How do you like them apples?

Today, the aromas in my home office/fermentation room are lovely.  There are three separate fermenters in action: two with apple cider and one with an apple wine.  The air is filled with methyl butanoate (the main ester compound that contributes to the smell of apples) and a number of other minor compounds that contribute to the fruity atmosphere.  If I keep the door closed, the aromas build up and become a bit of a distraction.

A couple of days ago, I decided to go ahead and try making apple cider and maybe also apple wine if I had enough apples.  Our own apple tree is still small, and our harvest consisted of a single cardboard box full of apples.  My wife sent out an A.P.B. to her friends to see if anyone had apples they wanted to dispose of, and we quickly obtained an additional 4 cardboard boxes full of apples.

I rented a fruit crusher and press from my favourite store, Wine Kitz - St. Albert, and got to work producing fresh apple juice on our patio.  This was by far the most fun I have had in making fermented beverages. 

The fruit crusher (see picture) consists of a rotating shaft with sharp blades that chop up the fruit into smaller pieces.  Chunks of fruit are drawn into the space between two rotating metal rollers that crush the fruit.  The crushed fruit and juices can be collected in a bucket placed below the device.  Initially, we used a plastic pail to collect the mashed apples, but then switched to a large blue recycling box lined with a garbage bag.

The Crusher: put apples in the hopper and turn the wheel

We dumped the crushed apples into the wine press.  The wine press was fun to use.  Two thick semicircular wooden discs go on top of the fruit, and then you put enough wooden blocks on top of the discs to reach the ratchet plate.  You screw the ratchet plate down by hand until it is sitting on the blocks, and start applying real pressure by cranking down the ratchet plate using a metal lever.  The juice gets squeezed out the sides of the basket and into a collecting tray with a spout.  We collected the juice in a large plastic pail.

My wife and I taking turns using the press.

Under pressure, the juice flows quickly.  Of course, we tasted it.  It was the sweetest, yummiest apple juice I have ever tasted.  In fact, it was so much better than store-bought apple juice that it really makes you wonder why.  The kids loved it too, but I wouldn't let them have much.  It is immensely satisfying to hand-pick several boxes of apples and then use your own muscle power to squeeze out 5 gallons of delectable apple juice.

The products of pressing:  apple juice and pomace.

(This post is getting a bit long, so I'm going to write about the apple cider and wine separately.)