# Apples On Special



## b_thomas (23/5/09)

Just a heads up Harris Farm in Penrith are doing a special on Pink Lady Apples - A bag of 40 for $2!

I bought 3 bags (plus 2 3 Litre bottles of pear and apple juice for $6) and am now trying to work out the best way to juice them.

I was thinking considering I don't have an actual juicer and my blender isn't much chop that I would stew and strain them.

Would this affect the flavour much? I know that boiling can break down flavours. If it would completely ruin the flavour I might just blend and strain them.


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## Ducatiboy stu (23/5/09)

No..dont stew them

You want to crush them and press the juice out, how you do that with a large amount of apples will require some ingeuity ( yeah that is an almost real word )


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## manticle (23/5/09)

You might just have to be patient and use the juicer.

I have a bench top juicer that I've used for large quantities of apples (say 15-20kg) . It's a bit of work but no more than doing a mash and boil and the results are worth it.

Apparently stewing will give the end product a cooked apple flavour which doesn't sound good to me.


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## b_thomas (23/5/09)

Thanks for the info on not stewing, looks like I have an evening with a blender


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## Suzy_A (26/5/09)

Hi Cider Brewers,

last week I stoped at an orchard to get some fruit. I bought a few kilos of apples and persimons and asked about 'seconds' for juicing. The apples had a few hail damage spots on them, but to me they looks better than most that you buy in the shop.

If I buy 50 kg or more, the price is .... $0.12 per kilo! That is the price the orchardist sells the apples for to a large juicing company and he was happy to sell them to me for that price as well.

Susan


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## Scruffy (26/5/09)

Susan said:


> Hi Cider Brewers,
> 
> last week I stoped at an orchard to get some fruit. I bought a few kilos of apples and persimons and asked about 'seconds' for juicing. The apples had a few hail damage spots on them, but to me they looks better than most that you buy in the shop.
> 
> ...



Did you ask him if he could juice them for you?

You have to ask!!!


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## Bizier (26/5/09)

Susan said:


> Hi Cider Brewers,
> 
> last week I stoped at an orchard to get some fruit. I bought a few kilos of apples and persimons and asked about 'seconds' for juicing. The apples had a few hail damage spots on them, but to me they looks better than most that you buy in the shop.
> 
> ...



Welcome to the forum Susan!

I come from apple growing territory (family farm was the Tassie set for Young Einstein)

I totally agree with you that if you can get seconds, awesome. They are often fresher and less handled than the first grade stuff. I used to be able to buy these from the picking bins at various locations in Sydney, and they had escaped the nastiness of polishing and waxing, all over a few warts and pocks.


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## manticle (26/5/09)

Susan said:


> Hi Cider Brewers,
> 
> last week I stoped at an orchard to get some fruit. I bought a few kilos of apples and persimons and asked about 'seconds' for juicing. The apples had a few hail damage spots on them, but to me they looks better than most that you buy in the shop.
> 
> ...



So is this a suggestion for a bulk buy? If it is and you're in Melborne, I'd be in for 20 kg.


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## John_Smith (26/5/09)

Do you know offhand what varieties are available? And where abouts is this orchard? In the unlikely event its near south east queensland I'm down for 100+ kg, group bulk buy or not.


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## notung (29/5/09)

Now, I do have a juicer which would be up to the task of doing many apples. However 'pressing' out the juice is considered far better isn't it? Or using one of those 'masticating juicers'. This way the whizzing of the blades does not destroy all the natural enzymes within your juice.

How have other people gone juicing a whole bunch of apples for cider? Another thing I would be concerned about is the juice bruising before I've gotten it fermenting...


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## manticle (29/5/09)

Not sure how pressing would bruise less than juicing and you are after the juice, not the flesh. I've juiced for mine and none of the downfalls of my ciders have stemmed from that.

Sliced or chopped garlic is better than crushed garlic if there's an analogy to be found anywhere.


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## Wisey (14/6/09)

Bizier said:


> Welcome to the forum Susan!
> 
> I come from apple growing territory (family farm was the Tassie set for Young Einstein)



Did you also work out how to get bubbles on your beer??

Did you ever get rid of those devils eating the spade part of your shovels?


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## HoppingMad (14/6/09)

+1 with the curious mob above.

A location for where these cheap apples are would be handy Susan. Recently did a cider using pure juiced apples with an electric juicer and keen to tinker a bit more in ciderland. 

Hopper.


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## DJbrewer (16/6/09)

+1
would like to know where to get cheap apples (pears, too?) around Melbourne.


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## Moray (16/6/09)

Probably overkill, But I've thought of getting a cheap mulcher from bunnings and using it to pulp apples for pressing.


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## pokolbinguy (16/6/09)

Geeze would get the job done but maybe a bit crazy Moray


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## komodo (18/6/09)

I've read a site with a guy who rigged up an insinkarator to juice apples - but still required a press to press the juice out of the "mush"


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## Renegade (18/6/09)

Komodo said:


> I've read a site with a guy who rigged up an insinkarator to juice apples - but still required a press to press the juice out of the "mush"



Nah do a cider BIAB


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## MVZOOM (18/6/09)

Two people - one choppin' the other juicin' - wont take too long.


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## HoppingMad (18/6/09)

The cider I made with a mate we used a Breville household juicer. Juiced up close to 25kg (5 garbage bags) of apples to make 20L of juice I think it was. A fair bit of work but with one washing and chopping apples into pieces to fit the spout and the other pushing them in we made short work of it.

Lessons learned:
- The juicer kept clogging up with this heady brown 'foam' that we had to keep emptying out. We were tipping it into an outside drain in the backyard those deep ones. But the drain clogged up. Tried to run the water on top of it and push it down and it overflowed into his yard  
- Part way through the juicing effort the inside blade started to get pretty hot and we could smell a bit of smoke coming from the thing. Gave it a couple of rests (guess 25 kilos is not what these things are designed for) and kept on going.

Got through it and the juicer held up to the punishment to live another day. Had a fun morning, and the cider hasn't come up bad either. 

Hopper.


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## komodo (19/6/09)

^ I've done that exact same thing!
My partners hand was starting to cramp from all the cutting LOL

I did about 45kg of fruit (about 37kg of apples and the rest pears). The pears really clogged the machine up badly and the smell of smoke had me worried. 
But its still soldering on!


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