First Cider with the new Cider House and Equipment

Today was our first cider making of the season.  Ed built a wonderful cider house,

and he and Bry put the press and grinder in place.

 On the left is the grinder.  The press is on the right.  Green boxes are for storage.  You can see part of the large cider container on the far right.

We picked some apples from S's tree last week, and D picked some from one of our trees where the apples were so abundant that they threatened to break the branches!  They will be more ripe in a few weeks, but he hated risking breaking the limbs.

Here is the washing station.  

Apples are in the white bags.

They will be sorted on the table and washed in the trough.

Then they will be lifted to the platform.

From the platform, they will be put on the slide to the grinder.

There is a hole in the side of the building to accommodate the slide.

When the slide is removed, the hole is covered with siding.

When the day's grinding is finished, the pomace (ground apples) fills the wash bin.

The pomace, placed in a cloth, is called a cheese - and several cheeses are stacked. 

We stacked five today.

The press compresses the cheeses and the juice flows.

The end result:  7 gallons of apple juice. 

The containers (5-gallon buckets) are covered, the hole in the lid has an airlock, yeast will be added, and they will ferment over the next few months.  Each batch is an experiment.   For the last couple of years, some were fantastic, some not so much.