About to go pick a ton of apples...

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Big10Seaner

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... then grind and press them, and turn them into cider. I'm probably going to end up with at least 30-40 gallons of juice here, and was looking for advice as to what I need to do right after juicing before fermentation. I know I will need to add campden tablets, but is there anything else? I'm thinking of pitching different yeasts and then comparing later on.
 
Do yourself a favor and skip the k-meta. You will get more apple flavor and be able to drink it sooner. Just make sure you are careful with prep - sanitize everything, including the press, wash the apples and dont use any that have been on the ground. Pitch the yeast right away and you will be fine. Dont add anything but yeast. After fermentation, if you are going to save any of it for more than 6 months, add half the recommended dose of campden, but dont put it in anything that you are planning to drink soon. I'd recommend trying at least a few ale yeasts, especialy S04.
 
k-meta - potasium metabisulfate. The active ingredient in campden tablets.

why half? - Because you dont need it and will be able to taste it otherwise. There is a long discussion of this in the sticky. The "recommended dosages" for k-meta were worked out for wine grapes which have a very different chemistry than cider apples.

If you talk to anyone who works at a commerical winery, you will find that they only add k-meta before the ferment starts if they have a problem - like a wild ferment that starts before they get their pressing done - or to bleach out whites that have got oxidized. No one uses it before the ferment unless they have a problem.

After the ferment is done, a little bit (half the dose or less) will help prevent oxidation and keep it from getting vinegary. If you drink it within 6 months, you wont have a problem if you never add anything
 
I recently attended a lecture on cider making in england. They don't harvest until 30% of apples have fallen on the ground, then they shake the trees till the rest fall on the ground, then sweep them up and wash before grinding. Once you have your juice it is pretty straightforward, as CvilleKevin says. I would just add that you might want to experiment with malolactic fermentation as well, I think it really improves the flavour.
 
I can vouch for the "shake the trees" method. I used to have a friend who lived on an old orchard property and that is what we did. But I've got burned using apples that were already on the ground - the juice had a musty, wet blanket taste, like some sort of mold had got to it. So I've never done it again. Maybe it was something else, or I was just unlucky. Next time I get juice, I'll ask the guy at the press what their policy on windfalls is. I have had zero problems with their juice, so if he says its OK I'll believe him, but for now I dont trust apples that have been on the ground for long.
 
I picked up another load of juice this morning and asked the guy who runs the press about their policy on using windfalls. He said that they dont use *any* apples that have fallen on the ground, not even if they have just been on the ground for a short while. He said that he not only *wouldnt* use ground apples, because of risk of contamination, but that every year he has to certify to the health department that he *doesnt* use already fallen apples - for the same reason

Showalters orchard has great juice. Its the only juice, other than stuff I've pressed myself, that I've been able to ferment to dryness using just the natural yeast, without getting weird flavors. If they dont use apples that have touched the ground, I would advise you to do the same.

Perhaps the practice of adding k-meta before the yeast practice got started because of sloppy orchard practices - like using ground apples. But these guys run a really tight operation and I have never had a problem skipping the k-meta when I use their juice.
 
Well that must be an orchard that mainly grows apples for market and uses their seconds for juicing.
There are a whole bunch of machines designed for harvesting fruit off the ground and in England the big cider concerns like Bulmers own their own orchards and harvest all their apples from the ground. This isn't just gossip, a guy at the uni I attend went on a study trip to England to see how they grow cider apples, went to the Bulmers orchards and talked to the people there. He filmed the harvesters sweeping the apples off the ground and the shaker machines shaking the trees. Its a lot cheaper than harvesting by hand and in dedicated cider orchards its always done this way.
Fruit for market is harvested earlier because it has to be stored for long periods, so its less ripe and doesn't make such good cider. If you wait till the apples are falling it is riper and better for cider.
 
I ended up picking everything off the trees and skipping any additives. We got around 12 gallons and it's currently fermenting away, we'll see what happens!
 
I think that Showalters grows mainly for market, but I'm not sure. They have a pretty good size press operation and distribute all around Harrisonburg, Charlottesville and the surrounding areas. The press operator makes a great naturally farmhouse cider in a barrel every year and knows his juice. Its the best quality bulk juice I've been able to find so if says he wouldnt use fallen apples, I personally wouldnt either. YMMV.

I dont doubt that what you are saying is true about Bulmers. I'm just not sure if I would follow their practice. Did your friend mention whether they sulfited the juice after the press? It seems that they would have to - or pasteurize. According to Etienne Dupont, they pick all their apples by hand and JK Scrumpy says they dont use fallen apples. Both of those are natural yeast ciders that dont use sulfites.
 
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