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  1. Moonraker

    2021 Cider Season

    Having pressed the juice in batches up to late November I'm still working my way through the process of racking off and bottling. 8 gallons of cider bottled to date with another 4 and 1 gallon of plum wine still to go. I had my doubts about 1 DJ of a apple/pear juice mix (pider/cerry?) as I...
  2. Moonraker

    First timer with small orchard seeking advice on cider

    Almost, but not quite. You will need to turn your cut apples into a pulp before you press them in order to get the juice out of them, using a "scratter". This can be simple as a bucket and a length of 4 by 2 that you then ram up and down into the bucket of chopped apples, or there's a rotating...
  3. Moonraker

    WEIRDEST WINE EVER MADE?

    For the past year every time a banana has been past its best I've thrown it into the freezer together with any other fruit that was getting a bit squishy. I'm planning a "Manky Fruit" wine at some future point.
  4. Moonraker

    WEIRDEST WINE EVER MADE?

    I'm planning Earl Grey tea wine once my current batch of cider is finished.
  5. Moonraker

    2021 Cider Season

    I racked off the Perry into a fresh DJ this afternoon, it was clearing nicely with a thick sediment and there hadn't been any activity in the airlock for a few days. The taste is mellow and already quite rounded so has real promise. Gravity is now down to 1.010 which comes out at 6.55% so it's...
  6. Moonraker

    2021 Cider Season

    @uDicko It's the 20 litre capacity Inox press from Lovebrewing, but seems to be out of stock at the moment: Presses For Winemaking - Love Brewing
  7. Moonraker

    2021 Cider Season

    Thanks, it's really fun to use too! Sometimes when loading 3 apples simultaneously they bounce around and the top one bounces right out again before rolling around the sink and falling back into the aperture again (like crazy golf), or one gets jammed in the grinder and I have to forcibly "slam...
  8. Moonraker

    2021 Apple Harvest Cider Thread

    I see you've got exactly the same press as me, do you find that the holes get clogged with the pomace? Mine gets to a certain point when as I increase the pressure there is a squelchy popping noise and pellets of pomace are fired out with a spurt of apple juice in random directions. I now line...
  9. Moonraker

    2021 Cider Season

    A busy weekend out in the barn; 6 gallons of apple juice pressed in 5 hours (it took me 12 hours for the same volume last year), the waste-disposal scratter swallows apples whole in mere seconds and the new press is far more effective. So now in addition to the perry I've got a DJ of plum wine...
  10. Moonraker

    First timer with small orchard seeking advice on cider

    Forgot to say that I have added more yeast in the past when a brew didn't seem to be getting it's act together; drew a bit off into a glass, added the yeast and waited until there were signs of life before tipping it back into the DJ. But that may just be my impatience.... :cool:
  11. Moonraker

    First timer with small orchard seeking advice on cider

    Hi Rick, welcome to the forum, and homebrewing! 4 days does seem like rather a long time, I tipped a whole sachet (5g) of cider yeast into this DJ of pear juice (O.G 1060) at 08:30 this morning and 9 hours later it is frothing nicely and I'm getting a bubble in the air lock at the rate of...
  12. Moonraker

    2021 Cider Season

    Had a bit of spare time this afternoon so thought I'd do a test run with the new cross beam press I got from the missus as a combined xmas/birthday present. Took just 35 minutes start to finish to mill and press the bag of pears, the slowest job was quartering them, the sink disposal then just...
  13. Moonraker

    2021 Cider Season

    Madame has just said that she doesn't like plum jam, "can't you make plum brandy instead?" I think it may have to be a fortified plum wine then... :^)
  14. Moonraker

    2021 Cider Season

    At one point I thought there wasn't even going to be a season this year; With learnings from last year I've been playing with the idea of making a home-built scratter for a while. The borrowed hand-cranked one I had last year went back to the owner and it had been very time consuming and a lot...
  15. Moonraker

    Pear wine from dessert pears

    Hi John, how do you store between gatherings and what proportoin black/elder/apple are you aiming for?
  16. Moonraker

    Blackberry wine redemption?

    Went camping with the kids last week. Took a 500ml bottle of my Black/Elderberry wine. They mixed it with cheapo shop cider. Wasn't half bad! 🙂 There's a lot of blackberries out there this year...
  17. Moonraker

    Not as many Apples on my tree

    It's the weather. Spring still had frosts quite late as the blossom was just budding or flowering. I've got a few apples on one tree but nothing on the others and no gooseberries, plums, pears, quince or mirabelles on the other trees, nothing. Hoping for a better harvest next year. However in...
  18. Moonraker

    Apple wine

    Hi Rob, I watched a pressing at a local cider maker (The Newt in Somerset) the apples were sorted by hand and bad ones removed - why keep in things that may give a tainted taste to the end product when you have the opportunity to remove them at the outset? (In tequila the grub is whole, not...
  19. Moonraker

    Blackberry wine redemption?

    Bottled it today, smell and taste have rounded off nicely although it is very dry and very strong both in taste and alcohol, a bit like being punched in the face by a gang of street-blackberries. :^) Probably needs another 12 months maturation and might show promise. Patience, patience...
  20. Moonraker

    What are you drinking tonight 2021?

    I opened a 500ml bottle of my 12% Cider Batch No.5 from last October, maturing nicely but will dial back the sugar this year as it's a little on the sweet side and I didn't get any carbonation after bottling either :^( But really drinkable all the same and I'm half-way through the bottle...
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