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Personally,
I would keep it "as is". That's the best part of our hobby here, "how many different tastes can I make"!!

I jacked it to about 30% but it was pretty rough, so I ran it through a spirit run and it turned out awesome. Bursting with apples and a long finish of candy apple / toffee. It's so good I went ahead and I'm in the process of jacking my entire batch of cider.

It's now on toasted, uncharred apple wood. I'm checking it every week to make sure I don't overdo the wood. Tough job but I guess someone has t do it

So the next stage in experiments begin.

This year was a terrible harvest due to a cold dry spring and poor fruit set. It also killed a lot of trees around here.

I got 10 gallons of apple pulp, which I simply fermented. It looks like baby puke but smells fresh. now it's turned cold, I added some water to thin the pulp out, and put the pails outside to freeze.

My plan is to transfer the frozen mush into a large strainer I made and let the juice drain out as it slowly thaws, leaving behind the pulp.

Well that's the plan anyway.

Have read this thread and a question. I have made cider for 5 or 6 years but just getting started with distilling so never any brandy. One thing I always did with my cider was to let it sit for day in carboys and then rack it off as I would get an inch or so of sediment after a day of settling. I have not seen anything in this thread about letting the juice/fresh cider settle first. So my question, are any of you racking off the sediment or just pitching yeast as soon as possible?

subbrew wrote: ↑Fri Mar 12, 2021 7:25 am Have read this thread and a question. I have made cider for 5 or 6 years but just getting started with distilling so never any brandy. One thing I always did with my cider was to let it sit for day in carboys and then rack it off as I would get an inch or so of sediment after a day of settling. I have not seen anything in this thread about letting the juice/fresh cider settle first. So my question, are any of you racking off the sediment or just pitching yeast as soon as possible?

I pitch as soon as possible, usually within an hour of pressing. I view that pre-pitch sediment as potential yeast food.

Broke down and just ordered an ese 018 apple crusher

Bushman wrote: ↑Fri Mar 12, 2021 4:34 pm Broke down and just ordered an ese 018 apple crusher

Nice I wonder if I could make something like that for smaller jobs.

cranky wrote: ↑Sat Mar 13, 2021 5:26 am

Bushman wrote: ↑Fri Mar 12, 2021 4:34 pm Broke down and just ordered an ese 018 apple crusher

Nice I wonder if I could make something like that for smaller jobs.

It was spendy but not as much as the commercial ones that work at about the same speed. What sold me on it was it was light weight 22 lbs and it is really easy to clean.

Bushman wrote: ↑Sat Mar 13, 2021 6:44 am

cranky wrote: ↑Sat Mar 13, 2021 5:26 am

Bushman wrote: ↑Fri Mar 12, 2021 4:34 pm Broke down and just ordered an ese 018 apple crusher

Nice I wonder if I could make something like that for smaller jobs.

It was spendy but not as much as the commercial ones that work at about the same speed. What sold me on it was it was light weight 22 lbs and it is really easy to clean.

That's what I was looking at, light weight, small, easy to clean. My Chopper is super fast but because it's a pain to clean I feel unless I have at least 150 pounds to process it feels like too much trouble to use. Something like that and I wouldn't mind only doing a couple buckets at a time. The apples they feed in look to be about 60 to a bucket, I'm impressed it can handle them that large whole. They did 29 apples in about a minute so figure 11.5#s per minute that's 690#s per hour which is plenty fast for most situations.

cranky wrote: ↑Sat Mar 13, 2021 4:23 pm

Bushman wrote: ↑Sat Mar 13, 2021 6:44 am

cranky wrote: ↑Sat Mar 13, 2021 5:26 am

Bushman wrote: ↑Fri Mar 12, 2021 4:34 pm Broke down and just ordered an ese 018 apple crusher

Nice I wonder if I could make something like that for smaller jobs.

It was spendy but not as much as the commercial ones that work at about the same speed. What sold me on it was it was light weight 22 lbs and it is really easy to clean.

That's what I was looking at, light weight, small, easy to clean. My Chopper is super fast but because it's a pain to clean I feel unless I have at least 150 pounds to process it feels like too much trouble to use. Something like that and I wouldn't mind only doing a couple buckets at a time. The apples they feed in look to be about 60 to a bucket, I'm impressed it can handle them that large whole. They did 29 apples in about a minute so figure 11.5#s per minute that's 690#s per hour which is plenty fast for most situations.

Another video shows them feeding quartered pineapples with the outer skin still on it and they went right through. Because my family wants to make cider (other than what I make on the island) we split the cost 4 ways between my children so the cost wasn’t that bad. I am also looking at getting free fruit like you do and having a family fun day work party. It’s a win win.

That apple crusher looks slick Bushman. I havent done an apple run in a few years now, need to get on the stick this year. I just threw down some fertilizer around my trees. Lets hope for a nice harvest. Had some brutal cold for 3 weeks tho this winter so its a crapshoot this year.

Hey friends. ITS APPLE SEASON and Ive decided 2021 is gonna be a year for apples. My trees are pretty loaded and I got lucky with a friend who owned an apple orchard, but carved it up and sold off 3/4 of it. Lucky for me he still has 6 acre lot for sale of forest and apple trees, about 30+ apple trees on there he said I could take whatever I wanted from. Score. Anyway, I figured I should get on it since he may sell the lot and there goes this prime apple opportunity.

Over the weekend I picked 400 lbs, and processed 250 of them before it got too damn hot and too many yellowjackets hasseling me. Need cooler weather for this! Before Im done Ill pick and process 1500 lbs for 50 gal cider for brandy and 12 gallon cider to put on tap, a straight cider and a raspberry cider. The first 12 gal are fermenting now for these ciders on tap.

Some stats:
I get a gallon per 22 lbs of apples (5 gal bucket at a time), with my grinder and 8 ton press. Not great yield but not terrible. Ive read the big boys get 3 gallon per bushell (48 lbs) and I get about 2 per 44 lbs. Whatever. One of these years Ill build a better mousetrap to get a smaller grind.
Its takes me 13 minutes per round to sort, wash, grind and press 22 lbs to make a gallon. 50 gallons of cider at 13 brix with EC-1118 should finish pretty dry at 6% and give me 5 gallons at 80 proof after cuts. That 50 gal will take me 13 hours of pressing with my setup and about 4 hours of picking. Not too bad. Seems a lot more work when up to your elbows in it.

Wow that looks great!!
1500 pounds of apples ? and you call me crazy
We picked one of our Asain pears yesterday and ended up with about 4 buckets.
We still have three trees of apples and three Asian pears that we have to pick this weekend.
I'll get you some pears lord knows you don't need any more apples

We had similar weekends. Last week my wife and I picked 90 5 gallon buckets of apples. got about 70 of them pressed on Saturday for about 85 or 90 gallons of cider. I presently have 60 gallons fermenting, 5 for apple wine, 5 for cider with D47, 5 for cider with EC-1118 and 45 for brandy with EC-1118.

Nice to see you back at the apples Jimbo I'm not doing much with apples this year. I had to take the chopper and press to work just to have the time and effort to do anything. So far all I have is 11 gallons but been eying a couple trees that need picked and might get another couple hundred lbs of them.

Went nuts this weekend. Picked and pressed 1100 more pounds. 1500lbs so far this year. 75 gallons fermenting for brandy and ciders. Still have some trees to get to as well.

Hey Jimbo
That is freakin awesome And a little sick and twisted at the same time
I love it

Heading out to the island farm this weekend to process apple cider. This will be my third time this year processing apples.

That's freakin awesome Jimbo!

Thanks Cranky and Windy. Apple time was overdue. Yes a little twisted, says Dr Demento himself Go big or go home right?

Sounds great Bushman. Making cider or brandy or both?

Wow, you Apple guys are a special kinda crazy!

I did apples a couple years ago and I can’t imagine the work you guys put into truckloads of them. I’m still cleaning occasional bits of apple sauce off the walls and floor of my shop.

Nice thing about the quantities you guys are processing is that you will wind up with some sitting around for years, I bet it makes a special bottle.

For me, the key to processing apples by the pickup load, is to have friends that don't mind working. They came over about 11:00, we worked a bit, stopped and had a lunch together. Broke out the beer, back to work, talking, laughing but making progress the entire time. We enjoy something like this as much or more than meeting up at a brewery for an afternoon. And in the end they go home with a couple gallons or more of fresh cider plus the promise of hard cider and brandy in the future.

Not having any friends I think the key to me is fast equipment that can handle that kind of volume, and an understanding wife... and maybe having a boss who doesn't mind me doing it at work when I'm between other jobs.

Yes, fast equipment is key. I was looking at all aspects of the work to figure out teh bottlenecks. Jacking that damn manual jack was a KILLER, and the 8 ton press was leaving some yield behind. 2 biggest bottlenecks. So I fixed both. 20 Ton steel press frame and an air assist hydraulic jack will be fired up next weekend for a test run on a few hundred more pounds apples I didnt get to yet. Cant wait to try it! This will also enable me to run the grinder as a dedicated stand, and the press in parallel side by side.

At 2000 lbs, plus 600 more for Windy this year. Madness.

Jimbo I want to know what your thoughts are after using the hydraulic jack. When looking closer at the comments I am thinking it might be a little under powered.

Jimbo, my thinking is your biggest issue is the size of the chunks from your grinder. I routinely get a gallon of juice for every 13 lbs of apples using a 12 ton jack and seldom put full pressure on it. Incidentally, this year I've been using the 20 ton press at my work and only getting a gallon out of 14#s but if I press harder than 75psi hydraulic pressure it blows out my press bags because they are such a fine weave. The fine chop on the apples makes more of a difference than the tonnage of the jack.

That said just squeezing a handle to make the jack work would be nice, I've been wanting a pneumatic hydraulic jack for a long time for that purpose. I think another advantage could be the ability to make the press larger in area (same PSI just more square inches) but I think that requires a good plate to spread the weight out.

Speaking of that, I'm curious how many lbs you do in a press load? I do 150-200#s per load but would really like to do a larger load, which is why I'm thinking about a larger press or maybe 2 presses.

Cranky, yes thats on the list too. I have half a box of stainless screws left and some hair brained ideas

1 load is 22 lbs, 5 gal stainless with holes and bag inside. Makes about a gallon under 8 ton. Ill check in saturday on the new rig

Hey Jimbo, don't know what you have to work with but if you have a hydraulic log splitter you could put quick connects on the ram connections and use it to power a ram so you wouldn't have to do it manually. If you knew someone that knew how to weld you could design and build a stainless steel grinder. We build shredders at work that would probably work but they are pretty big. Maybe a scaled down version. Just thinking out loud .

Hi Corene! Long time! "If I knew a welder" HAHA! You funny. Hope you are well. Good to hear from ya!

I bought a 20 Ton air driven hydraulic jack. It works great. Bushman, to the earlier chats on power, no issue. Thing is a beast. The jacking motion slows down a little as my compressor tank depletes, but it still goes twice a second at the end, faster than I can do by hand. I think my compressor is 5.7 CFM at 90 PSI. No issue. It presses the hell out of the apples. I did another 350 pounds. Im somewhere around 2400 lbs so far this year now. Stilled off 75 gallons so far and have at least one more round to go, with more set aside for ciders. The 1118 took it bone dry to 0.998, 6.8% ABV.

Jimbo, did you get more juice out of the apples pressing with the 20 ton jack?