Tuesday, August 28, 2018

Pressing apple cider

I made my own cider press in 2006, based on an old model that I had borrowed from a museum.
The shredder is an old one that I was given because the bearings were completely shot, and the flywheel and gears were missing.
I cast some new bearings of white metal, mounted some grease cups, mounted an electric motor and made a new undercarriage plus enlarged the hopper a bit.

Ever since we have tried to make a batch of fresh cider every year.
We make around 60 L (16 gallons) which is just about what we manage to drink in a year. We freeze the cider, and take out a bottle every week or so.

Since we have a lot of apple trees, we could easily make more, but there is not much point in that if we don't manage to drink it, besides we also need some bottles for all the cider, and space in the freezer for it.

Usually we try to make it as an arrangement where friends can drop by to have their apples processed as well, but this year due to the warm summer, our primary cider tree had ripe apples earlier than normal.
So Saturday before going out to sea, we made the yearly processing of cider.

Gustav helped in the beginning, and he was later relieved by Asger who poured the cider into the clean bottles.
"Rather strangely" I was left with the task of cleaning the equipment and putting everything back in its place when we were done for the day..

I am still working on a handle for the Simpson backsaw, but there is not much effect in showing pictures of my progress with a file and a bit of sand paper :-)

Washing the apples prior to shredding.

Gustav shredding some apples.

Packing the apple pulp prior to pressing.

Pressing 4 packages of pulp.

Dry apple pulp after pressing.

Ecologically apple cider.

Bucket of apple cider.


10 comments:

  1. That is very cool, Jonas. I love the simplicity of that apple cider.
    But when do you ad the artificial coloring? Or the high fructose corn syrup? Or the preservatives? Or all those other great things that the (U.S.) food industry adds to make apple cider "better"? LOL

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    1. As I recall, the main thing that the USDA began doing was requiring cidermakers to put warning labels on unpasteurized cider. Yeah, it makes as much sense as requiring winemakers to label their products as unpasteurized wine but they all have a stronger lobby than the apple juice bottlers.

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    2. Hi Matt.

      Thanks for the nice comment.
      I guess that I will have to settle for a "not so good" product :-)
      My wife often ads water to the cider, but me and the boys think is is sacrilege to do so.
      Some years ago there was a revival of making apple cider, and now you can buy locally produced cider in many stores.
      Still I think that part of the fun is to make it yourself.

      I guess that all those preservatives and additives are needed to make each bottle taste exactly the same. Which is a shame, cause I really enjoy that there sometimes can be a taste difference between two bottles, based on what apples went into the cider.

      I once brought the equipment with me to the factory where I worked for two years, for an employee social gathering. One of the other guys had brought some apples (I am not sure if it was "red pigeon") That cider came out looking like old fashioned red gasoline!
      It was bright red and very clear, without any visible solids suspended.
      I find it amazing, that there is such a huge difference.

      But off course you can't have individuality if you are going to sell products...

      Brgds
      Jonas

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    3. Hi Mitchell

      Warning signs sounds a bit overkill to be, but like you say, the apple juice industry most likely is weaker than the wine industry.

      An appropriate warning though is to not drink too much if you are a child.

      My older brother and my father once took the equipment to the kindergarten of my brothers daughter.

      They forgot to inform the teachers that they should monitor and restrain the fresh apple juice intake of the kids.

      A child a the age of 4 can maybe eat 2 apples. If such a child eats 4 apples, a reaction will usually happen in the stomach equivalent to eating a bunch of prunes.

      If you drink one glass of fresh apple juice it sort of corresponds to 2 apples.
      Most of those kids were so amazed of the magic of fresh apple juice emerging in front of their very own eyes, so each kid drank like a fish, and with the equivalent of 8 apples or so in those small bellies... Within 38 minutes EVERY kid in that kindergarten had diarrhea!

      The teachers were not that impressed, but all the kids thought that it had been a fun day.

      Brgds
      Jonsa

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    4. Sorry Jonas - I didn't mean to derail your nice cider blog post. But at least I got to read other good cider stories that you recalled in the comments.

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    5. Hi Matt.

      I never considered this a derailing :-)
      Getting some comments that will allow for getting a discussion going is much preferred.

      Making your own cider/juice is a bit like drinking good port wine. It is incredibly difficult to go back to a lesser product again once you have tried the better stuff.

      The difference between cheap apple juice and home pressed ditto is just amazing.

      Brgds
      Jonas

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  2. Great story. I learned growing up about the effect of apples on a young body. :) What do you do with the remaining pulp? I'd guess that horses wouldn't mind disposing of it.

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    1. Hi Jeff

      Thanks, and an interesting question too :-)

      Horses like Labrador dogs (and females with a box of chocolate and a heartache) does not have an internal stop button that says "ENOUGH".

      So I am afraid that if I fed the pulp to the horses they would undoubtedly eat the lot of it straight away.
      And they too can attract all kinds of stomach problems, so in order not to get in trouble with Mette, I just throw the pulp out.
      I don't feel like experimenting with how much they can handle so instead I just feed them some regular apples which they love to eat.

      So I actually just throw the dry pulp out in a corner of the garden.

      It tastes pretty different compared to a fresh apple, with all the sweetness and juice removed. So if the horses got the choice I am certain that they would want a real apple.

      Ben the larger of the horses likes to eat them one at a time, all the apple goes into the mouth and he just crunches away.
      Fairy the pony likes to take a nice chew-able bite and seems to enjoy taking her time eating the apple.
      This often leads to Bent getting angry because if Fairy is still chewing apple it must be because she has gotten more than him.
      He can't fathom that not all eats their apples as fast as him, and since he is the larger of the two he will try to push her away and eat the rest of her apple.
      So feeding them apples by hand in the paddock will require that you have a couple of extras for Bent so Fairy can eat her apple in a slow pace.
      (They are a bit like small kids in that way, but with 700 and 1000 Lbs of muscle to back it up).

      Brgds
      Jonas

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  3. My in-laws are hunters in Germany, and they get apple pulp from a local presser to feed the roe deer on their hunting grounds during the winter months.

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    1. Hi Brian

      That actually sounds like a good idea.
      After our pressing we had approximately one wheelbarrow full of dry pulp. It isn't 100% dry, so I doubt that it will last until the winter months.
      But if it was from an industrial press, it might be a lot drier.
      Brgds
      Jonas

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