Apple Pressing

[JohnT]

For the first time in 10 years, my brother`s apple tree bore fruit. In fact, it produced a LOT of fruit.

What to do? well, pick em, press em, and ferment em of course.

we picked them by shaking the tree and letting the apples drop. to protect our heads, we used 5 gallon buckets as helmets.

we washed them in k-meta solution, then used a new pavement tamper (nice and heavy) to smash the apples. I borrowed a small press that I had given to a friend, and squeezed out the cider.

The readings were around 13 brix, rather sweet for apple juice.

we ended up with over 28 gallons. fermenting with d47 yeast.

 

[GreginND]

Pavement Tamper - Almost as genius as your helmets!

Happy fermenting.

 

[Runningwolf]

LOL, John I used the same thing after giving up on a 2x4 before I bought my shredder. I just never admitted it. Too bad you don't have more varieties of apples to blend into that batch. A touch of Crabapples would really help out on the low acid.

 

[Deezil]

For the first time in 10 years, my brother`s apple tree bore fruit. In fact, it produced a LOT of fruit.

What to do? well, pick em, press em, and ferment em of course.

we picked them by shaking the tree and letting the apples drop. to protect our heads, we used 5 gallon buckets as helmets.

we washed them in k-meta solution, then used a new pavement tamper (nice and heavy) to smash the apples. I borrowed a small press that I had given to a friend, and squeezed out the cider.

The readings were around 13 brix, rather sweet for apple juice.

we ended up with over 28 gallons. fermenting with d47 yeast.

If you cant find some other apples, maybe adjust the acidity with malic acid.

I dunno.. I'm kinda an oddball with my Apples/Pears - I treat it more like a Chardonnay than I do a Riesling. But I have Riesling for the Riesling style, not everyone does.

I like a crisp acidity pre-fermentation, then an MLF post-fermentation. It's been mind blowing.

28 gallons though, sounds like a great batch!

 

[JohnT]

As we went along a kept adding a touch of lemon juice to prevent browning. This boosted the TA to .6. I may add a bit of tartaric to get it up to .7..

We did have some Mcintosh apples (about 3 bushels) that we added.

We also tasted the cide straight from the press. YUMMY!

 

[WVMountaineerJack]

Does your brother remember what kind of apple tree it was he planted or is it to long ago? Man I keep tasting metal looking at your picture, they used to give us baths in those tubs but never put food in them. WVMJ

 

[barbiek]

Lmao love the head protection! Never had any luck making apple wine, was thinking of trying again this year don't even know what kind of apples they are but their very yellow and very tart don't even have a pic of them cuz not thinking I cut them all up!Their in the freezer right now

 

[JohnT]

Does your brother remember what kind of apple tree it was he planted or is it to long ago? Man I keep tasting metal looking at your picture, they used to give us baths in those tubs but never put food in them. WVMJ

I believe that they are "golden delicious".

The apples were not in that tub very long, but I will take note if there are any "metal" tastes. Thanks.