New Base Plate continued...

Previous base plate with channel for juice:



With a tube arrangement it should be easier to
control the flow - less chance of spillage! - especially on that 1st gush of infant cider...
(Oh, and the hole's a bit eccentric due to the 1st drill bit slipping...tch)

Batch 3..?

Er, not quite... scratted on Friday - not pulped till Sunday. Then started on a new base plate in an effort to up production. Sadly the shop where I get my ply offcuts is closing down and I could only get 3/4" ply for the larger pressing boards. Enough sheet to get 3 out and curtain lining offcuts to get 4 larger 3'x3' press cloths. Got these soaking to get out the 'newness'...
I'm hoping to get enough to fill a 30litre bin from one pressing. A stack of 12 'cheeses' 15"x15"x.75" should just about do it, but I need more ply offs for the extra larger pressing boards now... Hard to say whether the actual press will be big enough to cope with 12 thicker boards until I actually give it a go.


Progression of base plates:



Note the 1st 2 have a channel for the juice, whereas the latest effort has a hole and tube (Tesco Vit C container...) which is a tight push fit.

Batch 2

Pressed 2nd batch yesterday - gravity of 1054 - washed all pressing boards down this morning. Need to keep apples coming in...

Under way!

Batch 1 has started fermenting - could well have started yesterday, but realised something was amiss this morning - the sealing ring was missing (it'll be in the bottom - the sealing ring has a habit of falling out at the last minute...) Fitted another sealing ring and she's away. This is all-natural fermentation - no sulphites, no added yeast - just nature doing it's thing!
Rather different - the 3 litres of 'turbo' cider is now racked... though it doesn't taste of anything, lol! No surprise really as it's just from cheap apple juice (...with added yeast of course)
30lbs of sharp apples prepared this morning towards batch 2... just a matter of sticking with the repetition now - collect, sort, prepare, scrat, pulp & press - good to know that I've got tree-loads to go at too... something of a race really what with the dark nights approaching - tend to get odd looks collecting up a ladder on head torch...

Well, that went well...

Started at 3pm... nearly there on Batch1! Phew... Just got to take the original gravity and fit an airlock. Tastes nice 'n sweet so I reckon the gravity will be 50+.
All containers rinsed out now but will tackle the pressing boards tomorrow...
The pulper behaved itself anyway. Took 3 pressings though to get 30litres (2+2.5+2) that's gallons though.. but the 30l fermenter is full up to the outer rim - just right if it gets a bit over-active, otherwise froth can bubble up into the airlock...
bathtime methinks

1st pressing this weekend...

Well I've followed the sharps with 30lbs of crabs - mainly bitter sweets - and same of sweet, so 90lbs is scratted ready for pulping. Still doing mine the Jo Deal* way (blending the apples) as it's more convenient for the smaller producer. If I keep coming home with lettuce trays of different varieties I can plan ahead...
I've scrubbed down all the press boards - just 12mm exterior ply - ready. Though this set-up can be problematic if I try and make too big a stack 'cheesewise' - on applying pressure with the jack the stack can begin to skew. This slows the whole process. I could do with adding a square (as in true) top plate to keep the whole stack of cheeses parallel to each other. Ideally I would like to get 6 gals in one pressing, but 3 seems to be the most my set-up can handle at present. My general rule of thumb seems to be: scrounge it or buy it cheaply, which, of course rules out anything with a hint of professionalism to it... ie. a shark mill or proper cider press!
Which brings me to: New press cloths cut tonight - curtain lining (most likely poly cotton) - free offcuts from local curtain maker.

*still in print: here though the cover is different on mine, but I did buy it in the 70's!!

It's that time of year again!

As the car is running okay this year... shhh... I've been getting apples together. Having condensed up the rubbish in the garage (and I have been to the tip a few times!) I now have space to set up the scratter and press. This very night has seen me scrat 30lbs of sharps (when you get a handful of the well-chopped-up stuff and squeeze and it stings round your cuticles you know it's sharp enough!) The 'lightweightmick' scratter is a big improvement over cutting and pulping of earlier years, though it does tend to whip some big bits through about the size of scallops. If I had a good enough press I could press the scratted apples as they are but to get a good porridge consistency they still need to be run through the pulper first.
Hopefully this year I'll have more time to put some cider making videos together.