The two bins of drops we bought from Brackett’s had set in the shade for a week, and required some picking through. The washing crew requests a pedal-powered apple washer for next year.
Um and Pops surveyed the scene while tub after tub of apples met their fate:
The post-crushers eject finely shaved and mashed apple guts. Except for a few loose set screws, the grinder worked well this year – note for next year: LOCTITE!
Rhonda and Nelle load apple pulp into the press. The overwhelming power of the hydraulic press resulted in some ruptured herniations last year, so we double-bagged this year and didn’t have any further blowout problems.
Holly and buster pedal the press:
Joshua and Jo run the press:
Cider flows (this is like 1/20th of the max flow when the stack is first pressed):
Filling carboys:
New this year was a bottling/drinking station. We bottled about 20 gallons of hard cider (minus some for the operators and assembled crowd) using the twin counterpressure bottling setup:
There were more kids than ever. There was a play tent set up in the middle of the field with a brand new air mattress for jumping on, which was promptly popped. 3/5 of the Gates family:
November 8, 2011 at 5:36 pm |
Wow, we felt like the Kings of Kings after pressing 115 litres in our first attempt of cider-making, but you are in a whole different world.
We use the garburator method. It worked very well, except we had to pre-slice all the apples. But the pulp it produces is so clearly easier to juice than the chips made by a common scratter.
Your “fine apple mist” shows you have the solution, which I gather are post-crushing drums. It looks like you have plans to post drawings, but could you post a side view of pictures? Or would you mind sharing your solidworks model? Assuming of course you are not going to try to sell this for money…I think solidworks has a free viewer you can use to look at other people’s solid models.
Anyhow, your setup is amazing!!! Please add pictures!!
August 21, 2012 at 10:15 am |
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