Making Cider

OK, earlier in the summer I put out a call for apples. It was, however, a bit of a shock when I came into work one day and found a bushel in my office. With deer and elk season due to start on Saturday, I felt a bit rushed to get the cider pressed and fermenting into a luxurious amber alcohol.

What else does one do in Gardiner on a Wednesday night?

The plan:

chop apples into manageable chunks

run apples through the meat grinder

put pulp into cheesecloth in a collander over my big brew pot

squeeze pulp

repeat

The good news:

Trudy came in just as I was getting started. If not for her, a bushel of apples would be in the compost pile still with their juice.

You see, it's really hard to squeeze juice out of apple pulp with just your hands. Pulp squishes everywhere and it takes a lot of work.

So...

Trudy went for her juicer!

Not just any juicer either -- "The Champion" industrial juicer!

I called Ssej in for reinforcement (what the hell would I do without such great friends?) and we got to work. With a break in-between to video chat with Kendra on Skype, we managed to get through it all. 1 bushel of Paradise Valley apples = about 3.5 gallons of apple slurry.

Pasteurized on the stove, added a cup of corn sugar, half a cup of local honey, and 2 tablespoons of pectic enzyme (breaks down the solid bits). Poured it all into my new 3.5 gallon carboy and pitched some lovely English Cider Yeast. Can't wait.

THANK YOU TRUDY & JESSI!!!

...and Eddie was his usual helpful self