Played around with a press today.

[hungrymonkey]

A buddy of mine rented an apple press for the day. He hosted an apple pressing party.
I hit up my father in laws Johnson and golden delicious trees and picked about 70 lbs of apples. The press was made locally (Elmira Oregon) I think it was made by corral?.

Anywas, We ended up Pressing 7 gallons of juice from the apples I brought. I made 2 gallons of cider for my kids, then pitched a yeast cake my buddy had onto the remaining 5 gallons. My buddy pressed another five gallons and a bunch more from his other friends that came.

Here is the press. I want to make one now.

 

[hungrymonkey]

forgot to mention. My gravity on my apple cider was 1.040. My buddy said his yeast ferments down to 1.000.
I dont know how its going to turn out, or how long. We basically crushed the apples, tossed the cider into a carboy. Then pitched the yeas cake on top of it. It really grated against my sterile/'clean nature of beer brewing. I know there is a ton of bacteria and wild yeast on the apples themselves. But the idea of tossing a few billion yeast cells on into the must and letting it battle it out with the resident floura kind of made sense (after a pint or two)