Cider This Weekend

[Airgead]

Folks

I have me a date with 45kg of loverly apples this weekend. Picked up some marked, misshapen and slightly hail damaged (ie: supermarkets won't take them but fruit is still perfect to eat) from Bilpin for $1/kg. 60% Crips Pinks and 40% Granmny Smith. No crab apples this year thanks to the f$&#*n cockatoos.

I don't know how my poor little juicer will survive.

I am on the verge of cutting a deal with the orchard for about 1-200kg of fruit next year. Gravensteins, grannys, crips and bramleys....I'll definitely have to upgrade my juicing setup if that comes through.

If anyone is interested, a lot of the orchards in Bilpin may have excess juicing fruit next year as the Bilpin juicing plant has shut down. Since the markets will only take the perfect stuff they are just letting the juicing fruit rot. Bilpin apple juice will continue to exist as a brand but will be made in Penrith using apples from any old where.

If anyone want to do cider this year the orchard I go to still had plenty of fruit and if you pick the marked and damaged ones and tell the guy its for cider he'll do them cheap for you. http://www.bilpinspringsorchard.com.au/

Cheers
Dave

 

[Fents]

Air have you got a proper press? if so can you post some pics etc of your day?

 

[Airgead]

Air have you got a proper press? if so can you post some pics etc of your day?

If by "proper press" you mean "little bench juicer that will be emitting smoke by the time I'm done" then yes I do...

No. I have one of these -

Its a very good juicer but not really set up to do large quantities. Its really designed for hippies and health freaks who want to cold press fresh juice by the glass. I've put 10kg through it before and it handled it OK. 45 might be a stretch though.

Proper press next year I think.

I'll post photos anyway.

Cheers
Dave

 

[brendo]

For those interested in Cider, Kellybrook Winery in the Yarra Valley (Vic) are holding their annual Cider festival this weekend.

More details kellybrook winery cider festival

I believe you can buy fresh pressed apple juice on the day to take home and make cider with - which is something I am planning on doing.

No affiliation, yadda yadda yadda...

 

[HoppingMad]

Having done a cider with a mate's 'Breville Juice Fountain' last year I confirm it can be done. And smoke from the machine you will have. At least we did juicing enough for 20 litres of juice. It took some time too, about an hour and a half with one of us coring/cutting the apples and the other putting them through.

The main issue is not the smoke (that clears - and the juicer will survive! ) The issue is all the frothy sludge that you get as a by-product when using a juicer that gets deposited in a side recepticle. You get a lot of this stuff when you do a high volume of apples. Stupidly we put our 'apple froth' down an outside drain and it clogged it up. (A very dumb idea in hindsight which required a plunger and plenty of water to rectify) Make sure you're juicing close to the yard so you can toss this stuff on the garden instead of being as dumb as us or have a suitable container to pour out this gunk. Otherwise your juicing project may get messy.

May the juice be with you,

Hopper.

_{Edit - Speeling}

 

[unrealeous]

Really good thread on cider I was reading this morning - after reading this you'll want to put a batch down...

http://www.aussiehomebrewer.com/forum//ind...=28760&st=0

 

[Fents]

For those interested in Cider, Kellybrook Winery in the Yarra Valley (Vic) are holding their annual Cider festival this weekend.

More details kellybrook winery cider festival

I believe you can buy fresh pressed apple juice on the day to take home and make cider with - which is something I am planning on doing.

No affiliation, yadda yadda yadda...

yea totally desrves its own thread imo.

went last year and it was wicked fun. got married there too. can confirm fresh apple juice can be brought and fermented, bring your own container. pretty expeno tho at about $3 a litre, dosnt deter me tho.

 

[Stuster]

The issue is all the frothy sludge that you get as a by-product when using a juicer that gets deposited in a side recepticle.

I've done this a number of times with a Breville juicer and the sludge can be a real pain. This year I put the juice in a fermenter and then racked out from under the sludge at the end which worked out a lot easier than trying to scoop it off.

Thanks for the tip, Airgead. Might need to convince SWMBo that we should head up that way for more apples this weekend. :icon_cheers:

 

[brendo]

yea totally desrves its own thread imo.

went last year and it was wicked fun. got married there too. can confirm fresh apple juice can be brought and fermented, bring your own container. pretty expeno tho at about $3 a litre, dosnt deter me tho.

good point that...

 

[drsmurto]

I leave the sludge in after juicing and add potassium metabisulphite.

24-48 hours later the sludge has formed a nice dry crust (the chapeau brun?) on the top and i rack off almost clear juice underneath it.

Not quite true breton cider as i then add WY4766 (cider).

 

[Stuster]

Ah, I'm sulphite free with my ciders. Never seems to have been a problem for me. Guess it rules out variability in batches. I also used that Wyeast last time after always just using fairly neutral ale yeasts before. Too soon to tell but it's certainly starting to taste good to me. :icon_drunk:

 

[Airgead]

I'm sulphite free as well and I don't get much foam. My juicer produces a dry pulp that goes straight into the compost and the juice has very little foamy crap.

I did a test pressing of 2 kg of granny smiths the other night and I got just enough foam on top to form the brown cap so I could keeve the juice if I wanted. I'll just ferment it straight this year though. Next year if I get a bug bunch of apples I'll keeve some and see how it goes.

Cheers
Dave

 

[Stuster]

And keeving is? :unsure:

Reply in a PM if it's not PG. :lol:

 

[stuart13]

Coring and cutting? You need the Apple Slinky

Having done a cider with a mate's 'Breville Juice Fountain' last year I confirm it can be done. And smoke from the machine you will have. At least we did juicing enough for 20 litres of juice. It took some time too, about an hour and a half with one of us coring/cutting the apples and the other putting them through.

The main issue is not the smoke (that clears - and the juicer will survive! ) The issue is all the frothy sludge that you get as a by-product when using a juicer that gets deposited in a side recepticle. You get a lot of this stuff when you do a high volume of apples. Stupidly we put our 'apple froth' down an outside drain and it clogged it up. (A very dumb idea in hindsight which required a plunger and plenty of water to rectify) Make sure you're juicing close to the yard so you can toss this stuff on the garden instead of being as dumb as us or have a suitable container to pour out this gunk. Otherwise your juicing project may get messy.

May the juice be with you,

Hopper.

_{Edit - Speeling}

 

[zoidbergmerc]

Coring and cutting? You need the Apple Slinky

Those things rock! I used to make apple crumble with the abundance of apples that grow in the back yard and this tool helped A LOT. It peels the apple too if you want.

 

[Airgead]

And keeving is? :unsure:

Reply in a PM if it's not PG. :lol:

You leave the juice to sit for a few days underneath the cap of foam (which goes brown - hence the name brown cap). After a day or 2 it drops clear and darkens in colour a little due to oxidiastion. Its traditional in bretton cider making. it apparently reduces the nutrients available to the yeast and ends up with a naturally sweet style cider.

I've been meaning to try it for ages but have never managed to get enough apples together to do a second batch.

Cheers
Dave

 

[Airgead]

Coring and cutting? You need the Apple Slinky

Coring is for pussies. I push them through core and all. The seeds and cores add a little extra tannin.

Cheers
Dave

 

[Stuster]

Coring is for pussies. I push them through core and all. The seeds and cores add a little extra tannin.

Cheers
Dave

:super:

 

[Airgead]

Egad.

Started at 1... still 1 bag of apples to go (7kg).

I have so much juice I'll fill the 25l fermenter plus an extra 10l jerry can I had lying around.

I should have enough for the full keg of cider plus enough cider base for a huge batch of apple and honey liqueur.

Photos to follow soon.

Cheers
Dave

 

[Airgead]

Ok folks

All done. Cider is hard work.

45 kg of apples ready for washing



Washing (with helper number 1)




The juicing setup (with helper number 2)




Cutting. That apple cutter is fantastic. Saw it last Thursday at the shops and grabbed it. $10 well spent.



Juicing






Pulp



8 hours later...The juicer survived! Bit of a cleanup required though.



End result - about 30-35l of juice. One full 25l fermenter and a full 10l. There will be a lot of pulp settle so I'll probably end up with about 25l at the end. Pitched a big starter of 4766. My 25l fermenter split while I was carrying it to the garage to put it in the fermentation fridge and I thought I was going to lose the lot. Fortunatly the split is *just* above the liquid level so I should be OK. Juice is spot on 1.050.

I'm glad I only do this once a year. Next year I think I'll try to hire a proper wine press. It has to be easier.

Cheers
Dave