Cider Making - Crushing the Apples!
posted on 28 April 2011 | posted in
Home and Garden
Many people continue to practice the art of cider making, making delicious cider from their orchards. Cider is a very simple process and is essentially just fermented apple juice, made from gathering, crushing and pressing the fallen apples and allowing the natural sugars to ferment.
Cider apples are crushed, often using a purpose built apple crusher. These have been around for many years and are usually extremely well made and often work beautifully to this day.
Apples have also been traditionally crushed using beet crushers which work equally as well. These are simple machines where the apples are fed in one end by pouring into the hopper by the bucketful, and chopped apples pop out the other end.
The chopped apples are then ready to go through a cider press. Here they are squeezed through the press, forcing the apple juice out through a spout at the base and leaving the pulp, or cake, which is traditionally fed to cattle and farm animals.
The apple juice is then stored in oak barrels to allow the fermentation process to begin. This usually takes a few months before the cider is then bottled.
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