Pressing and Making Hard Cider.

Intro: Pressing and Making Hard Cider.

Braving the bees to give the fruit a squeeze!

Some might look at the operation and flinch about the open way we are doing it, well part of that is because we are making a hard cider not a juice.  Remember for 1000's of years humans did this in rock pit with their feet.  Its fine, no one will get sick.  If I wanted juice from this batch it would simply need to be strained and pasteurized.  I will say that while it tastes *awesome* drinking it straight, it is liquid diarrhea so moderation is key if you are not used to it.  We will re-mash and re-press the following afternoon, might even sprinkle some water in to juice things back up.  This second pressing will be much closer to the juice you can buy from concentrate in the stores and might be better for little ones not used to drinking the raw stuff.  No need for a 3rd pressing unless you are trying for a liqueur and don't care much about the flavor.

Comments

[Rich_Limburger]

good presentation/instructable/movie. nice idea of sealing with the plastic bag and rubber bands, i wouldn't hav ethought of that.

[tvds1]

What? I've never heard of repressing a day later. That sounds like a recipe for E. coli poisoning. Also, fresh cider in moderate amounts, shouldn't be "liquid diarrhea." It's liquid diarrhea if it has bacterial contamination, though.

Please, please, please read up on proper sanitation.

[NelsonStudios]

I imagine there is always some bacterial contamination in natural pressed cider but I was more referencing what happens when you sit down and eat 5 ripe pears right off the tree, well drinking the juice of 5 pears has the same effect. I wouldn't recommend drinking raw juice anyway, either pasteurize it or make it hard, either takes the bacteria out of it. But yea, lots of times you can get a second pressing with a little water added and re-mashing, and the juice that comes out isn't quite as strong and seems to sit better with those not used to natural cider.