We’ve had quite a few posts out there about apple cider making, so I thought I’d make a dedicated thread.
My wife wanted a cider press. It turned into a birthday present. This was two years ago. She’s happy with it and makes us a lot of nice, very sweet, cider. We don’t let it go hard so we only make about a gallon at a time.
I made it out of square tubing and wood. My wife had a lot to say about the design, and it works well.
Rindert
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Fresh pressed apple cider, yummy for the tummy.
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I thought I would let you guys know that the apple cider (apple juice) storage barrel with the floating lid I made last year still provides 
[Life goes on - Summer 2023 - #1269 by JohanM]
The only thing I am a little worried about is that I don’t really know besides the taste and looks of the apple cider (juice) is if something unwanted grows in it so I thought I would make a plexiglass floating lid so I can at least see the juice. Perhaps stupid but…
Also wondering if it is possible to harvest the food grade white oil that is around the floating lid to reuse next batch or is it to be considered used up?
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Looks great! Makes me thirsty, hadnt had good cider for years. This year is the first fruit bearing year in 4 years! Thats if we dont get hail till harvest again…
I wuld not use plexy. Its a rather nasty polymer, and rather unstable to acids and alcohols.
I cant realy think about any nasty thing that can grow in those conditions. All that can happen is the cider going bad via some process l do not understand, here we say it got “pulled”, it becomes kinda thick, and with a bad flavour. But you probably will not see this trugh a transparent lid, only once you actualy pour it.
I see no reason why the oil culdnt be recycled. Maybee heating it up to 110c or so wuldnt hurt thugh
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I hope you get a great harvest this year, I mean there should be four years of fruit backed up in those treetrunks now 
I’ll skip the plexi glass idea, thanks for the insight 
Just to be super clear, I am talking about apple juice, just pressed and pasteurized, no alcohol. It is the evil language differences between europe and america that makes it unclear, at least in my head 
Do you mean there are no types of fungi that likes to grow anaerobically in apple juice (it just hit me that I have never checked the pH-level in it)
I just went and checked and the pH is somewhere between 3 and 4 so it is lower than 4,5 which to my knowledge is the threshold between waterbath canning and pressure canning so it is perhaps ok then? No need for those thoughts?
I will try to recycle the mineral oil when we run out in the tank or when it is time to fill again, the oil was a bit pricey for me, being a cheap ass and all .
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We could tell by the lack of typo’s and the fact your post made sense and didn’t endlessly ramble on in a drunken stuper. 
I thought the mix-up is in the term cider. In the US, Apple Cider is the raw (sometimes pastuerized apple squeezings well technically they make everyone pasteurize it now in our state because too many people bought a jug, and set it outside to ferment.). Apple Juice is finely filtered to get all the pulp out. Hard Cider is the alcholic stuff.
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Ah l see! Thod you were talking about apple wine/hard cider.
In that case the first thing that will happen if you get contam is yeast and it will become fizzy.
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I thought that that was what you thought
Ok, I see, no worries then. That it is very noticeable, can not miss that. Thank you
My hard cider was contaminated quickly last year so that was a bust, I used raw apple juice and let it ferment using the natural yeasts in the air/apple, no yeast added.
I probably closed it too soon.
Will have another go with that this year.
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What exactly happened?
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The apple juice moulded in the fermentation bottle. I had it open for a few days to start to ferment and it bubbled away good (as I thought) and then I closed it and put a alcohol lock on but I think it didn’t bubble enough so it moulded instead within a week.
Not enough CO2 I guess
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Oh l see. Well you made the diagnose your self alredy. I ask because cider is probably the easyest to make, we put fresh squeezed juice directly in a airlocked tank and wait till the bubbling stops. A couple of days of settling then it gets transferred to a nother container to get the nasty sediment out, sulfurised a tiny bit and preserved with a oil lid. Thats about it.
But its important to note that not all apples are good for eating and not all for cider. For cider you want the nasty, sour and astringient ones. I was amazed at how its possible to make something so good out of those nasty, almost bitter apples that make you pull your exit hole in if eaten raw.
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Well, I did use the same apple juice for the hard cider as the one I pasteurized for apple juice saving. I know that is not ideal but I do not have any cider apple trees.
I guess I’m the one to mess that one up
Perhaps it is time to make a little apple orchard with cider apples here, I will ask around here to see if anyone has those so I can graft some trees to plant for myself.
Got a great mental picture and a good laugh from that one 
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Johan, if you get your self root stock lm glad to send you some grafts next March. You can then refridgerate them untill its your grafting season. Shuld be no problem via post.
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That would be great, very nice of you. I will of course pay the shipping
March/ April is the grafting season for us here so that would be perfect. I have a few rootstocks planted outside from bad grafting on my side (was in a rush so no thinking was involved, never a good thing) and I bought rootstocks from Germany a few times - https://www.lodder.de/ - as it is much cheaper per rootstock even with the extra charge for small quantities and shipping. I was already planning to put an order in for next spring.
Slovenian apple trees would be a great memory and story to tell
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Great! We actualy live in an area thats famous for its apples. Remind me when time comes in case l forget
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Reminds me of the cartalk radio program brothers always talk about being “unencumbered by the thought process”
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Great Kristijan. Looking forward to apples even though it will be a few years
I had to look it up what it meant
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I am going to post this here, because I think it will work for Apples as per his first video. But it definitely, could work for compost as well. I was really looking for a cheap easy way to shred plastic again, but I think it needs like carbide inserts for the blades and metal pipe covering the shaft, and possibly some on the sides of the cutters. which sounds kind of stupid, but thin sheet metal is cheaper.
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