Backyard and blonde's apple adventure

by **blond.chap** » Sat Apr 06, 2013 7:01 pm

The pics speak for themselves, today was fun as a nun with a bun and a gun:

[This one was full to begin with, 400kg of fun]

WP_000179.jpg

WP_000178.jpg

WP_000176.jpg

WP_000177.jpg

WP_000180.jpg

This'll should be a nice drop of cider in a few weeks.

by **BackyardBrewer** » Sat Apr 06, 2013 7:07 pm

I can say that having a fruit/grape press for access to our South Aussie brethren will make your lives pressing plums or apricots or any kind of fruit immeasurably easier.

If only I'd had this when I harvested my apricots!

Also if you ever need to know: you do not need 400kgs of apples no matter how cheap. That was/is a shit tonne of apples!

We still have 200kgs to press. We're aiming for a nice sugar head calvados with our fruit march.

by **emptyglass** » Sat Apr 06, 2013 7:33 pm

Sure beats running over them with the car!
I hope it works out nice. Sounds like a good team effort going on here...

by **BackyardBrewer** » Sat Apr 06, 2013 7:48 pm

It was flat chat, we sat for a brief lunch, a half a beer and then a magnificent G&T - gin by blonde, and my missus said best gin ever so yeah she's getting kicked out tonight!:))

So 3 short breaks in a long day of pressing crushing mashing lifting shifting.

We were in our feet back breaking labour all day. But so worth it, the juice is magic. Honestly better than ever apple juice I have tasted.

by **blond.chap** » Sat Apr 06, 2013 8:16 pm

You're not wrong, damn big day, fun though. My arms are fucking killing me.

So worth it for that apple juice, the cider will be better, call it "Magill cider"

by **BackyardBrewer** » Sat Apr 06, 2013 8:45 pm

Yeah mine too, back and arms aching big time!

by **MacStill** » Sat Apr 06, 2013 8:50 pm

I still reckon the whacker packer would be the go :laughing-rolling:

by **emptyglass** » Sat Apr 06, 2013 8:50 pm

I'm getting sore arms out of sympathy.

Edit; :violin:

by **BackyardBrewer** » Sat Apr 06, 2013 9:11 pm

Empty: I shouldn't complain, I ruined sheets, flywire and strainers trying to get my figs and apricots clear...our apple is crystal clear so I'll take sore arms over murky mush every time. Bring on summer 2014 and the stone fruit crops!

We will murder them in the new press!

by **emptyglass** » Sat Apr 06, 2013 9:42 pm

I wasn't saying you were complaining, but I was being sarcastic.

Looks like you got a lot of apple pie to make!

by **BackyardBrewer** » Sat Apr 06, 2013 9:53 pm

Cheers empty - I cannot recommend having a wine press basket highly enough. We spent the day swapping horror stories of trying to filter fruit through a sheet or flywire but these basket presses?

They are designed for exactly what we do-"fit for purpose" is the phrase I think.

by **crow** » Sat Apr 06, 2013 11:24 pm

lucky buggers :mrgreen:

by **BackyardBrewer** » Tue Apr 09, 2013 1:09 pm

crow wrote:lucky buggers :mrgreen:

Crow are you really going to run all yours through a still or keep some as cider? Seems a massive effort to still it all, but I do like the sound of the Calvados:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calvados_(brandy)

Blonde, can you remember the SG ? 1070 wasn't it?

by **baldoss** » Tue Apr 09, 2013 1:21 pm

Nice shiny press that one - how much does one of those set you back out of curiosity?

by **blond.chap** » Tue Apr 09, 2013 1:23 pm

BackyardBrewer wrote:
crow wrote:
Blonde, can you remember the SG ? 1070 wasn't it?

it was 1.090 out of the press I thought, watered down to 1.06ish for the ferment.

by **BackyardBrewer** » Tue Apr 09, 2013 1:35 pm

baldoss wrote:Nice shiny press that one - how much does one of those set you back out of curiosity?

This one was 600, but I've seen em for $750-1000 on gumtree. There's one in SA for $750 right now that looks pretty reasonable.

by **BackyardBrewer** » Tue Apr 09, 2013 1:36 pm

blond.chap wrote:
BackyardBrewer wrote:
crow wrote:
Blonde, can you remember the SG ? 1070 wasn't it?

it was 1.090 out of the press I thought, watered down to 1.06ish for the ferment.

Yeah sounds about right. Itching to know what's happening inside that big fermenter of mine! No thermometer on the outside and no way to see in and there's too much headspace to move the airlock - clear lids never mattered until now!

by **crow** » Tue Apr 09, 2013 10:18 pm

BackyardBrewer wrote:
crow wrote:lucky buggers :mrgreen:

Crow are you really going to run all yours through a still or keep some as cider? Seems a massive effort to still it all, but I do like the sound of the Calvados:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calvados_(brandy)
Blonde, can you remember the SG ? 1070 wasn't it?

I will be distilling all of it I think as it was done a bit rough for a drinking cider/scrumpy, but who knows if it turns out ok I might put some scrumpy aside or even prime and cap some for cider but either way I wouldn't be much as calvados was the goal here :handgestures-thumbupleft:
I should be running this this week so I will post some pics (be my last ones of running the pot)

by **BackyardBrewer** » Tue Apr 09, 2013 10:26 pm

Thanks Crow, we figure if we fucked up the cider then we have a back up plan that won't be too shabby!! The white calvados or the oak aged both seem a magic drop so looks forward to your learnings & pix.

by **crow** » Wed Apr 10, 2013 12:56 am

hey did that press stem from that discussion where i thought you all should chuck in for that PTO driven press going cheap at langhorne creek ;-) good work either way. I am going to get one one day