Cider Time!

[lukem]

Picked up a lot of apples last night...some more tonight. I'm thinking we'll get about 45 gallons this year. Climbing those huge old apple trees and shaking out the apples is a complete cardio/full body workout. I'm in good shape but was completely gassed afterward. Cranking the grinder and turning the screw ain't exactly easy either.

Cider making is a hard life....but it's a good life.

 

[Jack Straw]

What kind of apples? Cider ain't the same around here now that thay have to pasteurize it.

 

[Eatonpcat]

Hard Cider??

 

[lukem]

What kind of apples? Cider ain't the same around here now that thay have to pasteurize it.

Honestly, I'm not sure. They are both likely some old variety trees. One of them looks just like a Granny Smith but is super sweet. The other may be a red delicious, but the coloring isn't quite right...it is super sweet too. I'm not real good at ID'ing apples.

You're absolutely right... pasteurized cider is not nearly as good.

 

[lukem]

Hard Cider??

I might try to make a batch this year...I've never done it before but have done a little reading on the subject.

 

[firefighterjake]

What kind of apples? Cider ain't the same around here now that thay have to pasteurize it.

Blech . . . I refuse to buy pasteurized apple cider . . . to me it tastes exactly like apple juice . . . if I want apple juice I'll pay for apple juice.

 

[pen]

The major orchards around here sell UV pasteurized (as opposed to heat pasteurized) I can't tell a difference between the raw (which you still can get) and that UV stuff.

I like the UV stuff in particular for making hard cider as I can control what will do the fermenting.

pen

 

[mrjohneel]

Just finished a good book -- "The Botany of Desire"-- by Michael Pollard with a chapter on Johnny "Appleseed" Chapman. I didn't know that he was a successful businessman and people flocked to him because he provided seedings (not seeds) for the apple trees they grew for one reason only -- to make (hard) cider. (It wasn't called "hard" back then, because there was only one type of cider and it was fermented.) Interesting stuff. "An apple a day keeps the doctor away" only came about during Prohibition, which almost destroyed the apple industry. In any event, enjoy your cider. And make some hard stuff. It's all American!

 

[Dtunes]

Mmmm Cider. I love that stuff. Unpasteurized is the best, but I only see it at orchards, which are pretty abundant luckily. I'll drink the supermarket stuff as well, even if it's not nearly as good. It doesn't taste anything like apple juice in my mind. I'll probably make hard cider this year as well, my brother and friends are pretty avid beer brewers so one of them will probably make some too.

 

[ScotO]

When I worked in Camp Hill, PA, I used to buy unpastuerized cider off of the one driver who had an orchard. One fall he brought me in two gallons of that stuff, man was it good. Well, I was working third shift, I put the stuff in my car and went back to my apartment after work. I got up around two in the afternoon that day, and as I was heading out the door to go to the gym it hit me....I left that cider in the car and it was around 75 degrees out! I looked toward my car and I could see chit all over the windows ON THE INSIDE OF THE CAR! Both gallon jugs of that cider exploded in my car, it smelled like booze for months afterwards. I couldn't believe how quick that stuff worked, some good natural yeast in that there cider!

 

[ScotO]

BTW, pics or it didn't happen! I'd love to see that press in action!

 

[homebrewz]

Apples aren't looking too good around here this year. The warm spring and late frost killed a lot of blossoms and the lack of rain had many of the trees dropping early.

Pasteurized cider is essentially unfiltered apple juice. I do enjoy straight up cider from the press, but for preserving I pasteurize it and put it up in mason jars. Its great in a mug on the wood stove.

 

[lukem]

Just remembered I put up a thread last year. There's a picture of the press and apple hauling rig. We have almost twice as many apples this year...should be a lot of cider.

https://www.hearth.com/talk/threads/cider-day.71187/

 

[woodchip]

Having a hard time here in our apple orchard as the weather in the Spring was so sold, the bees did not pollinate the blossom, and frosts destroyed quite a lot too.

We have about 40 pints of hard cider left from last year, we may use the vat to make beer when the cider runs out.................

Here was our cider making from last year:

 

[Backwoods Savage]

Would love to make some cider this fall. Looks like we goofed though when we built this cider press last winter. This year there are very, very few apples to be found anywhere in the state. I did find 4 on one of our wild trees back in the woods. One nearby orchard has about the same. A neighbor said he went past that orchard and on the one road it is only 1/4 mile on the edge of one of their orchards and they counted 3 apples. State says 95% of the apple crop was destroyed last spring. We're still looking for apples.

 

[lukem]

Ended up with 41gallons. I am spent.

 

[swagler85]

Lukem you ever make moonshine apple cider? Good stuff for a fall party!

 

[Lewiston]

When I worked in Camp Hill, PA, I used to buy unpastuerized cider off of the one driver who had an orchard. One fall he brought me in two gallons of that stuff, man was it good. Well, I was working third shift, I put the stuff in my car and went back to my apartment after work. I got up around two in the afternoon that day, and as I was heading out the door to go to the gym it hit me....I left that cider in the car and it was around 75 degrees out! I looked toward my car and I could see chit all over the windows ON THE INSIDE OF THE CAR! Both gallon jugs of that cider exploded in my car, it smelled like booze for months afterwards. I couldn't believe how quick that stuff worked, some good natural yeast in that there cider!

Sounds like a Mythbusters episode.

 

[jeff_t]

Would love to make some cider this fall. Looks like we goofed though when we built this cider press last winter. This year there are very, very few apples to be found anywhere in the state. I did find 4 on one of our wild trees back in the woods. One nearby orchard has about the same. A neighbor said he went past that orchard and on the one road it is only 1/4 mile on the edge of one of their orchards and they counted 3 apples. State says 95% of the apple crop was destroyed last spring. We're still looking for apples.


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Some place around here was selling it for $9/ gal. They had to buy apples to make it.

 

[ScotO]

Sounds like a Mythbusters episode.

If I hadn't witnessed it myself, I wouldn't have believed it. Buy some un-pasteurized cider, let it sit in your car on a hot day once.....you'll be a believer, too!

 

[homebrewz]

If I hadn't witnessed it myself, I wouldn't have believed it. Buy some un-pasteurized cider, let it sit in your car on a hot day once.....you'll be a believer, too!

There was an orchard around here that used to do cider and once I brought the owner a couple of bottles of hard cider I had made. His house was next to the shop, and he pointed to his porch. He told me to take a jug home. I looked and he had about 20 plastic gallon jugs of cider on the porch railing. The caps were loose and they would ferment during the day and stop at night. It actually made for a smooth product.

 

[ScotO]

There was an orchard around here that used to do cider and once I brought the owner a couple of bottles of hard cider I had made. His house was next to the shop, and he pointed to his porch. He told me to take a jug home. I looked and he had about 20 plastic gallon jugs of cider on the porch railing. The caps were loose and they would ferment during the day and stop at night. It actually made for a smooth product.

I am amazed how quickly that stuff "works". Those jugs that were in my car were tight, and they blew wide open when the pressure built up!

 

[Lewiston]

If I hadn't witnessed it myself, I wouldn't have believed it. Buy some un-pasteurized cider, let it sit in your car on a hot day once.....you'll be a believer, too!

No, no, I think your personal experience covers all of us.

 

[rideau]

Would love to make some cider this fall. Looks like we goofed though when we built this cider press last winter. This year there are very, very few apples to be found anywhere in the state. I did find 4 on one of our wild trees back in the woods. One nearby orchard has about the same. A neighbor said he went past that orchard and on the one road it is only 1/4 mile on the edge of one of their orchards and they counted 3 apples. State says 95% of the apple crop was destroyed last spring. We're still looking for apples.


View attachment 72964

My Delicious had apples, but the squirrels and turkeys ate every one. Neighbor with 28 trees, not one apple. Another neighbor with about a dozen trees, smaller apples high up on a huge old Dutchess, and not so good apples (and not so many) or a Cortland...nothing else. All fruit is a few weeks early this year. Latest pear was picked last week. Later this week we'll pick the Cortlands together and make however much sauce we can. Usually make hundreds of gallons of cider...will make none this year. Need some applesauce and there aren't enough apples...hear it's pretty much the same for everyone here in the NE.

 

[Highbeam]

We are buying cider by the "keg" this year from the local orchard. It is 100% honeycrisp apple cider. I use my beer making stuff to make cider with nothing but a dry packet of nottingham ale yeast and a couple lbs of real brown sugar. Last year's batch was so good that we've been just waiting for this time of year to get the fresh stuff and do another.