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Nice! Sounds like you are well on your way. Those apples must have been absolutely at their peak of ripeness to have a gravity that high, and it sounds like the yeast are loving it!

Got some more going: 6 Gallons secret experimental cider 3 Gallons Perry, pitched with harvested wild yeast 13 Gallons Winesap Single Varietal, wild ferment 913 + 22 = 935

Throw them in whole. There is absolutely no reason to core the apples. They will not impart any adverse flavor on your juice. I know you said you werent worried about it, but the idea regarding the apples seeds and cyanide typically contains a lot of misinformation. While apple seeds do contain...

Awesome work Blasterooni! I neighborhood source all of my apples. It's amazing how many people have trees that they don't use! Especially in Northern California. It is hard to tell just by looking at a tree if it is ripe or not, unless you are already familiar with that tree/variety. The best...

Interesting responses so far. I was unaware of the tendency for trees to go biennial. The crop keeps coming in here. Just since I posted this thread I've gotten three more calls from people who want me to come pick their trees because they have more apples than they know what to do with. I've...

I've been bottling for years and just started kegging, it really is an awesome difference. If you are paying for bottles, then kegging will reduce your expenses in the long run. You can also split a batch to keg some of it and bottle some, that way you get the best of both worlds. If you want...

It's a banner apple crop year so far here in Northern California! The amount you see in the picture below was picked by me and my partner in 7 hours over 2 days, just over 700 lbs. The trees are so laden with fruit, the buckets are practically filling themselves! I got to thinking, is this just...

With bottle conditioning you will always end up with a little bit of sediment, though you should be able to get less sediment than what you show through the use of an auto-siphon with a clip. It fairly standard with bottle conditioned ciders to expect to pour it into a glass when serving, and...

Yeah, I've gotta agree with the consensus: your extremely high SG maxed out the alcohol tolerance of the yeast (you are already close to 12%). Jacking it will end up with a very sweet AJ, as you probably have a very sweet apple-wine at the moment. Your best bet is to re-pitch with a yeast that...

It depends on how much actual liquid you have in your primary fermenters, minus the sediment that you will be leaving behind. Assuming there is currently some headspace and sediment, then using a 1 Gallon and a 1/2 Gallon for secondary containers might work. Or you could use glass marbles to...

Cold crashing will remove a lot of the yeast, but without Pasteurization there will still be enough live yeast cells left to eat up any additional sugars you add, resulting in bottle bombs and geysers if you added more sugar than needed for carbonation. If you want a Sweet and Sparkling cider...

I'd say the amount of headspace you have there is just fine. You can let it sit in secondary as long or as short as you like. I bottle the cider once it has reached the clarity that I desire, which for me is clear enough to read a newspaper through. The amount of time that takes can vary based...

Personally, I'd give them a good rinsing, but a Campden/H2O2/Starsan rinse is probably overkill. As dmtaylor said "Cider don't care". I have to disagree with IslandLizard, I would never wash my apples with Oxyclean. I only use Oxyclean for cleaning equipment and removing labels, and I find it...

I have successfully used Swing Top bottles for ciders that I allowed to age for 2 years without problem. The Ciders were still perfectly carbonated with no signs of oxidation after 2 years.

Thanks for the helpful info, Dr Jeff and Mongoose. Looks like my setup will be identical to Mongoose's old, slower way (I also have a Spike CF10, awesome piece of equipment). The 2 QD jumper I ordered has 5/16 line. It was only a few cents more than the one with 3/16 line, and I figured since...

Looking good. Since the commercial yeasts are more vigorous it also keeps more sediment in suspension, which is why they are more cloudy. Expect those to finish much faster than the wild one.

I'm confident that you will find it to be significantly improved once carbonated. Excellent idea to start a new batch soon. I like to keep a "pipeline" going: when a batch gets bottled I immediately start a new batch. That way I always have some cider brewing, some cider bottle-conditioning...

It's quite difficult to discern tone and intention in written text. No one is twisting anyone's arm or forcing anyone to do anything. Everyone has their own list of "dos and don'ts". I have had excellent results with my process and will continue washing my apples prior to pressing. You may have...

I do. Apples with worm tracks usually also have a good amount of worm poop in the core, which I like to remove (I'm sure others will have different opinions). I cut out the parts that I don't want and throw the rest in with the pressing batch so as not to be wasteful. There probably isn't...

Cool video. Wow, they literally shovel brown oxidized apples from the ground straight into the grinder with no washing at all. The video does not make it clear, but I am guessing that they pasteurize that prior to fermenting, or they use a ton of sulfites. Also, at the very end of the video they...