared the blackberries and generally took care of it. I had no idea that what I thought was a dead fallen tree that I stepped over every time I picked apples or cleared blackberries that I was actually stepping over the fallen trunk of my beloved Karen's Delight.

The roots were impossible to find given the sheer amount of growth around and on top of it so I couldn't get any root cuttings. I decided to take as many branch cuttings as I could and continue in my method of attempting every form of rooting I could find on the internet and hope at least one takes. I got some potting soil and more sand and Mrs Cranky and I stayed up late cutting, trimming and rooting what we could. I still have more to do and a few more methods to try but I'm feeling pretty good about our chances. By my estimate so far we are attempting to rood approximately 100 new trees from cuttings. If a single one succeeds I will be extremely happy, if 10 succeed I will be ecstatic, if 30 or more succeed I may have to start looking for some more space and if any more than that succeed I will probably have to start shipping them off to HD members who might want some and maybe even plant some in random places around Washington.

I regret that I did not find out sooner that they were slatted for removal and I didn't get to do the same for the Antique. I will greatly miss my old friends and I mourn them. To me they were more than just trees. I do believe one or two of my grafts are actually from the Antique but it will be another year or two before I find out but maybe there is a slim chance it will live on with my current trees.
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Re: Lets get carried away with fruity goodness

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This is a metaphor.

I won't continue because I think it might be one of the rules I'm skirting to do so, or be more specific. Nevertheless, that whole thing makes me very sad, Cranky. Very, very, very facking sad.

When they came for your trees, they said they were just, "Doing their job."
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Re: Lets get carried away with fruity goodness

Post by The Baker »

I think I have heard of Vegemite being used as a rooting compound.

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Re: Lets get carried away with fruity goodness

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distiller_dresden wrote:This is a metaphor.

I won't continue because I think it might be one of the rules I'm skirting to do so, or be more specific. Nevertheless, that whole thing makes me very sad, Cranky. Very, very, very facking sad.

When they came for your trees, they said they were just, "Doing their job."
It's true that they are just doing their job but around here apple trees are often regarded as more of a nuisance than anything useful or good. I actually get thanked by people who let me pick their trees.

One of my biggest problems is I think of parks as something permanent, something you can always rely on being there but as a town grows into a city things change and not always for the better. For some time now my wife and I have been feeling a bit squeezed by what's going on in our little town. Huge 5 or 6 story condos that take up entire city blocks are being built, they have now started charging for parking in some of the city parks, huge building projects have been going in and lots that we regarded as not being big enough for a single house are somehow getting 2 built on them so close together you can practically touch then both at once and virtually no yard. Those houses sold for over $600,000 and don't even have air conditioning :esurprised: I told my wife we should add a 2nd story to our house so we could sell it for a million dollars and go retire at the beach.

For some time now we have been talking about moving further out, finding some land where we could have enough room so spread out a bit, build a big shop, grow a garden and have chickens and lots of fruit trees. This was just the final straw to motivate us to get out.
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Re: Lets get carried away with fruity goodness

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The Baker wrote:I think I have heard of Vegemite being used as a rooting compound.

Geoff
Bearriver was experienced with cloning things and had equipment to do it but I can't get ahold of him :(

I'm doing my best and trying everything people do, not sure where you would get vegemite here though, or if it would be better than the normal rooting compound. Hopefully I will have success with at least some of the things I try and it will all turn out ok.
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Re: Lets get carried away with fruity goodness

Post by distiller_dresden »

Cranky, if you PM me and 1-2 days isn't too late, I'll Amazon you some Vegemite via your address. I have Prime so it's free 2 day. I would just input your address. It's the least I could do.

As to your moving situation - with that backyard?! From what you say, I say sell the back 'lot' as another home lot lol, see what land costs are for building homes and get rich. Then sell your home on top of that. Someone is probably just going to end up buying your home and land and build two homes there anyhow, you may as well be the one who profits.

:grumble grumble: f*ucking the MAN :grumble:
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Re: Lets get carried away with fruity goodness

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I don't think I will need to try Vegemite, I might buy some CloneX, I've seen a lot of people talk about that one. I am running out of cuttings, today I did 60 or so using the paper towel method. some went in the dark, some in a normally lit room. I still hove one more group of cuttings in the refrigerator. I haven't decided which method to use on those.

Today as a precaution I removed the 2 apples that grew on the one graft that took on the Hazen. When I picked them I noticed there was a distinct difference between them and the KDs that are growing on the other tree as well as the ones from the cuttings I took the past couple days. They are distinctly cats head / skull shaped, KDs are round. There is only one type of cats head apple I have attempted to graft and that was the Antique. So even though it's gone it now lives on as pert of my Hazen and that makes me feel a lot better.
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Re: Lets get carried away with fruity goodness

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I have been afraid to drive by the KD these past couple days. I ordered some Rootx which was supposed to be here today but now won't be in til Saturday. I hope the cuttings in the refrigerator will hold out that long.

On a bright note I managed to find a little time today to go picking and got my son to come help. He really wasn't all that much help but he did some. It was hot so we didn't get everything. in fact we only got about a quarter of the way around the tree. All in all we got another 150-160 #s bringing the total up to about 250#s. That's enough to justify firing up the chopper and press on my next weekend. There is probably at least another 200-300 pounds of apples on that tree and another 300-400 on the back yard tree. I picked an apple off the back yard tree and they are getting very close to ready. So I need to see if I can find time to do that one as well. My wife is saying I need to concentrate on the house and she's right but it's hard to do that when the apple trees are calling.

Anyway, here are today's pictures.
This first one is the Transparent how I found it last Sunday
TRANSPARENT 08 JUL 18 #2 - C.jpg
After picking 100#s of apples
TRANSPARENT 08 JUL 18 #8 - C.jpg
it looked like this
TRANSPARENT 08 JUL 18 #3 - C.jpg
and when we left today it looked like this
TRANSPARENT 12 JULY 18 #2 - C.jpg
Doesn't look like much is left does it?

But if you look around you will see parts of it still look like this
TRANSPARENT 12 JULY 18 #3 - C.jpg
And my back yard now looks like this
TRANSPARENT 12 JULY 18 #4 - C.jpg
Now I need to get more picked and get all that processed. I've reached my limit of pictures on a single post so I will have to make another post about the back yard tree.
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Re: Lets get carried away with fruity goodness

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Now here are a couple of pictures of the back yard tree
BACK YARD TREE 08 JUL 18 #5 - C.jpg
BACK YARD TREE 08 JUL 18 #6 - C.jpg
I hope I can find time to pick them before they are all on the ground.
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Re: Lets get carried away with fruity goodness

Post by distiller_dresden »

What do those apples taste like Cranky? They look beautiful and crisp, are they tart? Is that just my 'trained' taste buds talking from the green and years of Granny Smiths informing me incorrectly?
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Re: Lets get carried away with fruity goodness

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distiller_dresden wrote:What do those apples taste like Cranky? They look beautiful and crisp, are they tart? Is that just my 'trained' taste buds talking from the green and years of Granny Smiths informing me incorrectly?
When fully ripe they taste a lot like a delicious probably more like a golden than a red. They tend to be pretty soft and juicy, not really crisp, high juice yield, easy to process. They are not stand alone as far as cider and brandy but paired with the back yard tree they make a good combination. I'm pretty sure that's why the two of them were planted many years ago.
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Re: Lets get carried away with fruity goodness

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A lot has been going on in my little world lately. My beloved trees were all taken out on the 13th. What I have left is all there is left :cry: I got the clonex Sat and used that on the cuttings I had in the refrigerator. It's up to mother nature now.

Today I checked on the first cuttings and while I am still holding my breath they don't look too bad
ROOTINGS 17 JULY 18 #1 - C.jpg
I am cautiously optimistic that it just might work and beginning to wonder exactly where I will put them all if they do work.

Since my blueberries are almost finished producing we decided to go to the blueberry park today. We got there around 8 and picked for an hour and a half before we got tired and the temperature got hot. In spite of the fact that most of the bushes aren't even beginning to ripen
BLUEBERRY PARK 17 JUL 18 #22 - C.jpg
Some actually look like this
BLUEBERRY PARK 17 JUL 18 #23 - C.jpg
Which was enough to get us a little over a gallon of them
BLUEBERRY PARK 17 JUL 18 #20 - C.jpg
When we got home Mrs Cranky was eating them by the handful and talking about wanting to go back tomorrow.

When we got home I took a break for a while then went back out to pick apples. I was hoping to hit the back yard tree but when I got there it just wasn't ready so I spent an hour picking the transparent. I got another 110 LBS or so, maybe a little more which brings that tree up to 360#s. I'm sure I could get at least another 100#s off it but time is not my friend right now. I was really hoping to get 200-300#s off the back yard tree before I processed but the transparents need processed soon or I will lose too many. My plan is to get the chopper set up tomorrow morning and put MRS Cranky to work chopping, then press while I work on the kitchen. These apples should be good for around 22 gallons, not enough to do a proper brandy run but enough for cider for the year if it comes to it.

When I got back home from that I had to go water and check on the other stuff.

The tomatoes are starting to show color, the plum should start producing any day now, the seckel pear is beginning to show some size
SECKEL PEAR 17 JULY 18 #2 - C.jpg
I even found a second one, so it looks like I will get 2 this year :D

The KDs are beginning to get some size now and the Hazens are approaching full size
HAZEN APPLE 17 JULY 18 #10 - C.jpg
I also got my first blackberries today :)
All in all things are progressing nicely.
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Re: Lets get carried away with fruity goodness

Post by Shine0n »

Cranky, you never cease to amaze me. I wish your little trees good ju ju and to produce for many years to come.

One of my 3 trees are producing heavily, one is so so and one I may just have to cut her down.

It had some type of bad thing going on and only 2 limbs have apples and the rest is not even leaf bearing. It's the smallest of the 3 and I only got 40 ish lb off it last year sadly.

I do have many many pears tho :thumbup:
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Re: Lets get carried away with fruity goodness

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Shine0n wrote:Cranky, you never cease to amaze me. I wish your little trees good ju ju and to produce for many years to come.

One of my 3 trees are producing heavily, one is so so and one I may just have to cut her down.

It had some type of bad thing going on and only 2 limbs have apples and the rest is not even leaf bearing. It's the smallest of the 3 and I only got 40 ish lb off it last year sadly.

I do have many many pears tho :thumbup:
Thank you for the good JuJu, I think I need it. :D If these work out I will have to send you one, although it will be many years before any bear fruit. If everything does work out this is actually another step in establishing the KD as a recognized cultivar. I need to look around at the pear trees and see how they produced this year. My little pears haven't produced very well but they tend to be real hit and miss here.
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Re: Lets get carried away with fruity goodness

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It's been a very busy day for me. I got up bright and early and went to work setting up the chopper...OK first I went to work cleaning an area on the deck to set up the chopper, then I went to work setting up the chopper. Then I unloaded the 110lbs of apples out of the back of my truck and started getting them ready for chopping. basically this just meant rinsing them off, I float them in water but early apples seldom have problems with worms. Just about the time I got the chopper set up my wife came out and helped prep. When I was all set I did a timed run and determined the chopper can easily handle 900 LBS per hour if I had that many apples prepped and ready to feed in. I think it could easily handle 1,000#s or more per hour because no matter how fast I fed it it never bogged down or jammed, it just happily gobbled them up and waited for more. :ebiggrin:

The one thing I might think about trying to change in the future is I might try to make the chop a little courser, it is just too fine, sauce really
TRANSPARENT 18 JUL 18 #4 - C.jpg
Those larger chunks are the size of peas. Since it doesn't break the seeds this may not seem like a problem but with a very fine chop it tends to make it a bit harder to press because the bags tend to slide around much easier than a coarser chop.

After the test run I turned MRS Cranky loose and tried to keep up. I couldn't :roll: She would have 3 bucket fulls fed through that thing before I could even get a bucket full ready. The 7 gallon catch bucket only holds 3 pre chopped buckets full so after that I had to transfer the pulp to a larger container and reload the hopper for her to hit it again. I have succeeded in making a chopper that is too fast for 2 people to keep up with :problem: . I will now have to see if I can make a conveyor to feed it and maybe a chute to move the pulp to a larger container to await pressing.

So now pressing is the big bottle neck in my operation, chopping 360#s of apples took less than a half hour, pressing took the rest of the day but when all was said and done at the end of the day 18 buckets of apples was reduced to less than 3 buckets of pommes
TRANSPARENT 18 JULY 18 #1 - C.jpg
and 29 gallons of juice
TRANSPARENT 18 JUL 18 #2 - C.jpg
That was a full 7 gallons more than I was expecting. I'm actually happy with this amount for the entire year and I really need to concentrate on the house but the back yard tree is calling, I'm just not very motivated to answer :tired:
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Re: Lets get carried away with fruity goodness

Post by Shine0n »

Good job Cranky, man that would take me 2 days just to chop that much and another day to press.

I hope to have 25 gal total this year, I'll do my after press work a little differently this time as last year just didn't work out very well and I lost 15 gal of cider with some nasty chemical smell and taste after distilling but lesson learned I suppose.
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Re: Lets get carried away with fruity goodness

Post by cranky »

Shine0n wrote:Good job Cranky, man that would take me 2 days just to chop that much and another day to press.

I hope to have 25 gal total this year, I'll do my after press work a little differently this time as last year just didn't work out very well and I lost 15 gal of cider with some nasty chemical smell and taste after distilling but lesson learned I suppose.
Thank you, my operation has vastly improved over the years, MRS Cranky is even saying I need a bigger press now so I can keep up with her. :D

I'm starting to think things like "another 10 gallons would be enough to make a proper brandy run and still keep some as cider." Then I start thinking how easy it would be to get the 160 LBS of apples off the back yard tree and then start thinking maybe I should try to find the time to pick and process the back yard tree.

What did you do that resulted in a chemical smell and taste?
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Re: Lets get carried away with fruity goodness

Post by distiller_dresden »

Hey Cranky, I sent you a PM about somethings I have to share if you are interested.

Also, that pressed pulp seems a waste, do you put it in the garden or something?

Finally, wanted your advice - would lead to more somethings to share that you'd be pleased with per this--
6442.jpeg
About to luck into a LOT of Japanese Maple! If you get a chance to look at my PM, can you tell me what the best parts, unless all?, for dominoes? Is it branches and trunk - anything where you can cut a domino? Good friend of mine has almost carte blanche to harvest and trim this JM by his work, so we need to know how and what he's harvesting with a mind for dominoes...
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Re: Lets get carried away with fruity goodness

Post by Shine0n »

It was all on wild yeast, chopped and pressed minus 2- 5 gal buckets that were on pulp for the thumper. After 2 weeks every one of them had an off smell that progressively got worse.

I stripped them and used the pulp/juice in the thumper and it never cleared up, still a chemical smell and taste to every ounce of it from fores to tails.

I let them air for 3 days, it still had it, another 4 days airing and it was still there.

I checked the abv and it was very low (can't remember exactly) but on 20 gal run I yielded 5 quarts before the cloudy tails.

Possibly the wild yeast had something to do with it?
IDK, this year as soon as I press I'm going to pitch some D47.
I'll cold crash the yeast down when finished and run slightly cleared, I think I remember the OG being 1.050ish and it finished dry as a bone.

I was stumped, hopefully better luck this year.
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cranky
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Re: Lets get carried away with fruity goodness

Post by cranky »

distiller_dresden wrote:Hey Cranky, I sent you a PM about somethings I have to share if you are interested.

Also, that pressed pulp seems a waste, do you put it in the garden or something?

Finally, wanted your advice - would lead to more somethings to share that you'd be pleased with per this--
6442.jpeg
About to luck into a LOT of Japanese Maple! If you get a chance to look at my PM, can you tell me what the best parts, unless all?, for dominoes? Is it branches and trunk - anything where you can cut a domino? Good friend of mine has almost carte blanche to harvest and trim this JM by his work, so we need to know how and what he's harvesting with a mind for dominoes...
I've been trying to get to your PM but time is not on my side right now.

As far as the Japanese Maple anything big enough to get you a heart wood domino will work.

To avoid getting off topic I made a new post in flavoring and aging to cover your questions about the maple
viewtopic.php?f=4&t=71502
Last edited by cranky on Fri Jul 20, 2018 6:57 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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cranky
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Re: Lets get carried away with fruity goodness

Post by cranky »

Shine0n wrote:It was all on wild yeast, chopped and pressed minus 2- 5 gal buckets that were on pulp for the thumper. After 2 weeks every one of them had an off smell that progressively got worse.

I stripped them and used the pulp/juice in the thumper and it never cleared up, still a chemical smell and taste to every ounce of it from fores to tails.

I let them air for 3 days, it still had it, another 4 days airing and it was still there.

I checked the abv and it was very low (can't remember exactly) but on 20 gal run I yielded 5 quarts before the cloudy tails.

Possibly the wild yeast had something to do with it?
IDK, this year as soon as I press I'm going to pitch some D47.
I'll cold crash the yeast down when finished and run slightly cleared, I think I remember the OG being 1.050ish and it finished dry as a bone.

I was stumped, hopefully better luck this year.
Due to a severe shortage of free time I got a little sloppy on my process this year :roll: I only hope I don't wind up with 40 gallons of vinegar. I have developed a stop gap plan for the press and hope to get that in order this weekend. I am also thinking I need to go ahead and find time to pick the back yard tree. The Transparent is just not a stand alone and the back yard tree compliments it and is the easiest thing to pick. I figure I only need another 10 gallons to be able to do a proper double run and 160#s would get me there, I'm hoping to go pick it tomorrow or the next day. hopefully it will still have 8 buckets of apples on it.
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cranky
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Re: Lets get carried away with fruity goodness

Post by cranky »

Today was all about apples :) MRS Cranky went to an auction so I had extra free time at work. Frustrated with the performance of my press I finally decided to do something about it. The big problem is when the chop is too fine the bags tend to shift way too easily meaning I need to constantly remove pressure and adjust the bags. Since I have found it really isn't necessary to have more than a top and bottom plate, that left me with 3 unused plates. So my idea was to take those extra plates and make a box out of them that will go around the outside of the other 2 plates and hold the bags in one place while the top and bottom do the pressing. While I was at it I figured I may as well get the big stainless drip pan I got for the bottom prepped and swap that out.

So I took everything to work today and unscrewed everything and reconfigured it. I now have a box that should hold 4 or 5 press bags with 15 or 20 pounds of pulp in each.
APPLE PRESS 21 JUL 18 #2 - C.jpg
I also cleaned and drilled a hole in that nice big shiny stainless steel drip pan so the juice can drain out.

When I got home MRS Cranky was still at the auction but I really needed to work on the kitchen so I loaded up all the buckets I could find and ran over to see how many apples I could pick in an hour off the back yard tree. I've been watching the tree closely because it is loaded and once it decides to start dropping it will drop half of those apples in a couple days. So I walk up to it and see just what I want to see, a few apples on the ground but most of them still on the tree. I checked and the ones on the tree were falling just by bumping them. So I set 2 buckets down and started picking as fast as I could. They are small running about 160-180 apples to bucket so a bucket probably weighs 23-24#s rather than the 20#s I figure for the Transparents. When I filled those buckets I carried them to the truck and got 2 more buckets, filled those and repeated working my way around the tree. On the 7th bucket I timed it and it took me 6 minutes to fill it. The 8th and last bucket was a 6 gallon bucket. I stopped after the 8th bucket because that was my goal but I never even finished the first trip around the tree. I never got out the ladder either. I figure at 23#s per bucket that's around 184#s of apples off the lower branches alone.
BACK YARD TREE 21 JUL 18 - C.jpg
I may try to go back tomorrow and see if I can do it again but I'm happy with the amount I got.

When I got home again I picked some plums, watered the garden and trees, picked up the apples scattered around the yard from the other day... :think: and oh yeah, worked on the kitchen :mrgreen:

MRS Cranky managed to get some rare glass at the auction too :ebiggrin:
Last edited by cranky on Sat Jul 21, 2018 7:42 pm, edited 3 times in total.
Shine0n
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Re: Lets get carried away with fruity goodness

Post by Shine0n »

Busy busy man you are sir Cranky.
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distiller_dresden
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Re: Lets get carried away with fruity goodness

Post by distiller_dresden »

This has given me a WHOLE new appreciation of Cranky's apple brandy expertise, and I really wish I could try your apple brandy Cranky.

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