Friend came and took some of our no spray apples, made like 26 gallons of cider.. Other people showed up with apples to press. Said ours was hands down the best of the two... Our cider is on the left, Price Choppers on the right.. Ours was smooth tasting, Price Choppers tasted like card board!
Just quaffed some of a friends batch. Delicious! A good year for Mac's up here. His were store bought though.
I got a little let in the fridge, might have to grab me a glass. I would be interested in the recipe your friend used.
It's just apple cider, not hard cider if that's what your thinking... but he does that as well and also makes his own beer... He uses a flail hammer chipper to make the apple mash, then has a press that does the rest.. That chipper is a cool idea... Says he just dumps bushels right in...quick work of the apples...
I'll have to ask what he uses... This definitely has a nice flavor.. I know sometimes it can be really tangy,, this is not.. This batch he made is very smooth and enjoyable to drink... Oh, and your body will let you know when you've drank too much too soon.... It's easy to just keep drinking it...
Buddy came for more apples today, I asked what he adds to the apples,, he said absolutely nothing.. He said I just have good apples..
He said he pressed some other people's apples and they had a different taste then my apples did.. I'm thinking that maybe some apple species may not be good juicing apples.. I did read that some apple juice will be so tart it's hard to drink... then they add something to the juice.... I'd rather just have the juice be the juice.. Putting some chemical in the juice would defeat the whole purpose of not spraying the trees.. Maybe that's why my juice is so good,, no chemical spray sat on the skin, which would maybe leach a bit into the apple, maybe through the stem area.. After all the skin and all is ground up... He does wash the apples in a big bin before they are processed..
It's not chemicals I typically add, unless you consider whole cinnamon allspice, cloves, and nutmeg chemicals. Oh, and a little sugar.
Its getting hard to get Cider around here that hasn't been pasteurized, that really destroys the taste. I bet the Price Chopper cider was pasteurized.
Yes it is pasteurized. My apple press guy said now they are adding something so that don't have to heat pasteurize it as high or as long which he said he really hates the taste now... Everyone is so damm germ fussy, that's why people have no disease resistance! Well that's my goal to give people fresh cider.. If it's got to be low key then let it be... What the heck's the difference if you eat the apple or wait 15 minutes and drink the juice? You know what I mean... way out of control... By the time the stores heat the juice up your are getting nothing but a sugar drink, no vitamins, nothing, and yet that's OK.. even my Bee Keeper uses very low temps to extract honey so as not to destroy the live enzymes.. he knows the deal ... Too much rules and regulations, need to go back to the old school days.. People were fine and not all blown up and overweight at 12 years old.. Proofs in the pudding.. Look at the old Westerns, 95% of the people were thin...no garbage in their food and no fast food, all good home cooking, grass fed beef, not finished on grain... OK I'll shut up now
My friend freezes his right after pressing. It tastes almost as good as fresh when thawed and like you say "What the heck's the difference if you eat the apple or wait 15 minutes and drink the juice?" Arrrgh! Nannystate
So if the FDA approached me I would love to hear the answer to eating the apple or drinking the juice even an hour later! Guess they are worried about it keeping,, or better yet turning into hard cider, at least we are not wasting it... No expiration date needed on that
In most states you must pasteurize cider that is being sold to the public, there is however a cold pasteurization process that uses ultraviolet light to kill the nasties they are worried about. A decent apple cider is fresh pressed usually from a blend of several different varieties of apples. To harden cider you merely add some (wine, champagne, or even bakers) yeast to cider that has been poured into a sanitized fermenter. About a month later (wait until all activity stops) you can bottle it and then let it age preferably through at least early summer of the next year at a minimum.
