# Alchema kitchen "Craft cider" maker - what do you think folk



## Onslowsdry (30/7/16)

Details and funding status here: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/alchema/alchema-turn-fruit-into-personalized-craft-cider?ref=category_recommended


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## scmgre (3/8/16)

i think it's a very small volume 2 liters or something and it's misleading there is no obvious mechanism for removing the juice from the fruit you just cut up the chunks and put them in a solid glass container not sure how you would get any apple juice extraction for instance, without crushing and pressing the fruit.
I am drinking a batch of cider i made last year from just crushing and pressing a load of apples and then filling two kegs and letting it ferment for 9 months.
The crushing and the pressing were the hard part of the process the rest was easy and those seem to be entirely missing from the Kickstarter thing.
Just seems to be an i-phone app tied to a heated container. I can't see a hydrometer so i am not sure how it knows to go bing it's done.
Bit vapor-wear if you ask me.
I doubt it will deliver you much in the way of taste although the sugar added at the beginning will ferment well enough you will probably produce some very dry very lightly flavored drink.


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## Onslowsdry (3/8/16)

I agree with your assessment. We obtain our fresh apple juice by using a Breville juicer and a straining bag assembly, see: http://youtu.be/Qvc0cCh5r0c.Last year two of us generated 15 gallons of clear juice in my kitchen in one day with little by way of effort.


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## Onslowsdry (3/8/16)

I agree with your assessment. We obtain our fresh apple juice by using a Breville juicer and a straining bag assembly, see: http://youtu.be/Qvc0cCh5r0c.Last year two of us generated 15 gallons of clear juice in my kitchen in one day with little by way of effort.


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## scmgre (4/8/16)

how much were the Brevilles? do you recon they will stand up to a few years of cider making?

I actually used a hand blender, and press last year to make 40 liters It took ages and by the end had blunted the blades. but I still got double the extraction rate than when using a hand driven scratter I borrowed so well up for pulping.
Would there be any benefit in using the breville then throwing the pomice into a press for more extraction or were the apple remains pretty dry after the strain and drain?

I tend to scrump all my apples from trees i have found growing around and about including my neighbors Brambly and a load of crabs which don't seem to have much juice in them so might need pressing.


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## Onslowsdry (4/8/16)

My Brevillles, with one exception, were bought on ebay for a fraction of their original cost. We have used them now for five seasons worth of apples generating with straining about 200 gallons of fresh clear apple juice. We have found that the higher the power rating the faster you can process apples. For example, my 1200W and 1500W machines will process between 2.5 - 3 kg of fruit per minute. We have yet to overheat, let alone burn out, a machine! In terms of yield we consistently get 65% of the original apple weight as juice. Another friend has taken the waste pulp and pressed out a further 10% by weight of juice. He too had previously used a hand powered scratter and basket press generating only 40% of the apple weight as juice. Our full method and kit requirement can be found here, see http://makezine.com/projects/kitchen-table-cider-making/


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## Onslowsdry (4/8/16)

My Brevillles, with one exception, were bought on ebay for a fraction of their original cost. We have used them now for five seasons worth of apples generating with straining about 200 gallons of fresh clear apple juice. We have found that the higher the power rating the faster you can process apples. For example, my 1200W and 1500W machines will process between 2.5 - 3 kg of fruit per minute. We have yet to overheat, let alone burn out, a machine! In terms of yield we consistently get 65% of the original apple weight as juice. Another friend has taken the waste pulp and pressed out a further 10% by weight of juice. He too had previously used a hand powered scratter and basket press generating only 40% of the apple weight as juice. Our full method and kit requirement can be found here, see:http://makezine.com/projects/kitchen-table-cider-making/


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## Mikeyr (5/8/16)

Popped up on one of my youtube subscriptions as new gear ....

http://www.alchema.com/


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## indica86 (5/8/16)

Think there is already a thread.....


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## scmgre (14/8/16)

Cheers will give it a try this year once I've been scrumping


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## Onslowsdry (15/8/16)

Go for it Gareth, I wish you every success.


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## scmgre (14/9/16)

[SIZE=10.5pt]Ok I did it. I bought A Breville juicer on eBay picked some apples from trees I have found around and about and neighbours. It started smoking at around 20 litres of juice. [/SIZE]
[SIZE=10.5pt]It was not the motor but the metal spiny bit rubbing on the tray, the plastic from one was annealed onto the other  picked it a apart and kept going. My yield was great as I managed to get 40 litres of very, very cloudy cider and 10 litres of very clear (going to be apple wine) from running it through a press as well. It was a little bit faster than scratting and it was bit less messy as well although every one complained about the noise I made [/SIZE][SIZE=10.5pt]J[/SIZE]


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## Matplat (15/9/16)

Do you pasteurise the juice before you ferment it? The skins would be covered in microbes surely, and there is no way I could guarantee that my juicer would be sanitary before use...


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## Airgead (15/9/16)

Any time you use fresh apples you have to deal with skin microbes. I give them a quick wash then chill the juice for 24 hours after pressing to let it settle. Then add a big pitch of yeast. Never had a problem with wild fermentation. 

Pasteurising the juice will give you apple sauce cider. Nasty. Unless you are a commercial operation with a fancy flash pasturiser with volatile recovery.


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## fishingbrad (15/9/16)

What yeast are you guys using. cheers.


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## Airgead (15/9/16)

I'm a big fan of 71B.Its a wine yeast. I use it for all my ciders and meads. Can be hard to get in small quantities. Ibrew usually has it in 100g packs. Never seen it in anything smaller.


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## fraser_john (15/9/16)

Might pop this in the bay thread too, commercial juicer.....


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## scmgre (17/9/16)

[SIZE=10.5pt]To be honest last year I did not wash the apples and i did not add any yeast or sulphites made 40 litres (this was using a scratter and press not the juicer so a lot less cloudy), 5 days in a fermenter and then 6 months overwinter in a Cornelius keg and it was lovely really tangy very carbonated but smooth finish not much of a hangover either which i think is the lack of sulphites. [/SIZE]
[SIZE=10.5pt] [/SIZE]
[SIZE=10.5pt]This year I washed the apples (because one of my newly found trees is near a busy road) and used 1 camden table per 20 litre batch just to suppress the wild yeast a little and pitched some generic cider yeast after 24 hours (from the LHBS) I split 1 packet of yeast between 40 litres, I’ve kegged it of the sediment after about 6 days the gravity was about 1.01. I expect it to drop below 1 in the keg and carb up. I will be drinking it in May/June next year after a winter in the shed getting all mellow and malow lactic  no off smells when i kegged it just that real fusal alcohol smell from the wild yeast proper paint stripper. It will mellow out in the keg in the shed.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=10.5pt] [/SIZE]
[SIZE=10.5pt]If your precious about wild yeast the cider making from apples is bit tricky they just want to ferment. [/SIZE]


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## Onslowsdry (19/9/16)

Just back from a few days away on the Isle of Wight, England. It's like going through a time warp to a bygone era.
Do you have an Australian equivalent? Back to the thread.

Well done Gareth on your 40 litres of juice. Did you use a fine mesh straining bag?
For us this gives a clear juice with only a tiny amount of ultrafine solids on standing.

Before juicing our apples we sanitise ALL kit parts that will come into contact with the apple juice for a few hours.
This includes all the relevant juicer parts. We use a stock solution of four Campden tablets per gallon of water.

We use a champagne yeast - a Saccharomyces bayanus which gives a crisp dry cider product. Some complain that the cider is
uni-dimensional but we like it and have found it reliably gives a consistent cider. We buy the yeast in convenient 5g packs
which will inoculate 5 gallons of apple juice.


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## scmgre (20/9/16)

[SIZE=10.5pt]Yes first attempt I had a big bit of jam straining butter muslin in a huge funnel but the pores kept getting blocked with apple crap.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=10.5pt] [/SIZE]
[SIZE=10.5pt]second attempt 2 days ago I strung a colander in the bucket and used the muslin, again all went tits up in the end as it just filled up like a lake of foam and was not draining then it all tipped up into the fermenter  [/SIZE]

[SIZE=10.5pt]so I ditched it towards the end [/SIZE]
[SIZE=10.5pt]
[/SIZE]
[SIZE=10.5pt] [/SIZE]
[SIZE=10.5pt]my plan is to siphon off from the middle between the crud on the top and the trub in the bottom when it comes to kegging. [/SIZE]


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## Onslowsdry (20/9/16)

Yup! Been there, done it, had the straining bag drop into the reservoir of clear juice!

After much trail and error, we eventaully ended up with a 2 ft x 2 ft fine straining bag sitting loosely in a two gallon plastic bucket that had 30+ small holes drilled in its base, this then sat in a 25 litre fermenting bin that had a draw-off tap at the bottom. This works for us a treat!


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