Cider Making

We collected a ton of apples this fall at the community garden, and froze them in preparation for making cider. We waited for a long time to get the apple press, but finally it arrived! Then Christmas happened, and I went on a trip, etc. Anyway. Finally we do the cider!

We used a champagne yeast and made a starter first. We pressed about 8 pounds of apples into 2 liters of juice and let it go for a week.

We used the hand blender instead of getting an apple crusher. They were already soft and letting out a lot of juice after being frozen.

there it goes!

Processing the apples was taking a long time, so I set C up with the Kitchen Aide. C had a lot of fun doing it.

Chris mounted the press on the table, otherwise it would have been nearly impossible to use it.

This is one of the bags we used. We also had nylons (the pantyhose) which worked well, and another woven bag. We just piled the bags inside the press and pressed away.

It is already letting out a lot of juice, just from being frozen and crushed.

I am stirring the yeast started into the final vat of juice — 27 liters.

Looky my big spoon!

We ended up using 25 freezer bags of cut-up apples ( 4.5 lbs per bag, = 100 lbs!).