First Cider & Breville Juice Fountain XL Review

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rickbuddy

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The apples from my home orchard were ready for juicing after a month of sweating. I grew a bushel of Granny Smith, just over a peck of Tramlett's Bitter (Geneva), and a peck of Gold Rush apples. And for more sugar, I also picked up some cheap Jonathon apples from a local orchard. I set aside some of the Granny Smith on advice from a forum member who suggested keeping those acidic apples a small portion of my recipe. Plus, we need a lot for pies and fresh eating. Going through two bushels of apples I produced about six gallons of juice in two hours

The Breville Juicer worked well. I followed the procedure you'll find when you search "juice and strain." It can be messy, but I think if I plan better I can reduce the mess. Next time I will use two straining bags -- course and fine -- to reduce the amount of strain bag cleaning.

The XL has an intake chute that is extra large and accepts #2-size apples easily. Larger apples require cutting. The biggest problem with the juicer was cleaning out solids that backed up in the pulp ejector. I had to clean that out and dump out the pulp container after every gallon of juice made. the The Jonathon apples seemed to have the thickest skins and created the biggest problem. The Gold Rush created the least problem.

The juice would flow out of the juicer, into tubing that fed a fine-mesh strain bag inside a large strainer, paced over a 6-gallon fermenter with a spigot. After filling the bucket with about 2-gallons of juice, I'd drain the juice into cleaned gallon and half-gallon milk jugs, and dump out the fine pulp left in the strain bag and then rinse it out.

It does generate some foam, but that is easily dealt with. The foam builds up in the strain bag, and in the fermenter. The foam in the bag is disposed of when I clean the bag. The foam in the fermenter builds up a small bit, but won't flow through the spigot, so simply draining the collection bucket with the spigot does the trick.

I first juiced the Jonathon apples, and it made some fairly good farm stand-quality juice -- sweet and slightly tart. We produced close to four gallons, but I think I lost a cup or more to my wife's thirst. I combined the Gold Rush and Tramlett's Bitter (Geneva) into a single juice for "flavor." It was light, slightly sweet and had a very nice tannic finish. It reminded me of wine. This was the first year of production for the Gold Rush and Tramlett's apples. As the trees produce more, I'd like to try a cider using those two apples exclusively.

My recipe for my first three gallons was two gallons of the Jonathon juice and then a half-gallon, each, of the flavor apples, a total of one gallon of the flavor juice. The remainder was frozen.

I crushed and tossed in three campden tabs, let stuff sit for a couple of days and added my proofed champagne yeast. And now we wait.

I'd attach some photos of the orchard, but apparently I am not allowed.

Rick
 
Jonathan and Jonagold make a nice base (50% or more) but need some help to make above average cider.
I don't have any Tremlett's bitter trees yet, but I've had fire blight issues here and its supposed to be in susceptible to fire blight, so I guess I'll have to go with something else.
I don't use Champagne yeast in my cider, it seems like it strips out all the flavor and aroma, but for you its too late to change that, keeping it on the cool side and fermenting slowly might help preserve more of the apple character.
 
Jonathan and Jonagold make a nice base (50% or more) but need some help to make above average cider.
I don't have any Tremlett's bitter trees yet, but I've had fire blight issues here and its supposed to be in susceptible to fire blight, so I guess I'll have to go with something else.
I don't use Champagne yeast in my cider, it seems like it strips out all the flavor and aroma, but for you its too late to change that, keeping it on the cool side and fermenting slowly might help preserve more of the apple character.

Just to be sure, this is not the English Tremlett's Bitter (a bittersweet), but a plant mistaken for it at the Cornell University Geneva station, which is a bittersharp. I have not heard that this variety has a fireblight problem.
 
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