Aussiedistiller, Home Distilling, Moonshine, Home Brew

Today the wife and 4yo joined me on a bit of roadside apple picking. We managed to fill the back of the 4WD with a 1/2 dozen eskys of apples and a good sized bag of blackberries for dessert tonight. So I have spend the rest of the arvo on the juicer. 1/3 done and 20 ltrs in the fermentor, so I am on my way to making my first batch of "Road Cider". I bottled a batch of Coopers Pale Ale yesterday and kept the yeast back then added two spoons of sugar a the end of the bottling. Today I added the juice straight to the PA fermentor. Rain has stopped the juicing so I might have to finish the process next weekend with another batch. SG 1035

Yipppee. 8-)

Went for a ride on the harley this morning to check how the local apples are going. Need a week or two but they are very thin on the trees this year.
I did find one tree that is absolutely loaded and even found a couple of bearing pear trees and what looked like some quinces.


I'm very excited about cider this year and i'm down to my last 20 bottles of last years roadside cider. :cry:

5Star,
your the prick who put the idea in my head from your post over on AB. :handgestures-thumbupleft:
So thanks to you I too will have seasonal Road Cider thanks +100 for the reminder to pull finger and do it :text-thankyoublue:
I have the grape press sitting there waiting for its first apple pressing but it needs a trip to the sandblaster's first to get the rust of the collection tray, so I thought "f**k it" i will put the bloodily things through the juicer. I also have a electric wood chipper set-a-side for smashing them up before they get pressed. Next year maybe?

Good thinking.

bit of rust won't hurt you. 8-)

BackyardBrewer wrote:Good choices. Post more about your cider process. I've got a press, crusher and access to tonnes of apples.

My Grandfather hand crafted an apple crusher and press back in the 50's. So we've been doing traditional cider recipes with either champagne yeast, or experimenting with wild fermentation to get unique flavours. Without any new modifications and techniques. Just storage in 1L bottles instead of Old wine bottles he use to get from the back of restaurants back in the good old days :))
We tend not to add lactose, we like it dry :P

Rarely do green apples because it's sour and gross.

I don't have any photos from the last crush/press i did with my grandpa. I think it's still on his camera.

But i took a photo of the press just after i pressed some ginger.




oh and this was the amount of bottles we got from the big crushfest my grandpa and i did. All 1L bottles. With a tiny crusher and press :P bloody hell it was hard yakka
Half Red Galas, Half Pink Ladies. was a good pick of apples, sweets and sours as well as some feel on the pallat with galas.

Good stuff mate. What does the missus think of a bathroom full of cider?

Dominator wrote:Good stuff mate. What does the missus think of a bathroom full of cider?

girlfriend didn't mind, aslong as i made space to put her makeup crap.
I Moved it all into another room. Brother just moved out so his room is just storage. It's like having my own little workshop :P







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