Cider Making

[richyrich]

On 10/10/2022 at 23:00, bmp01 said:

Got 2 x 25 L of apple juice and 6 L of pear juice in the fermenting barrels. All left to go the natural way so fingers crossed we dont end up with vinegar.

Only planned to do 25 L, which is kind of a days playing for me, but I added drain plates to the press which helped productivity so felt it needed a second go to confirm inprovement. Does get a bit much after a while though.

I made some Perry about 10 years ago. It was branded 'TCP'- tasted very authentic.

[Peasgood]

Picked a few for cider today. 

[peds]

On 22/10/2022 at 21:29, Peasgood said:

 

Yo, Peas, a quick question came to mind as I'm out strolling the dogs.

Windfalls for cider... in an effort to reduce waste, is there any successful system you can recommend for gathering windfalls as they windfell over a season, freezing them either whole or already scratted, then pressing into juice en masse when enough have been collected? Obviously freezing them will turn them soft and pulpy, which won't do the mats in a tower press any favours, I believe? 

Maybe mixing the defrosted flesh with enough fresh scatter flesh to give it some structure, enough to hold together in the press?

I know the ideal thing would be to press whatever quantity is available throughout the season and freeze the juice as it arrives, then defrost and ferment at leisure. But I'm wondering if there's am alternative to repeated juicings. 

 

Thanks for any thoughts. 

[Peasgood]

7 hours ago, peds said:

 

Yo, Peas, a quick question came to mind as I'm out strolling the dogs.

Windfalls for cider... in an effort to reduce waste, is there any successful system you can recommend for gathering windfalls as they windfell over a season, freezing them either whole or already scratted, then pressing into juice en masse when enough have been collected? Obviously freezing them will turn them soft and pulpy, which won't do the mats in a tower press any favours, I believe? 

Maybe mixing the defrosted flesh with enough fresh scatter flesh to give it some structure, enough to hold together in the press?

I know the ideal thing would be to press whatever quantity is available throughout the season and freeze the juice as it arrives, then defrost and ferment at leisure. But I'm wondering if there's am alternative to repeated juicings. 

 

Thanks for any thoughts. 

Windfalls aren't great to start with. They have fallen off early for some reason, usually due to insect or fungal damage or maybe an over burdened tree (very rarely due to wind). As they are early they are very under ripe and have little sugar content and have yet to develop their true flavours.

I would think mixing them with ripe fruit after freezing them is just going to bring your quality down.

 

No harm in giving it a go but don't risk too much of your good fruit before figuring out what it will end up like.