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T.G · 10-16-2013, 08:12 PM

Bummer on the press rentals. Living in northern CA, big wine presses are very easy to find & rent, sometimes I forget that other parts of the country aren't as lucky.

A juicer will work, but they can be messy. Some don't extract very well, leaving you with a lot of lost juice in the ejected pulp. Which, if you're into making and giving away lots of jars of apple butter for the holidays, might not be a bad thing.

I also noticed that the high speed juicers tend to leave more large solids / more particulate matter in the juice. It's not a deal breaker, but it's lost space - all that stuff needs to stay in your primary when you rack it. 6.5 gal becomes 4.5 real fast.

I would think that the LHBS would have someone's cider yeast. You can also use red wine yeasts or white wine yeasts, but I've found that white wine yeasts tend to get a bit dryer. You can even use some beer yeasts, just double up on the energizer and add some additional DAP. I would recommend sticking to more neutral yeasts / clean fermenters if you go the beer yeast route - the flavors added to beer by some yeasts can quickly become off-flavors in cider.

You could even be daring and use the wild yeast on the apples, but I've never had much luck there, it always ended up tasting like gasoline.

10-16-2013, 08:12 PM	#8
T.G Grrrrrr Join Date: Mar 2009 First Name: The Other Adam Posts: 15,540 Trading: (37)	Re: Hard apple cider Bummer on the press rentals. Living in northern CA, big wine presses are very easy to find & rent, sometimes I forget that other parts of the country aren't as lucky. A juicer will work, but they can be messy. Some don't extract very well, leaving you with a lot of lost juice in the ejected pulp. Which, if you're into making and giving away lots of jars of apple butter for the holidays, might not be a bad thing. I also noticed that the high speed juicers tend to leave more large solids / more particulate matter in the juice. It's not a deal breaker, but it's lost space - all that stuff needs to stay in your primary when you rack it. 6.5 gal becomes 4.5 real fast. I would think that the LHBS would have someone's cider yeast. You can also use red wine yeasts or white wine yeasts, but I've found that white wine yeasts tend to get a bit dryer. You can even use some beer yeasts, just double up on the energizer and add some additional DAP. I would recommend sticking to more neutral yeasts / clean fermenters if you go the beer yeast route - the flavors added to beer by some yeasts can quickly become off-flavors in cider. You could even be daring and use the wild yeast on the apples, but I've never had much luck there, it always ended up tasting like gasoline.