Making Cider

Making Hard Cider - Fermentation Begins 9/17/11

Picked 50ish pounds of fresh apples, cleaned them, quartered the big ones, made pulp using an ordinary food processor, and pressed the juice using a home made fruit press.

The press is made from cheap lumber from Home Depot (two studs, $2 a piece) fastened together with metal brackets and the pressure is generated by a two ton bottle jack ($10 or so). The pulped apples were placed in a large mesh bag, which was purchased from the local home brew shop ($2) and the bottling bucket acted as a great collection bin. A 1 inch hole was drilled in the bottom of the bucket, just under the port hole for the spigot, to help with drainage. The most expensive of piece to this puzzle was the way foil bridge from the bucket to the carboy :P

This started fermenting after a few hours in the carboy and I used Safale S-04 English Ale Yeast. Bottling will occur in a few weeks.

Fermenting in a pole barn in the hi-tech beverage cooler to keep it kinda warm.

Category:

Howto & Style

Tags:

• Hard
• Cider
• Apple
• Pressing