Christmas Cider.

If you are on our Christmas list this year, there is a good chance you're getting cider in your stocking. We pressed another carboy full of the good stuff, and we need to bottle the older one of these carboys on Saturday. We're giving it one last go and picking as many apples as we can to do one last press, hopefully we'll get at least one more carboy. It takes about 3 large feed bags FILLED to press enough juice for a carboy, although it really depends on the size and juice in the apple. Larger apples are the juiciest, smaller ones tend to be drier. The amount of juice that will come out of a sack of apple pulp is amazing. Absolutely nothing is added to the juice at all, period. You put it in the carboy and let it ferment.  When it is time to bottle the cider we're going to mix about a cup of raw sugar or honey into the entire carboy before siphoning into individual bottles. This will give the cider some more effervescence or sparkle. Some people add extra yeasts to the cider in an attempt to up the alcohol content, this is unnecessary unless desired, as the apples have naturally occurring yeasts on their skins and pulp. After sampling our cider that had fermented for over three weeks, I would say the alcohol content is high enough for me. We have the gear from wine making to test the alcohol content and will have to satisfy our curiosity and test it soon.  

My boyfriend John on the press. We have a lot of fun making cider together, I cut the apples, he grinds them and we press the pulp together.