Well not quite free, for the money we have into it this year it works out to about $1.70 a case. Im finally to the point where I dont have to stick a bunch of money into equipment anymore.

Here is the press that I built, It will give about 35 gallons per load.





All filled up ready to go!



Here are the slats that seperate the cheeses.



Its beats using my old press, It gave a little more than two gallons at a time.



Here is the grinder I made. It will chew through about 2 bushels a minute.



The inside of the grinder.



We pre-wash the apples with a pressure washer.



And then into the sorting/rinsing tank on the right then the ready to go apples go into garbage cans on the left.



Wish I could find more apples like this.



Some carboy pron.





Crab apples tend to have something clump and separate in the carboy, I believe its pectin but im not sure.



More to come later. If you have any questions ask.

Interesting setup you have there. Are you shooting or still or sparkling ciders? Recipies? I haven't started any cider yet this year. I've heard crabapple cider is pretty good though.

We do sparkling ciders and use apple juice concentrate to prime. No recipes really, we dont add sugars or nutrients, dont oygenate, dont pasteurize or use sulphites and we dont use yeast. So really our recipe is do nothing. We do make sure they are ripe with an iodine starch test, to use as many varieties as we can, and to make sure we get plenty of tannin rich crab apples into the mix. We ended up using 20% crabs this year, our most ever.

The reason we only did 75 gallons this year is because we had a late spring that killed off all the early blossoms then went right into a drought. It was the worst apple harvest Ive see in in more than a decade. Last fall we pressed 195 gallons for cider and 35 gallons for juice to can.There were dozens of trees that we normally pick that didnt produce anything.

That's awesome. I'm jealous of your easy access to all those apples!

I've always wanted to try a spontaneous fermentation from the skins.

Tell me about those weird looking carboys - the giant glass one and the 3 plastic ones in the back! Never seen anything like those.

Well none of the apple trees are actually ours! We get them from parks and state land or knock on doors and ask if we can pick their apples, most are thankful that they dont have to clean them up.

Some claim that the natural yeasts actually reside inside the apple near the core. I tend to believe this as many apples will rot from the inside out.

Yep those big carboys are nice, they are advertised as 15 gallon but are actually 14 1/2 gallons. You can buy them here, http://www.midwestsupplies.com/15-gallon-glass-demi-john.html. Wow those have gone up 40 bucks since I last bought one! I think we have 6 or 7 now. My buddy is putting together a nice brewing sculpture and 13 gallon batches are going to fit nicely in them.

That really is wonderful and a really rich way of doing it.  What's the alcohol content when all is said and done?  And again that is truly amazing, including the way you gather the apples.

What a great thread.  

~5.5%

It is rewarding as it all came out of desire to expand but didnt have money for equipment. A press that will do 35 gallons at once costs several thousand dollars, ours has 390$ into it, I built it out of a huge cottonwood tree and shaped all the timbers with my chainsaw.

Here is the main beam as it started.



Cut to length.



Then cut the 4 sides.



The tray we put a stainless sink drain in so we can fill it up with water and serves as a sanitation station when setting up.

so this thread is awesome





what are the bags made from?



why did you call them "cheese separators"?



how fine a crush are you getting before the bag?
What is the sanitation process? Do you sanitize the apples or just the equipment

Thanks, glad you like it.

The bags are actually bed sheets bought from the thrift store.

Ive forgotten the name of the cheese separators, we just call them racks. They took a ton of time to make,misread, the individual layers of apples are called cheeses.

We get a really good grind all thing considered, I'd say 95% of it is under pea size, we usually get 8 - 10 gallons of juice before we even start pressing. I know it is no hammer mill and we could improve the grind by adding more screws, but it works very well for our needs. Everything except the screws I used as teeth and the shaft are all salvaged. The wood was all leftovers from jobs and the stand is a repurposed grill stand. The shaft I bought from speedy metals and then had a local machinist turn the end down to 1/2 inch so I could run it with my drill and then had it keyed for a pulley in case I ever put a dedicated motor on it. The drum or barrel was made from scraps or 1 x 12" and then turned on a makeshift lathe I constructed for it using a sharpened screwdriver as a chisel.

For sanitation we use a variety of things but mostly one step or sulphites are used. We fill the tray on the press for use as a tub for sanitizing the racks and various other equipment. We also have an 18 gallon tote filled with sanitizer at all times. We also use a 1 gallon pump sprayer to sanitize things we cant fit in the tubs like the grinder and the top of the press or the cheese racks in between pressings. Since we dont use yeast or sterilize the must we make sure we dont miss anything.

We do not sanitize the apples but we are very thorough on cleaning them. They get pressure washed and then rinsed and sorted with any bad spots cut off. We must be doing something right because we have not had any infections in the 450 gallons we have done! Im actually fairly convinced that it is hard to mess up cider, its natural coarse is to turn into booze!

Love your press. Clear that is well built with a nice rustic look to it.

I look forward to doing what you have going on there. Need my own place and some space....someday. Here in Washington I have neighbors and friends with plenty of free apples.

Cool thread. Thanks for sharing with us.

I saw a youtube video where someone used a mulcher to crush their apples. And then used a tiny hand press to squeeze the pulp

Are the cheese racks cottonwood too? Nicely done.

Space is always a problem, we have enough equipment to fill most of a 1 stall garage. Last year we had to ferment in an unheated garage so we used a 200 gallon water tank (which I cant find pictures of) that we had bought for a bottle bucket. We regulated the heat with 2 strands of heat tape and insulted the tank. We were able to maintain 60 degrees in a -20 garage.



Thats what drove me to build this equipment. Cider is a very laborious activity. Having efficient equipment capable of handling large quantities is a must if one is going to press larger quantities.

Yes the cheese racks are cottonwood except for the two end pieces which are oak, to allow more purchase for the screws. Cottonwood is very soft for a hardwood and it would not usually be considered for a project like this, but it is the only tree that really grows that large around here in North Dakota.

These racks took several nights and several cases of beer, I mean, just look at this pile.

The 75 gallons of cider landed safe in my basement tonight, They are going to wait there till bottling in March.

I need to get me some milk crates. Hauling carboys sucks, and I've been telling myself I'll get some milk crates soon. Just haven't done it yet.

I've never made hard cider before.  What will the end product look like when done?

clear with some smutz at the bottom. It'll look like apple cider.

How long does fermentation usually take with the wild  yeast? When I've used champagne and ale yeast it usually is done fermenting in 2 weeks or less.

tag.
 

Depends on what it is. If it's just yeast, most of the fermentation will probably be done in 1-2 weeks, but 1-2 months is safe if you're going to be bottling. But if you've got a bacteria in there, it can ferment (very slowly) for years.

As a side note, I've always wondered what kind of wonderful things Brettanomyces would do to cider.

Do you have a step by step direction list you follow? If you could you please share? I'm thinking about doing some cider next week.


Thanks.

It really depends on a lot of things but none of that really matters, we age all winter long, cider takes patience. One thing about cider is the malic acid can be pretty harsh, letting it age for a long time will help promote a malolactic fermentation, converting the malic acid into lactic acid, which makes for a smoother drink.

Sorry for not getting back for questions, family problems have kept me away from here.




Nope, we just make sure everything is cleaned and sanitized, grind apples, press apples, let it rot. There really isint a whole lot to it but the labor.